GEAR: Sennheiser PX 100 Collapsible Headphones

Just a quick one today. Think of this as Friday’s post a day earlier (with Thursday’s review to post for Friday)

Today was a sad day, for I had to bid farewell to my Sennheiser PX 100 Collapsible Headphones. The highest praise I can offer them is that, once I realized the problem was insurmountable, I promptly bought another pair of the same model.

The PX 100 is, in basic design, a fairly standard set of open, headband-style, mini-headphones which collapse easily. They are light and fairly low-profile, allowing them to wear comfortably, even under a hood or wool cap, and they look nice, if unremarkable. And their price, ($59.95 msrp / around $40 at most reasonable discounts) is good for quality headphones of this type.

Physically, the construction is solid. The frame is a mix of metal and dense plastics, including durable metal hinges for the collapsing action. The pads are resilient and comfortable, though one of mine developed an annoying habit of coming loose and falling off. The cord is sturdy, with little problems over normal use.

The trouble was that I didn’t give them the most “normal” use; my treatment of them was nowhere near as gentle as it should have been. In part this was due to the uncanny ability for the cord to get caught on every possible cabinet knob, chair arm, corners, etc. yanking them off of my head and, frequently, out of my iPod. Of course, this is entirely a user-problem derived from the confluence of my height, the length of the cord, and the construction of my apartment. In fact, that the headphones withstood the kind of abuse that I gave them for so long without a problem is a testament to their toughness. If you pay half a mind to your surroundings, these things should last you forever.

Of course, eventually that abuse was too much for my poor headphones and a connection somewhere came loose and the right earphone stopped working properly.

But until that moment, the sound quality on these headphones was amazing. They yielded a very wide range of sound, with excellent balance. I never experienced any disappointment in any style of music, from classical to rock, house to noise and spoken word materials were clear and warm. The only problems I ever encountered were those endemic to this style of headphone, such as minimal isolation, some distortion at high volume levels, and a drop-off in the lower base (though that last was far better than most).



Simply, if you are looking for a good set of portable, multi-use headphones for your iPod or to take to work, the PX 100 is an excellent choice in terms of both sound quality and cost. I have not experienced better in this class of system.

Also, they come with a well-constructed and easy-to-use carrying case that I really shouldn’t have lost …