Home > Consumer Reviews > Sennheiser CX300-W Earbuds (White)

Before I bought CX300, I read a lot of reviews and comparisons with Shure E2C. I was lucky to find two very good deals on both of them so I bought them both. I paid CX300 for $20 including shipping and Shure e2c for $40 with free shipping. I used them for a month now and here is what I find:

They are both much better than average earbuds (ex: apple earbuds)
Bass: CX300 is much stronger than E2C (if you like bass, you'll love CX300)
Clarity: E2C produce more clear and clean sound than CX300, because the bass on CX300 is so strong, it overshadows midrange and highrange sound a little bit.
Comfort: CX300 is much more comfortable to wear than E2C, I can wear CX300 all day and not being sore. With the E2C, it is hard to choose the right earbuds and I have to wear it right (I have to push them deeper into the ear canals) to receive a clear sound and a decent bass.
Cable quality: E2C have the best cable quality, much longer and thicker than CX300. That being said, CX300 cable is not too bad, but it can be a little short for a tall person.

In conclusion: I am happy with both earbuds, I used CX300 for outdoor and at work because it is comfortable to wear, and easy to put away. But I enjoy the E2C in my home when I just want to enjoy the quality of the music.
Sennheiser CX300 is good buy at $20 to $30 price range. And E2C is good at $40 to $50 price range. If you pay more than that, you pay too much.

Last word, if you want to enjoy richer sound of a better earbuds, you should rip your CD a least 260 bit-rate or higher. Believe me, it make a different, you will hear sound you thought it wasn't there.

CX-300 is one of the latest products in Sennheiser's wide line of headphones. Its raison d'etre is 'ambient noise attenuation' in Sennheiser's words. Of course they are meant to be used with portable devices and do just fine at that.

Exactly how good is the noise attenuation?
Sennheiser says 'excellent', but surely you would want a more unbiased opinion. The noise attenuation is certainly good enough. I have tried them in the Athens Underground Railway (Metro). It is so noisy when the train moves, that with common closed headphones, it is impossible to hear the music at a volume that won't impair your hearing. With the CX-300 a lot of the noise is shut out, so you can enjoy your music at a reasonable volume. Another measure of comparison is that you can't hear a person that is near you speak, unless they shout. That is what these headphones were meant to do.
If you don't want or simply don't need noise reduction, you can buy just as good or even better headphones at a cheaper price. For example Sennheiser's PX and HD series, and AKG's K24 and K26.

Obviously for this price you can't buy high fidelity. The sound quality is up to Sennheiser's standards of course. I am using these with my Sony HD-5 mp3 player and haven't got any complaints. When I am not in the subway I usually go with Sennheiser's PX-200. I haven't made a real head to head comparison, but I think they are more or less a match on sound quality. So obviously, you can get better sound at home with quality speakers or quality bulky headphones.

These headpones don't silence everything. If you want that you can try 'active noise reduction' headphones (Bose, Sennheiser, AKG), but the active noise reduction process introduces artificial artifacts into the sound and the headphone are a bit expensive. You can also try Shure's or Etymotics passive noise reduction headphones which are a 'professional' choice (you can remove the quotation marks for Shure);they were (initially) meant for artists on stage. But you have to pay a hefty price tag for those.

So to sum up, if you want something which 1)shuts out unwanted noise 2)gives quite good sound quality, and 3) doesn't feel like wearing a helmet, these are an excellent choice at their price.
If you can pay more, you can get more in at least two of the three criteria.

I bought these when the left earbud on my Sony MDR-EX51LP's stopped working. I was initially upset because I (thought I) liked the Sony's and planned on just getting another pair of them. However, I saw a favorable review of these in PC Magazine and decided to give them a try. I'm really glad I did! The sound is much richer and the bass is much deeper than with the Sony's and it is giving me a better appreciation of the music. Now, I don't miss an opportunity to pull out my ipod to fill the time. These also seem to be louder which allows me to listen to the ipod on a lower volume and get a little extra battery life out of it. On the plane, they also do a better job of supressing the sound of the engines. All around, I'm very pleased. They cost twice as much as my old Sony's, but in my opinion they are well worth it.

I recently listened to music with these for 5 hours straight and got to know them well. These babies are awesome. The highs are bright, the mid-range is excellent and the low-end/bass is very good. I'm amazed they can produce sound of this quality in such a small device. Bose and Klipsch have nothing on these things. And it bares repeating, the bass is VERY GOOD - almost THX quality. Taking further into account the price of these things and we're talking BEST BUY.

I am an audio engineer. I own many sets of headphones for different applications; Shure e500, Bose QC2 (I never use these anymore, bulky and bland sounding), Sony MDR V6, Shure e4c, and a drawer full of Apple, Sony and Panasonic earbuds. My favorites are the Shure e500, which are so fine that I find myself frequently prefering my Nano 2 with Apple Lossless recording to my home stereo (a very high end rig).

That said, at $450, my beloved Shure 'phones are not exactly a good candidate for working out in the gym, or sleeping (I use an iPod to block ambient noise with rain).

I tried the Sony '51s, but they kept croaking, and the sound was abysmal. The '71s sounded better, but also died after a few months. I settled on the Sennheisers, because their low profile makes them comfortable for sleeping, and they provide a reasonable (about 10-15db) noise blocking.

The fit and finish is great, no doubt about that. I wish they had a segmented cable so you could adjust the length. I've read reviews where people complain the cord is too short, but I can only assume they have iPods on their hips, because I use a Nano 2 on an armband, and have to wrap about 2 1/2 feet of cord around the back of the iPod. It works, but... Also, keeping the cord short keeps the cable weight from yanking the buds out of the ear when you are active.

However, to be blunt, anyone who says these "sound great" does not know what good sound is. The Sennheiser CX 300 is shockingly bright. If you haven't deafened yourself playing your iPod too loud, you'll hear they are at least 6DB hot over 6kHz, if not 8-9db. That is like turning the tone control all the way up, to "11."

The only workaround is to have a higher end iPod with tone control, and to use the "reduced treble" setting. This brings the tonal balance down to something reasonable.

Frankly, at a pricepoint of over $50, there is really little excuse for a product to be this acoustically innacurate.