Sennheiser CX 300 -- Middle of the Road, Good Value

The Bottom Line  -- Sound

The price on these has really come down.  $30 with free delivery from Amazon.

The sound is ok-good. A step or two up from the stock earphones that come with the ipod, certainly.  Is it as good as my home speakers.  No.  Is it as good as my usual earphones (Sony MDR V-6) No.  But it's very listenable, and at the price -- worth it.

Ultimately, considering what I paid, it's fine.  If I were doing it again, I might have gone a model or two higher, but no major complaint.  If you're an audiophile, you won't be happy.

Biggest advantage -- It stays in the ear very nicely, it's very light, very comfortable.

Now ... that's what you really came here for.  But I have a bunch of other 'stuff' to say, so read at your own risk.

Buying Speakers or Headphones

Ok -- Here are the two most important things that you MUST do before buying ANY head phone, speaker, etc.

Get yourself down to a good electronics store, and listen.  Have them start with the high end speakers, then switch to the bargain basement speakers.  Do you hear the difference -- Sure you do!!  Now move along the price range, at some point, you will begin to decide that what you're hearing is not so much better or worse, but just different.  You may find that your ear is not really good enough to appreciate speakers beyond a certain price level.

Once you do this, you will know what price range to look in.  There's no sense spending $300 on a pair of ear buds if your ears can't pick up the difference.  You have to know what you can hear before you know how much to spend.

My ears --  If I listen to crap speakers, I don't enjoy it, but once I get into quality products, the differences between 'low end quality' and 'high end quality' are lost on me.  Soooooooooo, I'll never buy an expensive speaker, expensive head phone, etc.  The extra sound would be lost on me.

Second -- if you buy on the Internet -- only buy from a reputable dealer.  Why, you ask? do a google search, say "Sennheiser Counterfeit", there are many many many knock offs.  Go onto Ebay -- the CX 300s go from $16 to $60 per set -- Why in God's name would anyone pay more than $16 -- Welllllll, for $16 you often get fake.  Is it possible that some of these are real -- sure it is, but  good luck.

Now, let's go the The Sennheiser CX300's.  Given what I've said above,  They were a good choice, generally well received, and I was able to find a great price $30 delivered from Amazon.

Back to the product.

Out of box experience.

It's an ear bud.  You put the round things in  your ears, and the pointy thing in your ipod or stereo. it plays.

Almost this easy .... almost, I say.

Ear Fit Rings

The CX300 is noise blocking -- theyway this works is that there are foam ear fit rings that fit in the ear.  You need a good seal -- both to block outside noise and to get good sound.

The CX 300 comes with 3 sets, Big, Medium and Small -- clever, huh.

I found the set that came installed (Medium) gave a good fit, but was a touch loose,  changing to the Big Ear Rings pull the old ones off, line up the hole, and push it on.  Maybe takes 2  or 3 tries, but it's easy.

Comfort

Here's where these babies shine.  They are by far the most comfortable in the ear of any headphone I've tried.  Also, they stay snug in the ear.

One of my problems with the earbuds that come standard with the ipod -- they slip out of the ear all the time.   I find I need a minor adjustment on a regular basis, or, it dislodges slightly, and there's a major deterioriation in sound.

Noise Reduction

This is key -- it's very good.  Now, don't go expecting it to block out everything in the room, like the cans  you have.  It won't.  In fact, it's not as good as headphones with noise cancellation, but then you don't need batteries for this.

Specs

This comes from the box -- other reviews have tried to explain what it means, I've never understood it, but here it is if you care:

Frequency Response -- 18-21000 Hz
Weight 12 g
Impedence 18 Ohms (note here, the impedence seems a bit higher than the headphones that come with the IPod -- this means that you'll need to have your volume setting a bit higher)
Sound Pressure Level  112 db....

Cord -- It's probably about three feet long -- certainly longer than my arm.  This is nice.  The cable is assymetric, meaning in this case, that the cord for the right ear is longer than for the left ear.  I don't know why they do this, but they put it on the box, so they must think it's a good thing.

However, this length isn't long enough to listen across the room from your source -- this is meant to be an iPod product (it says so, right on the box), and a longer cord would probably be a pain to wind or unwind, so that's fair.

Random Comments

As others have commented, if you move the cord, or tap on the earbud (while in your ear) it really picks up a rustling sound -- I think most noise reducing earbuds do this.

While Playing, I really tried cranking them up, to see where I hit the distortion.  I found that these were fine with any level I was comfortable with.

On Amazon -- the White CX 300 is $29.99.  Black is $38.65.  You figure out whether it's worth paying 20% more for color.

I listen to all kinds of music (from Opera to Rock) and I find the mix to be good -- not too heavy on the bass, so I'm not going to have to fiddle with the pre-sets a lot.  Nice balance.

Conclusion

Sound is ok-good.  I'm happy. I might have been happier with the CX 500 (but I haven't listened to them, so who knows).  However (again using Amazon ) these are almost 3x as much, and for me, I can't say it would have been worth the money.

They are comfortable, stay in the ear, block noise well, and were an excellent price.

Recommedation

I'd recommend these, certainly at the price.