Customer Reviews

Sennheiser PX100 Collapsible Open-Aire Headphones

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wanted a headphone that had excellent sound but allowed me to hear external conversation and environmental cues. This certainly fit the bill. It is comfortable, has great acoustics and allows me to hear other things to be aware of my surroundings as I enjoy my iPod.

Another home run from Sennheiser. These headphones are light, portable and easy to store in the supplied case.
I have two pairs of these gems, (one at work and one at home) and use them everyday.

For the money and for the size these earphones are incredible. They give you rich bass, nice accurate mids and highs.

These headphones sound great, are comfortable, come in a protective hard carrying case, and they fold for portability. They are great, except for the fact that I have gone through 4 pairs of them in the last few years because one ear always eventually goes out. I used them frequently but I was never rough on them. I loved them so much I really wanted to just have a pair to keep, but I will never buy them again because I know it will just be a matter of time before they have to be replaced again.

I've owned these headphones for over a year but only started using them heavily a couple of months ago. I've been very pleased with the sound quality overall. The fit is totally adjustable and works well even over my hair clips. Unless I'm packing the headphones, I generally don't put them back in the hard case because it takes too much time to wind up the cord just right. Instead I keep the headphones, a small camera, lens cloth and my iPod in a small cloth zip bag - much easier and faster. Great purchase, just wish they had the iPhone microphone for taking phone calls now that I'm using my iPhone for music most of the time instead of an iPod.

DEEP! LOW! CLEAR! I like a lot of music, a lot of it electronica, dance, house-like sounds that hit some very low notes. I tried quite a few ear buds, and none of them worked well at all. These head sets have a very low frequency response, actually surprisingly so: they are better than the full size ear muff style ones that I have. These are the best things I've attached to my ipod yet, and I'm very happy. I'm going to have to replace my desktop headset with these!

After receiving an iPod one Christmas, I'd been looking to replace its stock earbuds with something a lot more comfortable, a little less tinny-sounding, yet comparable in portability. Serendipitously, the local Costco was demo-ing several Sennheiser headphones, and since I happened to have my iPod in my pocket, I had a chance to listen to it paired with the PX100s.

Putting them on, I immediately noticed that I'd be able to wear these for hours with no discomfort. They are light (65 grams), which is comparable in weight to a comfortable, El Cheapo headphone that typically comes bundled with Walkmen/MP3 players. Pads at the top of the metal band help to keep even more weight off of your tender ears. They are the open-air style where you only have sponge pads pressed against your ears (as opposed to having them enclosed within full, heat-retaining ear cups), and the spring pressure holding them against my ears was not excessive, yet there's no sensation of them wanting to fall off. In summary, 'A+' for comfort.

That's where the El Cheapo comparisons ended, however. Listening to the sonics, I was immediately impressed by the low end response. Bass this good usually needs either an in-the-ear design, or a larger speaker mounted inside an enclosed ear cup design. Dialing up King Crimson's bass heavy "Easy Money" on the iPod, I noticed how clean the bass sounded. Lesser speakers/headphones tend to turn the low end of that tune into a muddy, boomy mess, but the PX100s handled it flawlessly -- the individual bass notes were distinct, and still retained their "plucked string" character. Impressive. The high end sounded crisp, and the midrange felt very airy and open. Perhaps even a little too airy. Despite this latter suspicion, I'll give the PX100s an 'A-' for sonics.

I'd originally only been considering ear buds since I wanted something that is easy to carry around with my iPod (and since I'd erroneously assumed only ear buds would have acceptable bass response). The PX100s pushed their way into my candidates list due to a clever fold up design that squeezes them into an eyeglass-sized case (145 x 75 x 27 mm). This is still a bit larger than what I'd hoped to find (especially compared to ear buds), but acceptable. You have to spend 30 seconds folding it, and winding up its cord, but I'll give the PX100s a 'B' in portability.

OK, so now I'm tempted. Scanning for the price tag, I'm thinking I might be willing to go as high as $80ish. It turns out they only cost $39.99! 'A+' for price.

Sold! :-)

Addendum: After getting these home, I compared them to my home headphones: AKG K240DF Monitors. When I first got the K240s about twenty years ago, they were considered high end from a sonics perspective. By today's standards, however, they are middle of the road performers. The fact that they're still in production, and still command a market (as opposed to MSRP) price of $100ish means they probably make a good benchmark for mid-priced headphone comparisons.

As studio monitors, the K240s strive for "flat" response. Comparing them to the PX100s, I see my comment about the midrange being "too airy" is probably justified... the PX100s emphasize those frequencies beyond flat response. At the low end, I'd say the PX100s slightly outperform the K240s -- the PX100s make individual bass notes a little more distinct (i.e., low frequency response seems a bit faster). At the high end, the two headphones sound about the same, at least with my iPod. With a better sound source (MP3s ripped from a CD lose some of the high frequencies), high end differences might be more evident.

From a price-performance perspective, the PX100s are a big winner in my book. The comment about overly-airy midrange should be taken with a grain of salt. When it comes to sonics, personal preference is the ultimate gold standard, and I personally don't find the PX100's midrange emphasis to be distracting or tiring. You'll need to listen to them yourself, and decide for yourself whether you agree. These are not audiophile caliber headphones, but for my iPod, they are more than good enough.

Excellent quality for the price! These headphones feel comfortable and sound fantastic. You will not be disappointed.

The quality and condition of the product were excellent. Super fast delivery. What more I can say?

I got these headphones when they were priced at $33 (the price seems to fluctuate mildly). At that price or even a bit more, they are a tremendous bargain. They are comfortable, extremely portable, and provide amazingly crisp, clear sound. I started using these when my 4-year-old Shure EC2s developed a short near the plug. The Sennheisers don't have quite the bass that the earphones produced, but the overall clarity far surpasses the more expensive Shures. The downside is that they don't shut out sound as well, a major consideration when commuting to and from work on the EL, and they let more sound out, meaning that I can irritate others on public transportation. I therefore plan on relegating these headphones to home use only as soon as I purchase a new pair of earphones.

If you need some inexpensive headphones either for use at home (I plan on using mine with my laptop) or as back ups for noise isolating headphones or earphones, these headphones will be tough to beat at the price. Plus, they can be collapsed into a carrying case. I will point out, however, that getting the headphones into their case takes some time. Still, all in all they are great headphones at a great price.