The "noob's" review on the Sony MDR-EX500's

Written Review

First off, i am no expert neither do i have much experience.
But that's what i like when i read reviews. Not technical information i don't understand, but easy accessible information from others.

This review will explain what the earphones are about, and what makes them stand out in comparison to their competitors.
Alongside this, I will publish some photos, for you, the customer, like myself to see and get a bigger/better picture of what you are in fact buying.

First off, I would like to say, that I am quite keen on music.
I listen to mainly R'n'B music, with the accompany of Dance and some classic guitar songs, such as some Santana.

I will explain the basics of what makes these earphones (genetically) better than the rest.
I have to admit when I bought these I had to ask some good friends and look online to find out what a diaphragm was. (I never took Biology seriously anyway...:P)
It basically is the coil inside your speaker that produces the waves which are the sounds that come to your ears.
Therefore the Multi Layer Diaphragm means that there are 2 coils operating at the same time.

Now you might ask yourself: But how do these help my hearing?
Basically, 2 is always better than 1, and therefore this means your earphones will produce different sounds at different given times.
Thus in conclusion they give you different sounds at once.
A good example of this would be when listening to guitar music, when you hear the guitar, the bass, and the vocals all in one sound wave.
Whereas normal earphones under £20 would jumble these sounds together, these earphones differentiate the sounds and give you an altogether better experience.


Now enough about the facts, and explanations.
Now I will give my personal input/experience with these earphones:

-The shape/form:
They are odd, in comparison to normal earphones, like the Sennheisers, but these earphones work in a way that they diagonally go into your ear.
Although it says: “vertically positioned in-the-ear”, vertical gives off the wrong impression.
The comfort of these earphones are lovely, you hardly feel them and they aren’t heavy on the ears.
I listen to a lot of music, at any given moment in the day and I will try to put my earphones on whenever I can.
Hopefully the picture should demonstrate what I mean.

-Cord:
If you, like me, find the "one being longer than the other" useless, bulky and annoying...Then you will find the same thing here...
Unfortunately I have never been a fan of the 1 cord being longer than the other.
It's like all earphones out there at the moment, so I can’t really criticise Sony for doing that.
More so, the quality of the wire is excellent (Although they did give way after 1 year of use), unlike Sennheiser’s ones.


Overall, for the price you are paying, I think these are the best earphones you can get for under £50.
I paid £40, and my friend that I recommended it to, paid only £35 (before the slump in the economy).
I love them, and the only few things that were a let-down were:

-The silicon ear buds.
If these were made out of foam, I think they would have been better.
Using Comply’s T-400 or the tx-400’s increase the sound quality (in my opinion) and the comfort.
By comfort i mean that it doesn’t fall off whilst you run, or sweat.

-There is leakage when you listen to these earphones.
Therefore, when you are listening to something, other people will be able to hear it a little.
To be honest, who cares, as long as you are listening to the earphones who cares what others can hear

-Bit harsh on the treble at first, but your ears learn to love them.
Thus burn-in time i think is almost crucial for the full aluminium goodness of the Ex500's

A final note from me, I realised that turning the EQ off on both the songs and the iPod is much better, than adjusting it.
I found that the sound quality seems distorted and sounds very harsh on these earphones.
They don’t need any help to be outstanding!


I hope that helped, alongside my pictures too
(See the attachments, if you will. Photos were taken over a year ago, so excuse the acne )

Your reviewer,
Totally Dubbed


Attachments cover the:
-Positioning
-Size
-Content that is included alongside the earphones
-Buds provided
-Looks