Sennheiser MM50 for iPhone stereo headset
Time to chuck out your Apple set?
Reviews Sennheiser launched the MM50 last year, but it's just re-issued the set, this time in white as well as black, and with a nod toward Apple's iPod Touch and new MacBook laptops as well as the iPhone, which the 'phones were originally designed for.
Sennheiser's MM50: tub-thumpers' delight?
The MM50s are an in-ear set, sliding into your ear canal on rubber sleeves intended to keep noise out and music in. Sennheiser supplies three sets of sleeves, one each of the small, medium and large sizes. They're of the flexible type, rather than the harder kind or the sponge sort included with higher-end earphones.
The rubber theme continues with the cord, which has the same feel as the sleeves rather than the smooth touch you usually get with plastic headphone cables, and with a figure-of-eight cross-section rather than a circular one.
According to the Reg Hardware shatterproof ruler, the cord runs 85cm from the slim 3.5mm jack - fully compatible with the original iPhone's recessed headphone socket - to the microphone dongle. There's a further inch of cable before it splits into two: 13.5cm off to the left earpiece and 43cm to the right hand one. The split is sealed within a plastic blob.
We're not fans of asymmetric earphone cabling because we find cables usually tend to hang centrally. Having a much shorter cable means the left-hand earpiece suffers all of the inevitable pull of a cable caught between layers of clothing and bag straps as you're walking around.
The MM50s use drivers from Sennheiser's CX300 set
It's worse with in-ear phones, because we always find it also makes it more likely that a cable will rub against you or your coat, the vibrations travelling along the cord to your ears, where they're seemingly amplified because the rubber sleeves are blocking out the noise that would otherwise baffle them.
COMMENTS
Loop the other way and all is good
If you look the headphones around the back of your neck then the different lengths make more sense. Also that way you can easily run the cord down under your shirt to your pocket where its nicely stashed. Saves having to faff around trying to loop the buggers over the backs of your ear. :)
Good for the HTC Touch HD too!
I had these delivered from Amazon today for my HTC Touch HD and they're great! The stock HTC headphones were designed with giants or dumbo-eared individuals in mind as the phones themselves are HUGE and uncomfortable.
With the HTC, though, the mic button has no functionality when using the MP3 player. When using the phone, it can be used to answer calls, a short press puts the call on hold and a long press hangs it up. Otherwise, when there's no call in progress and no incoming call a long press on the button brings up the voice dial function.
Definitely a good buy and far cheaper than the article suggests - got mine for just over £37!!
I have these
or last year's version, anyway. Great sounding headphones but the snagging problem is incredibly annoying. I find the rubbery texture of the cables create a ratchett effect on the inside of my coat, pulling the cable down slowly as i walk along, until I have to yank a length of cord up at the top to free up my head.
The button/microphone is very badly placed - it continually catches on my collar and yanks the left-hand earpiece out.
Having said that, I'm not sure what could be done to improve these problems - smoother cables would move easier but pick up more rustling noise, and the microphone can't really go anywhere else...
Good 'phones
I've had these for a couple of months - the button aside, I can't fault them at all.
The sound is a lot more pleasing to me than the Bose in ears I was using previously and like Sebastian, I prefer the asymmetric cord.
Not had chance to try the mic yet, partly out of the fact it seems to hang a hell of a lot further from my mouth than the mic on the standard iPhone headphones.. Still dislike the tiny, hard to feel for button on these though.. The amount of misclicks I make when I do find it is an annoyance too, since I often find myself stopping tracks by accident, rather than skipping on or back as intended.
Had my MM50 for two months
I have used a pair of MM50 daily for two months and I think they are great! And I actually prefer some of the features that aren't appreciated in this review, probably because I mainly use it as a handsfree.
I had previously two revisions of the V-Moda headset, both littered with design and build quality problems (the jack failed after two weeks on both, the cylindrical mic always pointed in the wrong direction and the on/off button was hardly locatable at all -- not even on the second revision). So I tried the MM50.
-Nice sound
-Nice weight and fit (works very well under a helmet when snowboarding)
-Reasonable mic (sometimes too low volume, don't know if it is the MM50 or iPhone)
-Asymetric cords -- I LOVE IT -- the rubber on the cords makes it stick and earphone at the end anchors nicely around the neck (typical handsfree setup)
-The on/off button is easily operated without looking at the mic, even with leather gloves
-The cord tangles a lot less than the v-moda
I have experienced that the buds yank out of the ear, but only when I catch the cord. I find that the rubberised cords actually reduce the "pull" from clothing (when used as a handsfree).
My verdict would be that this is a solid everyday handsfree which is also great for listening to music. If you use it mainly as a stereo headset and only occasionally to talk, I can imagine that you might find better alternatives.
