Sennheiser PX200 Black Closed Mini Headphone Black

Once you get inside the plastic packaging, you find they come in this plastic case that, while I appreciate they do fit in very ingeniously, I almost laughed because I realised I'm never going to get organised to spend time putting them in and out of the case: it's a very snug fit. It took me a few moments to figure out how to get them out! Once out they fold out to headphone size very easily, and while not feeling amazingly rugged, the build quality is very good. I think I'm going to be happy just folding them up, wrapping the wire round loosely, and keeping them semi-safe in my bag or (large) pocket. Just for stats purposes, they have a standard 3.5mm jack, and the cable is 1.4m according to the box. Length of cable seems fine to me.

Put the headphones on and they're very comfortable. Adjusting the height is quite easy (I have quite a big head), and they sit quite comfortably over hours of usage, the oft quoted "didn't realise I had them on" and so forth.

Plugged them into my iPod and immediately noticed two things. First, the overall sound quality is wonderful, and I realised how much those iPod buds muffle and blend the sounds (relatively speaking of course). Instruments can be picked out really easily, the stereo positioning is much clearer, and you hear things in music you just never noticed before. I know I'm at a low-ish price point (relatively) with these headphones, and I know more expensive ones could be a step up again, but I'm really impressed. I can now pick out much more recording detail in my music, and I'm sure I'm going to try re-sampling my music at a higher rate as I can now tell when the encoding quality isn't high enough.

Second, I must admit I did notice immediately that the bass was much weaker than with the iPod buds. Some reviews I've read said you need to put the 'phones lower on your ears to get the bass, but I was doing that. They just seemed to lack the bass power, or perhaps the iPod buds were overdoing the bass? Anyway, I also read about 'breaking in' headphones (which I understand is a debated issue) so last night I plugged them into my stereo and left them playing in my sock drawer overnight. I must admit, doing a comparison today, the bass seems to have picked up nicely. I think I read that break-in can take much longer, so it's my belief they'll keep improving. Other things I've read about headphones in general seem to bear that out. Also, I guess that the iPod's headphone power may not be beefy enough to give these 'phones what they deserve, so if I start getting more picky about it I may investigate a pre-amp (or whatever it's called) for the 'phones, though I don't want to carry extra gizmos around. Anyway, it was my perceived improvement in bass from my overnight break-in that made this rating 5 stars rather than 4 stars.

Overall, the PX200 headphones meet my criteria almost perfectly. On the (overwhelming) plus side, music is crisp and clear, they are very portable, and very comfortable to wear. On the minus side, the bass power is debatable, but there seem several factors involved, I've only had them two days, and the 'breaking in' thing seems to be working for me, so it's not fair to knock them down on it.

Definitely worth the purchase.