A Review of the Sony MDR-E828LP vs. MDR-E848LP earbuds

I bought my Sony MDR-E848 earbuds for $25 back in 1997 (list price is $30), and four years later I bought a pair of Sony MDR-E828LP earbuds for $10 (full list price). Does $30 buy you better performance than a basic $10 pair of earbuds? (Sorry, I know that Sennheiser's earbuds have their fans and are great values, but I haven't heard any of them to judge them.) Let's find out:

The equipment used in the comparison between the two earbuds are:

Sony CD Walkman D-EJ721 (volume control set at 6/10)
Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue CD
Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon CD

Here's how they stack up:

First Impressions
The 848's look reasonably cool, with their long stem and black-and-silver finish. The newer 828's look cheesy by comparison, with their grey and silver finish. And the 828's feel cheap, too - when I lightly banged the two earpieces together, I heard ringing resonance noises from them. The 848's have way less of them. But do those ringing noises affect sound quality?

Sound Quality
The answer to that question is YES. At first listen, the 828's seem to sound better than the 848's. But listening to the two in an A-B comparison shows that the 828's have slightly boomy and loose bass as opposed to the 848's weaker but tighter bass. And the 828's treble is slightly ringing and tinny compared to that of the 848's. But the 848's lower mids are a bit louder than the 828's. However, when I put foam earpads on both models, the treble details all but disappear. Overall, I'd give the edge to the 848's.

Comfort
Neither earbud model is the most comfortable to wear - the expensive MDR-E888LP's (among open-air earbuds) are way more comfortable than either the 828's or the 848's. The 828's fit better than the 848's, but loses points for their hard plastic edges (versus the rubberized edges on the 848's). Overall, I'd call it a draw between the two.

Miscellaneous
Both earbud models come in a circular wind-up carrying case. The 828's have a conventional Y-cord and a nickel-plated plug tip, while the 848's have a "neck-chain" style cord (the left-side cord much shorter than the right-side cord) and a gold-plated plug tip. And since both earbuds are intended for portable use, neither comes with a 1/4" plug adapter.

Conclusion
Even with all its flaws, I'd say that the MDR-E828LP earbuds are a good value for $10, but they just aren't quite as good as the $30 MDR-E848LP earbuds.

Randall/Eagle_Driver

If you agree or disagree with my assessment between these two Sony earbud models, please feel free to crap on it. (Neither of them sound as good as the ********* $80 MDR-E888LP earbuds.)

Well, then, it's time for me to order those MX400's or MX500's, and then allow those tables to turn upside down...

EDIT I am looking for earbuds I can listen to on the bus going to work without blocking out so much external noise... (My EX70's block way too much external sounds for my liking - ) my E888LP's seemed to be the right choice, but I just don't want to bust an $80 pair of earbuds on the street , so I just ordered the Senn MX500's...

If so, fuggittabout the @#$% Sonys!

sapphiremodena: I can't say that for sure; I had just ordered the MX500's. I can't wait until Thursday morning to get my hands on them... And just because a pair of earbuds have more bass doesn't mean that they have better bass! Sometimes, more bass means crappier bass!

That's VERY true. Most good-quality headphone amps aren't designed for such very-low-impedance (<30 ohms) headphones (which only sound decent on gutless portable audio crap). In fact, some of the best solid-state headphone amps recommend the use of headphones whose impedance is rated at least 50 ohms.

As for my game of Earbud Bass Chicken, the E828's entire bass range is hyped-up; the E848's bass IMO has more mid-bass than low-bass. The E888s have the low bass but are a bit thin on the mid-bass compared to the cheaper Sonys. Thus, the cheaper Sonys with 16mm drivers are best suited for a "duh-m-bass", not an audio enthusiast!

Well, to put it not-so-kindly:

All of my earbuds - including my E888s and EX70s - smell like crap. (Could be *my* @#$%ing ears, too.)

And as you can see from my profile, before I bought my Sony V6s, I was a freaking Duh!-m-Bass (and dum-bass and dumbass?) for many years.