Fig. 1 Sony MDR-E888LP
So I finally got the legendary Sony MDR-E888LP's. At one time these were Sony's flagship earbuds, and they had glowing reviews commenting on their spectacular sound quality. Ear canal headphones and in ear style headphones had not taken off yet back in the late 90s and early 2000s, and the Sony earbuds were still in production then. Sony eventually pulled this model out of production, and it is extremely hard to find. Japan is pretty much the only place to go, Ebay is full of fakes, watch out. This is considered an entry-level audiophile quality earbud by some, but there are CAVEATS to everything.
When these suckers arrived, I was excited. Reviews said they had sparkling highs, prounced mids, and just the right amount of lows. ( These are quick ways of referring to how an audio product handles different parts of the sound spectrum). "Low" may indicate bass, and just notes which require more "thump" to them.
Fast forward...I burn in the triple 8s. Burning in allows many headphones to "stretch out" their driving coils, diaphagms, and mehanical parts basically to reach their desired level of level of sound.
When the MDRs are broken in I can tell the sound has improved, it is extremely clear and detailed. I try it on classical, jazz, pop, and R&B tracks. The headphones handle the wide range of sound very well, the instruments are seperated, individual sounds are discernable. PROBLEM, these cans lack a sufficient amount of bass for you to enjoy music in my opinion. Maybe that is just the limitation of the earbud design, nevertheless this is supposed to be the higher end Sony Earbud and it doesn't deliver.
On COMFORT, when I put these things on, my ears started hurting within TEN SECONDS. I kept adjusting the earbuds, trying to get a comfortable fit, but these things are HUGE. They are way to big for the average pair of ears. The edges are kind of sharp and painfully dig in too! There's no way I can wear the triple 8s for aprolonged amount of time, they hurt like crazy. After noticing my ears were ringing with pain, the wires looked like they were going to SNAP.
Sony used really flimsy cheap wiring to connect high quality drivers, so if you happen to exercise or use this with a lot of movement they will wear out faster.
My verdict: If you're mickey mouse get these, otherwise avoid the risk of the 888s not fitting your ears and go with other products today. Sound is good, bass is still lacking. Not worth the pain. Oh yeah, warranty coverage is confusing.. everything is in Japanese. Don't know if there is a warranty..???
These have been returned!
P.S. I don't hate Sony, they make a good Walkman Mp3/Video player 8gb/16gb!
3 comments:
did you get your money back?
They said they would give it back, I have no reason to believe they will not follow through. Still waiting on it.
Refund done
Post a Comment