Customer Reviews

Sennheiser CX 300-II ECO BLACK Bass Driven Recylable Stereo Earbuds

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've owned CX300 in ear monitors for a few years now and have been greatly impressed by their comfort and performance. While on a flight to Zurich I left them on the plane and was unable to retrieve them so on my layover I bought a pair of CX300II not realizing the difference. The obvious differences are the components of the II's are of much higher quality (litz wire, gold plated jack and case among other things). The sound is perceptibly better. I was obviously delighted by the find that my lost CX300's afforded me! I listen to a lot of music and couldn't imagine being more satisfied with the musical balance of these phones. I recommend them highly.
p.s. for those of you who don't know, the asymmetrical length of the right and left cords is so the longer "right" cord goes behind the neck and the "main" cord comes down from the left side of your head.

I just received my order from Ace Photo Digital for both a Sennheiser CX300 and a CX300 II, both are high quality earbuds, especially for the price! Soon AFTER I ordered them I was concerned when I saw all the web sites describing "fakes" that are sold on eBay and even on Amazon.com. Well, after looking at about 10 websites with pictures comparing fake to real, I am convinced these are real. And email correspondence from APD was timely [custservice(at)[...]] and they told me "Not to worry, no fakes here. We buy directly from Sennheiser." I believe them. The shipping worried me but it turned out the Postal Service never scanned in at any location, so no tracking at all and I wasn't sure they were coming but they did. So all is well with this supplier and they are not fake (see my reasons below).

The point is that when I ordered the 300 buds, Ace Photo Digital is NOT the first supplier that comes up on the list to order from, so by default they would have come from somewhere else. I can't speak for the quality from the "first" supplier but people are complaining their's are fake and I assume they are from the first supplier and not APD. No of course I don't work for APD and never heard of them before, but it is good information to find a supplier you can trust as not everything on Amazon is the same apparently, so I give credit where it is due and hope it helps you!

Also I noticed that some other reviews are VERY old and I'm not so sure which item they are reviewing anymore - things change a lot since 2006, even what Sennheiser ships may have changed!

On to the 2 Sennheiser earbuds features...
I already knew I wanted earbuds and I picked these for 2 reasons: price/performance/value and physical size.
In my local trusted [...] I asked what is the sweet spot for price/performance and then followed up online by reading reviews. The other reason is I want earbuds and I don't want them to stick out too far like the older high end Shure ones used to at least. The store said the SkullCandy ones are maybe tolerable for the price (maybe 10 dollars online), and the best higher priced ones were the Sennheiser (I forgot the model) and Dr. Dre and Sure, but the sweet spot were these Sennheiser's. I don't know about the other Senn models in comparison but I like the price of the 300's.

Obviously anything sounds 10x better and is more comfortable than the junk that ships with most cheap MP3 players, that is a given. But these are as great as I would expect from Sennheiser, a great company. Both the 300 and 300 II sound great to me and I am comparing them to about 5 sets of good earbuds in the last 25 years. They have come a long ways, especially the noise isolation style nowadays...

These Senn's are a type called "noise isolation" (blocks the noise by sealing in the ear canal very well, as opposed to actively changing the sound electronically like "noise cancelling" types). I like this style for airplane traveling on long overseas flights, and for wearing on a motorcycle. Sure the active noise cancellation style works better but the good ones are not earbuds and don't fit into your pants pocket when you get off the plane and travel in a taxi, car, bicycle, on foot, etc. The fact that they don't stick out away from the ear very far is great for: resting/sleeping with your ear on a pillow, fitting under a full motorcycle helmet (not legal in some states), or with no helmet on they minimize wind noise hitting them if you at least have a basic windshield on your bike.

The other HiFi earbuds I use that are similar are from around 2004 and are Etymotic ER6 (now replaced by ER6i) but I paid over $120 for them. I haven't compared the sound yet but I think the Senn's are louder (more efficient) than the ER6 which is a problem on a motorcycle, the ER6 would not go loud enough as they are very inefficient. The ER6 also have very thin wire which is always getting tangled when I put them on. The ear canal silicone like part has 2 pieces and over time it itches my ear at the seam between the two. I haven't worn the 300's for long yet but they don't feel as tight and I think they will stay in but be more comfortable for long periods of time.

Why I think these are not fake:
Main things that convinced me were: the 300 had plastic packaging with a lot sticker inside it on the bottom, the shape of the black plastic and screen over the driver itself (remove the ear canal covers to see this), the position and shape of the aluminum colored housing, the plug (which is large and gold on the 300 II), the type of wire. Only the 300 II comes with a black carrying pouch, and one website showed it inside and out with fabric, stitching, size of Sennheiser lettering, all of which convinced me this one is real. A pouch is handy.

Comparison between 300 and 300 II:
I personally can't tell a difference in sound quality. I'm not saying they are the same but to me they are both great. You can bump up the bass of the source and it can really crank it out, and the highs are crisp, on both of them.

Like I said the 300 II comes with a soft case but the 300 doesn't. You can always find something like a small ziplock baggie (go to Ace hardware in the loose nuts and bolts section and ask for small ones!).
One thing I do not like about the 300 II is that it has an oversized L-shaped plug, which would be fine except it sticks out so far from my little tiny MP3 player that it is a bit cumbersome and I am a bit afraid it acts like a lever and if it got hit it could damage the jack on the player or at the very least crack it or make the connections intermittent. For that reason I like the 300 better than the 300 II overall.
Also APD was currently shipping the 300 II in an "ECO" box which is a weird thick stocky cardboard container (like a old box of floppy disks but smaller) made up of like 10 slats of cardboard with all the pieces buried inside it. Weird but hey the contents are the same and it is green (if you recycle). Perhaps someone can comment whether this makes it even more proof that it is not fake, as I would guess this is some kind of brand new container that our pacific rim friends have not yet copied (perhaps?? dunno).

One more thing, like another reviewer made me aware of, the cable is asymmetrical which at first I did not like but now I do: You are supposed to put your MP3 player on your left side to the left earbud, then the longer cable to the right earbud should go BEHIND your neck, not under your chin. In this way it does not dangle and pull down and is also out of the way. If you have long hair you can almost hide them completely!

P.S. These were selling for 29 and 33 dollars for the 300 and 300 II, which is truly a bargain, less than half of that in my local [...].

If you are looking for a simple pair of earphones that produce exciting sound from your iPod while on the go, then these are the ones for you! I have tried several pairs of earphones since looking to upgrade from the Sony Mdr-Ex55/Blk Ex Earbuds. I've tried the Ultimate Ears Metrofi 220 and even the Sennheiser CX 380II (the sportier version of the CX 300) but these earphones clearly stand out as a winner for several important reasons.

First, the sound emitted from these tiny buds is simply outstanding and refreshing as it delivers clear highs, balanced mids, and crisp lows. I immediately noticed a steep improvement over my less superior Sony's through its voice clarity and a resounding oomph in the bass response. The bass is very important to me in headphones because in my very eclectic taste in music, I love listening to plenty of Rock, Techno, Rap, and even Classical/Orchestral music--all genres that I believe should be enriched with a quality bass response. The Sennheiser CX 300II met my expectations as the bass had a nice "thump" to it that wasn't over exaggerated. I thought my Sony's produced good bass, but Sennheiser has since set a new standard for me.

The ergonomic and comfort aspect of this style earphones is also a true winner. I seem to be one of the few advocates of the asymmetrical design in cord length because it not only helps reduce wire clutter in front of your chest, but also reduces unwanted noise caused by rubbing against the wire because the cord is already laying on you. In contrast, Y-shaped cords have a tendency of bouncing against your chest as you walk and are always in the way of things like your zipper. I'm a daily train commuter who truly utilizes the advantage of the asymmetry of the CX-300II's design as I take my coat on or off or even while I read a book. The comfort doesn't end there because the simple earbud design provides a two-fold advantage for the listener on-the-go: 1) a great seal which is key for noise isolation which gives you the sound quality and especially bass recognition, and 2) a strong hold in your ear that doesn't even give way with slight tugs on the wire. This last characteristic might sound trivial at first, but let me tell you there's nothing more frustrating than having to fix your earbuds with every turn of the head like other earbuds have a tendency to do. (I returned the Sennheiser CX-380's for this reason since the design of those buds never wanted to stay in my ears). I easily wear these CX-300IIs for up to 5 hours a day with never any discomfort. This model has a total cord length of almost 4' and a gold-plated right angled plug which are two great aspects in its design to consider as well.

I haven't found any noteworthy complaints about this product yet and with such a bargain price offered on Amazon here, I highly recommend this product.

P.S. I listen to all of my music with the EQ off on my iPOD touch 3G which, by the way, has a stark improvement in sound reproduction by its amplifier over older iPOD models I have owned. Something to consider when you, the smart shopper, is reading this review and others like it because you should wonder if the reviewer is using the earphones on the same type of device you use and if your current device produces the highest quality sound.

These headphones are simply amazing for the money. The fit is very comfortable, sound isolation is good and the cable is sturdy (the cable on the CX-300 II is actually a big upgrade over the CX-300).

The sound quality is plenty good enough for me, the only problem is that the bass is too strong, which is why I listen to music with the flat "normal" setting in the cowon s9 and can't really use any of the good BBE settings the cowon offers. But with the flat setting, the sound is actually very good and the bass is just about right for my taste.

I tried a few other headphones, most notably: Klipsch s4, shure se115 and I prefer the cx-300 II by far. The shure are to weird to wear as they stick out far and take a while to put in (they do have a pretty neutral sound though) and the Klipsch are even more bass-enhanced than the cx-300 II, while being pretty comfortable as well.

For this price, these are a clear 5 star recommendation and obviously a gigantic improvement over any headphones that come with your music player.

I bought these earbuds after I read the great online reviews. The sound was really great while they worked. I had some problems in fitting them into my ears, but once I managed to do that they did a good job in isolating the surrounding noise.
Then all of a sudden, after less than 3 months of usage, the sound level in the right earbud became much lower than in the left one, rendering the headphones unusable.

I was extremely lucky to get these on sale for under half the price they are now. I have not owned many quality headphones and am proud to say these are the first, and I can finally listen to music in peace.

These in-ear headphones are pretty good. I feel that the highs and midrange is excellent however the bass is somewhat lacking. I found that the bass is improved if the earbuds are pushed in as far as possible in the ear canal so they feel like ear plugs. I like my Sennheiser HD 485 over these earbuds much better because they have better bass and a much more airy sound but as far as earbuds go they are better than the standard Ipod and standard Zune earbuds. Finally, all the headphones sound better when used with a good headphone amp like Total Bithead from Headroom.

initially i gave this product a good review but the right earbud immediately stopped working. it sucks. on a positive the vendor was really cool about returning my money so my low score isnt towards them.

I researched a lot of headphones before I decided to purchase these. Good Sound; but, they do lack the bass that I would like. I listen to all kinds of music and these are perfect for that, though, for the electronic music they do not provide the bass needed. Overall, these are decent for the price.

we bought these several weeks after having bought the ones that did not have a special bass range. we liked the originals and wanted another set and wanted to try the same quality product with a small spin and wanted silver. the silver might be silly. the rest of our bases worked well. we are very happy with this product.