Sennheiser CX300 Stereo Earphones (White)

I have been struggling with the iPod supplied earbuds for quite some time, they truly are awful. I switched to a Phillips set which sounded good but broke within 3 weeks. After searching Amazon and various places for reviews on the net Sennheiser came out as the best again and again, so I went for it. Glad I did, they are great. Brilliant sound, very comfortable with a great seal - in fact, so good that when I'm doing my housework I can't hear the vacuum at all and have to keep checking it's actually on and unfortunately missed numerous phone calls. I've also had it confirmed that no one else can hear the music at all while I'm listening to it either so it would be great for trains/buses etc.

I also really like the way they have designed the actual connection plug where it sits in the iPod - it's solid, sturdy and it's angled so the wire is running to the side rather than straight down. I'm positive this will limit the likelihood of the wires becoming broken or unstable as happened with the Phillips set.

In fact, these earphones are so good, a friend who worked as a sound engineer and has been in the musical equipment business for years thought they were brilliant too and got me to order another set for his daughter to replace her iPod earphones.

I struggled to get used to the one side being much shorter than the other, but it's sorted now. The longer one just goes round the back of your neck. The wires are rubbery so may catch easily but I just put the wire through my t-shirt if necessary to ensure my arms don't catch it.

At last I can finally really appreciate the quality of the iPod. It's amazing how just changing to a quality set of earphones makes such a massive difference.

Oh, and these are a brilliant price too...I saw the same set in Curry's and PC World for £39.99.

I was really hoping that these headphones would be an improvement on my iPod's standard pair, but I was really disappointed to find that I simply couldn't use them to listen to most of my music as I am a classical music listener. I tried a number of different styles of classical music from solo voices and chamber music up to orchestral music and found the sound distorted at all volumes. This was also the case for spoken word too. I appreciate that they are "Bass Driven" but surely this must not be at the expense of music that isn't. I did by them direct from Amazon in order to make sure they were not the fakes that others mention, so had been expecting better from such a well respected make as Sennheiser

I also suffered from the electrical hum, which many other people reported, but to be honest, this was the least of my problems!

That said, I did listen to pop and rock music with the earphones and have to say that they were excellent for that, and I was able to hear some things that I had never heard before. I also found the earphones very comfortable indeed and the noise exclusion excellent (which was albeit rather negated by the electrical hum).

To conclude, if you only listen to popular music then these are an excellent pair of earphones, but I would strongly advise classical music fans to give them a miss.

I bought a pair of cx300s a few weeks ago from Amazon market place for about £7, and to say that i was disapointed is an understatement - they were awful. i should of sent them back, but they did seem to improve a little, and with some cds they were almost acceptable, although the complete lack of bass could only be overcome by judicious use of the equalizer.

last night, i was doing some online research, when i came across the possibility that they were counterfeit. i compared all of the criteria, and they passed every one, suggesting that they were genuine, but they still sounded awful. Today, i bit the bullet & bought a new retail set. WOW!!! these headphones are AWESOME. With the equaliser flat, there is bass by the shedfull, yet the middle & treble are bright & clear. the new ones look identical, but audio wise, they are universes apart.

You may be tempted to buy cheap, and maybe there are genuine cx300s being sold cheap. Just don't say that you haven't been warned!