Sennheiser PX 100 Collapsible Headphones

Comment: I really do like my PX100's. I love headphones and have had quite a few. I have a pair of AKG 340's with electrostatic ribbon tweeters and dynamic woofers squirreled away, but it takes a big heavy amplifier to drive them and a near perfect sound source to appreciate them. On the other hand, my iPod nano 5gApple iPod nano 8 GB Black (5th Generation) NEWEST MODEL, FiiO micro headphone ampFiiO E1 Portable Headphone Amplifier with Y-Cable (Black) and Sennheiser PX's cost less than $200, weigh next to nothing and sound good enough. (By good enough, I mean that there's nothing wrong with them that takes your attention away from the music.) You can float along with the bass lines in a Fatha' Hines jazz track and pick out every harpsichord note in Vivaldi's Four Seasons and recognize different baroque organs in a Bach fugue. What more can you ask, really? One reservation. The PX100's date from a time when "portable" players took individual CD's, weighed at least half a pound and put out quite a lot more current than the latest iPods. My 'phones sounded okay with my iPod mini 2g, but the nano 5g just didn't put out enough current and sound flat and "2 dimensional." Enter the FiiO E1. This incredibly tiny item seems specifically designed for the nano and the PX100's. It puts out enough current to let the headphones reach their true potential. As a bonus, it bypasses the rather wuffly power amp of the nano and substitutes a really high fidelity mini amp which takes full advantage of the splendid preamp in the iPod. Highly recommended if adequate power and a good quality sound source are available.

Comment: This review is a bit mixed. These headphones have great sound and are comfortable to wear. I also like the fact that they collapse and come with a storage case. However, as I indicated, I just purchased my 3rd pair in 5 years.. They are certainly not built to last. My biggest complaint is the flimsy wiring. I looked into purchasing a different pair of headphones but couldn't find anything as lightweight. Word of caution to potential buyers, use the case to prolong the life of these headphones.

Comment: I'm old enough to remember when Sennhiser first introduced the "open air" headphones in the early 1970's. I liked them then, and I like them now. The PX 100 headphone deliver the same airy sound quality, without sacrificing the treble and bass extremes. They are nice and compact (at a price; see below), and I'm able to pack then into my computer case for audio when I want to be able to hear what's happening around me, also (e.g., a ringing phone, but you can vary the audio level to screen out the ambient sounds at your discretion. Comfortable to wear, and the product description says the ear pads are easily replaceable. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! When you are done with the earphones and ready to store them in the eyeglass-size case, you get to solve a mind-stimulating problem that approaches the complexity of a Chinese puzzle, and probably, if repeated enough, staves off the riskof Alseimers. A sticker on the case gives you some clues, but the combination of folding the arms, pivoting the earphone, winding the cord, and interlocking the arms (the last being the most challenging), is a task that will keep you amused for several minutes, culminating in a surge of accomplishment with the click-close of the case latch. But I exaggerate. The earphones are great, the exercise of storage is the price we pay for compactness.

Comment: Similar in use to the Koss PortaPro, which I also bought for comparison and am returning. These are better for me: more stylish, sound diff't than the PortaPros but just as good in my mind, if a little duller, but it's billed as "natural sound" so it's not quite as metallic sounding as the PortaPros, to me. An audiophile could better describe the sound differences between this and the PortaPro, but it's negligible to my ears.

Very comfortable, with small vinyl covered pads on the top to cushion, and the speakers on each ear are swiveled so they hug your ears just right.

MUCH better storage case than the PortaPros, too. These fold just great. Case is sort of like a folding eyeglass case.

I'd totally recommend them as good portable, foldable, over-ear headphones. If you get replacement pads these would be good for exercise so you could swap them out and wash the extras.

Last but not least the PortaPros catch and pull my hair whenever I take them off. That's a dealbreaker for me.

Enough said.

Comment: The best headphones I've ever had. The only downside is that the carrying case is too small, mainly because I can't ever seem to fold them up just right.