Sennheiser: The Best Noise Canceling Earphones?

When I first opened the box, I noticed the carrying case, I wasn't even expecting that, but when you consider how expensive they are, you want to have some place safe to store them. You don't want to store them in a draw with a bunch of other wired devices and risk ruining them when you untangle them.

As far as these earphones getting tangled in it's own wires, that's probably not going to happen. The wires have a rubbery coating which may make it hard to make them lay flat, but it really makes them less likely to intertwine and tangle with themselves.

I've had a long history working with microphones and headphones, I also spent some years working for a company that made computer cables, wiring harnesses and molded cables, so I was very impressed with the strain relief on this set of earphones. Past experience has taught me that an earphone or headphone is very likely to have its wire break right where it meets the case for the earcup, earpad or earpiece. This extra thick reinforcement is a welcomed change from the cheap earbuds I had been using.

I also like the over-all size of the earpieces, there is plenty to grab onto when i want to remove them from my ears without pulling on the actual wires.

The package comes with three sets of enhanced ear adapters to use on the earpieces. Pick the right size for you, and they'll reduce the amount of outside noise that reaches your ears. They'll also fit snugly, sort of like foam earplugs, and stay secure in your ears, unlike normal earbuds which are constantly falling out. Even the "over-the-ear" earbuds are likely to be falling out of place whenever you move your head, even if they aren't falling completely off your ears.

Just a gentle press into the ear, and a sight twist will secure each one into place. They are likely to stay there, as long as something doesn't actually snag the wire, until you remove them.

By filling up the entire ear canal, these headphones end up not needing to be as loud as typical earbuds. Most earbuds and many headphones I've had in the past needed to produce more volume to overpower the noises surrounding you. In the end, it is your ears that pay the price.

Without having to compete with outside noises, I started to notice little things in the music I had been missing, a cymbal here, a background vocal there. I had just become used to not hearing certain things, and blaming it on audio loss from the MP3 compression.

How sad to realize that in all these years, these little nuances were there, I've just never used a decent set of earphones to listen to this MP3 player before now!

I also noticed that I was able to run my trusty MP3 player around the 10 setting, instead of the 18 - 20 I was normally playing it at. With such a dramatic difference in sound volume, the unexpected benefit was that the battery life was noticeably a couple of hours longer.

I thought the batteries in my 6 year-old MP3 player were the reason the recharges weren't lasting as long, but it was these cheap earbuds I've been using all along!

Here's another place earbuds and earphones often fall short. I've had some where the "Y" that splits the left and right earpieces is too close to my neck. I've had others that have broken at the "Y" instead of at one of the earphones.

These have a hard plastic enclosure over the actual "Y" with extra material reinforcing the wires as the go into it.

Here's another great feature, the alligator clip. You can reduce the amount of strain on the earphones by clipping this on a piece of clothing, like a shirt collar.

It can be adjusted up or down the wire, and has a swivel for extra convenience.

The actual cable is extremely short compared to most earbuds and earphones, but comes with a three foot extension cable, which makes the combined length perfect for me.

Of everything I've read about these earphones, this may be the main point of criticism. Some people think the main cable should be a bit longer, others feel the extension is too long, but for me, it turned out to be exactly right.

Here is another great feature, I just love the angle connector. I bought another high-end set of noise canceling earphones before this one, which I won't criticize here, but they came with a straight jack, which is awful for me to use, especially on my laptop. My laptop computer has it's earphone jacks right near the touchpad, in the front. A straight jack gets in the way as I try to use the touchpad and steady the whole computer with my thumbs.

Maybe this won't matter for most people, but for me it was a big deal.

Sennheiser and Enhanced Ear Adapter illustration
© Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG

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Sennheiser: The Best
Noise Canceling Earphones?
by CleanerLife
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