larossmann
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2012
- Posts
- 3
- Likes
- 0
I picked these up two weeks ago. I was using IEMs for portable use since 2004. Shure E3c, Etymotic ER6i, Etymotic ER4P, Shure SE325, etc. I take them in and out a lot, and after eight years, it was taking a toll on my ears. Just them moving a little bit would cause the pressure change to hurt my ear, so I decided to try what the regular world had been using all along - closed cans.
To give some more background on my experience listening experience and preferences, I've used HD280s before, as well as some higher end Fostex. I've used open air cans, like the Grado/Alessandro MS1, and Sennheiser HD497. I'm mainly a speaker person - I like Vandersteens and Thiels, and on the lower end, Axiom M22ti. I have 3A Signatures from Vandersteen, and CS 3.6 from Thiel. I loved the Alessandro, and I love Vandersteen speakers, in a nicely treated room with Corning 703 2" and 4" panels all around the listening area.
As a portable user I wanted to cut down on the size. I do not care what I LOOK like in public, but I move around enough that I don't want something huge, a la HD650s, weighing down like tires on the side of my head as I move around busily. However I want nothing to do with the low quality of wraparound headphones, or typical $10 styled light headphones. So, I looked for a line of high quality, closed, portable solution, and I found the Sennheiser PX line. The PX100 and PX200 are headphones I have seen as I browsed through headphone websites for years. As an IEM user outside, and a Grado/Vandersteen user at home, I would just glance at them and move on - they had no use in my repertoire. Remembering them and the high regard some enthusiasts had for them at the time, I decided to look them up. It was then that I noticed they had a new addition to this line, the PX360. I figured I can't go wrong, as they build upon the PX200 that many rave about, while being smaller than the HD280 I had used in the past and liked.
Perhaps my disappointment in these headphones comes from how spoiled I am with speakers. All the speakers I have gravitated towards that I mentioned above have some sort of design in place to minimize cabinet resonance. The Axioms have the non parallel wall box design. The Thiels taper off the front end, and the Vandersteens(my favorite) have no body at all! This could be an unfair rant because my taste in audio lends towards having no tolerance for "box colorations", but it really feels worth mentioning - the PX360s as headphones sound like my mouth does when I put my hands on the side of it. Not in a horn shape. If I have my hands so my pinky and thumb are going from left to right, on each side of my mouth. It is an awfully obvious box coloration that I am not used to, even in some other closed 'phones.
My disappointment is minimal because I picked these up from eBay for $49.99, and free shipping. They were "refurbished" by Sennheiser, and hell if I could tell. The earpads were most certainly new, the original case coming with them, new headphone smell and all. For $50, I can't complain, but the suggested retail for these is insane - $150! I know, they are closed headphones, so I should expect colorations from the enclosure they are in. At half the price there are many closed ear headphones that do not have such OBVIOUS colorations.
I'm not saying they're unusable, but for $150, they are insane. I am only posting this because I find VERY few opinions of this headphone on this forum. Hopefully this helps someone like me who was on the edge. I'm putting them back on eBay and continuing my search for a portable headphone that is not an IEM, that is worthwhile.
To give some more background on my experience listening experience and preferences, I've used HD280s before, as well as some higher end Fostex. I've used open air cans, like the Grado/Alessandro MS1, and Sennheiser HD497. I'm mainly a speaker person - I like Vandersteens and Thiels, and on the lower end, Axiom M22ti. I have 3A Signatures from Vandersteen, and CS 3.6 from Thiel. I loved the Alessandro, and I love Vandersteen speakers, in a nicely treated room with Corning 703 2" and 4" panels all around the listening area.
As a portable user I wanted to cut down on the size. I do not care what I LOOK like in public, but I move around enough that I don't want something huge, a la HD650s, weighing down like tires on the side of my head as I move around busily. However I want nothing to do with the low quality of wraparound headphones, or typical $10 styled light headphones. So, I looked for a line of high quality, closed, portable solution, and I found the Sennheiser PX line. The PX100 and PX200 are headphones I have seen as I browsed through headphone websites for years. As an IEM user outside, and a Grado/Vandersteen user at home, I would just glance at them and move on - they had no use in my repertoire. Remembering them and the high regard some enthusiasts had for them at the time, I decided to look them up. It was then that I noticed they had a new addition to this line, the PX360. I figured I can't go wrong, as they build upon the PX200 that many rave about, while being smaller than the HD280 I had used in the past and liked.
Perhaps my disappointment in these headphones comes from how spoiled I am with speakers. All the speakers I have gravitated towards that I mentioned above have some sort of design in place to minimize cabinet resonance. The Axioms have the non parallel wall box design. The Thiels taper off the front end, and the Vandersteens(my favorite) have no body at all! This could be an unfair rant because my taste in audio lends towards having no tolerance for "box colorations", but it really feels worth mentioning - the PX360s as headphones sound like my mouth does when I put my hands on the side of it. Not in a horn shape. If I have my hands so my pinky and thumb are going from left to right, on each side of my mouth. It is an awfully obvious box coloration that I am not used to, even in some other closed 'phones.
My disappointment is minimal because I picked these up from eBay for $49.99, and free shipping. They were "refurbished" by Sennheiser, and hell if I could tell. The earpads were most certainly new, the original case coming with them, new headphone smell and all. For $50, I can't complain, but the suggested retail for these is insane - $150! I know, they are closed headphones, so I should expect colorations from the enclosure they are in. At half the price there are many closed ear headphones that do not have such OBVIOUS colorations.
I'm not saying they're unusable, but for $150, they are insane. I am only posting this because I find VERY few opinions of this headphone on this forum. Hopefully this helps someone like me who was on the edge. I'm putting them back on eBay and continuing my search for a portable headphone that is not an IEM, that is worthwhile.
