sennheiser cx 300 review

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Picture courtesy of Gaffer74.

Average Ratings

Sound Quality	7.8/10
Comfort Level	7.6/10
Value for Money	8.2/10
Reviewer Rating	7.8/10
Overall Rating	8.2/10

75% Recommended12 out of 16 Reviews

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By joelstanier on 10th Jan 2007

joelstanier's Ratings

Time Headphones Owned	Between 1 - 4 Weeks
Sound Quality	9/10
Comfort Level	8/10
Value for money	10/10
Overall value	9/10
joelstanier's recommendation

Good Points

Great sound quality; excellent noise isolation; very comfortable (and comes with 3 sizes of earplug); superb value for money at current prices.

Bad Points

Noise isolation means internal noise such as footsteps, coughing, humming etc. are more prominent; fiddly asymmetrical cable; lack of in-line volume control as seen on some of Sennheiser's other models (e.g. MX550).

General Comments

I've been looking for a decent pair of earplug headphones for a while now, and after doing a lot of research I plumped for the Sennheiser CX300s. I would have loved to give a pair of Shure E2Cs a try, but I would feel a bit uncomfortable shelling out so much money on a pair of headphones designed for frequent outdoor use, not to mention my tight budget. Thankfully, the CX300s did not disappoint one bit.

The first thing that will strike you when you put these in your ears is the noise isolation. They won't cancel out noise 100%, but everything is significantly quieter. Turn your music on, however, and you're in a world of your own. The only times I've been able to hear any external noise using these headphones is if I'm walking by a very busy road, and even then this does not interfere with the music at all. Noise from public transport does not pose a problem, and while we're on the topic, sound leakage is kept to an extreme minimum too. In a silent room I had to turn these up to a pretty painful volume before my girlfriend could hear anything.

Prior to the CX300s I used Sennheiser MX550s for some time, and they sound great, but I grew increasingly tired of having to turn my MP3 player's volume right up whenever I was in a noisy area. No such trouble anymore. Not only that, but the noise isolation means that you can run these headphones at a lower volume with no compromise to sound quality. Your ears will thank you when you're older.

The sound quality itself is the clincher. Compared to the MX550s, the bass is deeper, punchier and more precise, making the MX550s almost sound muddy. The bass is also a tad more prominent on these - I had to turn the bass down a notch on my MP3 player. Bass junkies are going to love these. The highs ring clear and true, and there is a much greater sense of instrumental 'separation' (i.e. you can really distinguish different elements of your music and really appreciate what is going into it). And the noise isolation means that you can really HEAR the music: I was particularly impressed to hear fingers clicking against bass strings in one song, and subtle reverb and echo effects are much more noticable, especially on vocals.

The Sennheiser CX300s are not without their downsides, but these are mostly due to the nature of earplug headphones rather than their own shortcomings. Most notably, the earplug design doesn't just keep external noise out - it also keeps internal noise in. Everytime you clear your throat or hum along, you're going to hear it. And if you walk at any decent kind of speed, each footstep is going to be accompanied by a pretty hefty thump - perhaps the only thing you'll be tempted to crank up the volume to compensate for. That said, I got used to this pretty quickly, and it doesn't intrude on the music as much as you might imagine.

On a more picky note, I would have preferred the cables to be symmetrical, rather than the asymmetrical, behind-the-neck design. It would have also been nice to have an inline volume control, a very useful feature of some of Sennheiser's other models. I'm also slightly concerned that the right-angle jack plug is going to cause tension on the cable, which would ultimately cause the headphones to cut out. Thankfully Sennheiser give a 2 year warranty on their headphones, and from previous experience I can testify that their customer service is pretty flawless.

All in all, these are fantastic headphones with excellent noise isolation and great sound quality. The RRP stands at £40, which I think is justifiable, but most websites are now selling these for under £25. Browse certain auction-based websites and rumour has it you can knock a further tenner off that price. For headphones of this quality, that is quite frankly a steal.

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