Today I'm trying a new review style, I think it works a little better but let me know what you think!
Introduction:
Whilst listening to music the other day I decided I need a decent pair of headphones. I set myself a budget of £100 and went into town.
I tried several headphones out and originally settled on the "Bose around-ear headphones". They were within budget (£89) and the sound quality was awesome click to view. I had to head back to work and decided to hold off purchasing the headphones until the next day (after looking at prices online). After looking around I found the best place to buy from is HMV as I wanted to take advantage of their accidental damage insurance.
The design:
After work, I went back into the shop and noticed a pair of Sennheiser HD 202's out on display. They looked like standard headphones if not slightly more discreet than usual. They are completely black apart from the Sennheiser logo written down the side of each monitor.
That is pretty much it on the design front, they look like your standard slimline headphones!
The Price:
They were priced at £29.99 so I assumed they would be inferior quality compared to the Bose. Out of interest I had a listen to see what kind of headphones a company such as Sennheiser could produce at that price.
What I like:
It has to be said I was very impressed with the audio quality of the headphones. As soon as I put them on I could tell the sound was decent. I then set about the task of comparing the two pairs of headphones (sods law made it so the Bose headphones were at one side of the store and the Sennheisers at the other).
After 3 or 4 trips back and forth, I settled on the Sennheisers. The Bose headphones had a very crisp and clear sound which I liked however the Sennheisers had a similar sound with a better bass response. Its testimant to the quality of the Sennheisers that I went for them over the more expensive Bose headphones.
I love to be able to hear the bass line on a pair of headphones - this defiantly was a contributory factor when deciding on my headphones. On my music player (which I will review one day...) I have a "Bass Boost" option which coupled with these headphones is astounding taking the price into account.
At a normal volume and what I would class as "loud" the speakers seem to cope perfectly with absolutely no distortion at all. The fact they are headphones obviously reduces outside noise interference and this together with the slight inwards pressure from the headphones it creates a nice seal which reduces if not eliminates outside noise. As I type this I'm sitting in my living room with my housemate watching the TV. When I play music at a normal volume I cant hear it (the TV that is).
I am extreamly happy with my choice of headphones and feel as though I got an absolute bargain. On a side note, I only found out about the HMV headphone warranty whilst researching these headphones. For around £3 I got a years worth of accidental damage insurance. This has been a good day.
I give the headphones a solid 5/5. Its safe to say there are headphones on the market with a better quality sound however I think you will be looking at least £200 to beat these in a noticeable manor. If these headphones were priced at £100, I would still have got them over the Bose.
Its worth mentioning that the wire for these headphones is very long, it comes with a cool product (embedded with the Sennheiser logo) to wrap the excess wire round so its not a problem. I think a long wire will be very useful in some situations such as DJing. It also comes with a 3.5mm jack and an adapter for a 6.3mm input.
Tech Specs (taken from http://www.sennheiser.co.uk) :
- Traditional Full-Sized Design
- Closed-Back (Seal Out External Noise/No Sound Leakage)
- Wind-Up Cable Clip
- Frequency response - 18 to 18,000 Hz
- Impedance 32 ohms
- Sound pressure level 115 dB
- Connection - 3.5 mm plug with 6.3 mm plug adaptor
- Cable - 3 m, OFC
- Weight - 130 g