I wanted a pair of new ear buds as a replacement for my daily driver Sennheiser CX300-II. As much as I love the CX300-II I wanted to try something with a bit more punchy bass (I’m no audiophile but for the price CX300-II delivers pretty accurate sound. But I felt I could do with bit more bass and let go a bit on accuracy).
Sony MDR XB50AP is up front about it’s big on bass nature, as the pics of box show it clearly and in large letters say ‘EXTRA BASS’. So I thought this is what exactly I want! And I have good experience with Sony bass as years ago I had a SE ‘Walkman’ phone (for those of you still remember such) with Mega Bass earbuds. I loved those buds, great bass in small package.
I was to buy off amazon but some reviewers mention there are knock-offs. So I went to BB and got a price match on the Amazon’s price.
I’ve included few pics to show certain details on this pair (it says made in Thailand, the flat cables have tiny grooves and feels well made, there’s ‘THAILAND’ embossed on the place where earbuds divide…) all of which another reviewer tells are not seen in the knock-offs. So someone buying these on Amazon can check if those details are in fact there.
So after few hours of burn-in (TBH I don’t know how much difference it made) I feel this is pretty good for me. I listen to all kinds of music and as mentioned before I like punchy bass and it delivers just that. Compared to my older CX300-II these feels a little less accurate, but I don’t really care.
Quality wise I feel they are well made. Hopefully they’ll last a long time. I’ll update here if there’s anything to update. Only downside I could see is because they are large in size, there’s a bit more possibility of breaking easily by misuse (walking on them etc.) I’ve included pics along with my CX300-II for size comparison. The CX300-II are small made, so I’ve walked on them couple of times by mistake when they were on carpet floors and didn’t affect at all. But will with these I don’t think I can ever take that chance).
So, in short:
Pros:
- Really punchy bass
- Well made
- Flat wires are easy to keep tangle-free
Cons:
- Slightly larger earpieces (drivers are 12 mm, so guess we can pardon the size)
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