Sennheiser HD 201 Headphones

It's funny to remember that when I bought these I thought they were good headphones, at the time all I had was CX300 and the fact that they weren't muffled, had good separation and had nice crisp highs that bought out drums nicely seemed enough to win me over. They aren't uncomfortable either. Let's face it for the price you have nothing to lose, I got mine for £12.
But now, with some real headphones under my belt, they sound god awful. There is really nothing good about these. That's being unfair. There is no bloating or distorting across the spectrum and separation is actually very good. But the whole sound is artificial from the weedy almost non-existant bass through to the metalic, robotic mids. The treble does the best but who cares about a nice snappy drum track when the rest of the sound is so unnatural?
What has frustrated me the most is that nothing can save these. My girlfriend has an awful pair of low end Sony fart cannons, but I was able to open them up, add some dampening, tape up the vents and bring them under control a bit. With these phones nothing seemed to improve them and nothing bought any bass out of them. It's not an issue of a good driver in a cheap case with no dampening - it's a case of a bad driver.
Frustrated, I finally binned these. 
But if you have £12 to spend and you want something better than the stock buds on your DAP, they are certainly worth the asking price. My advice is to bite the bullet and up your budget.

I have to say this, these are one of the worst headphones I have ever had.
 
To start the comfort is horrible. I have long hair, curly so it all bundles together. Older headphones slid through my hair, these grab every single lock and tear it off my skull. They are not slanted, to they can slid behind you head all the time. The cushions are cheap and won't last very long. They do not adjust easily, I have two clicks on one side and three on the other side. They will irritate your ears because of the non-slant in the design. The top pad is soft, yet because of the design, causes the sides to dig into your head anyways.
 
The cord is long 3 meters, 3 yards, 9 feet. That's abotu the only good thing. The cord doesn't wear out of that packaging crimps ever, the connections are cheap and the plug is cheap.
 
The sound took me a while to figure out. You need to boost your bass (I use a great soundcard on my desktop) and it took me a while to figure that out. The bass is simulated (fake BOOM) and the treble is low. Music starts to sound chippy and grainy at higher volumes. Sound leaks not too badly.
 
If you work with your soundcard and audio driver, you can make these things actually work well.
Realtek HD Audio Driver set to Underwater environment with Powerful set in Eualizer worked out the bass problems
 
They are nothing to walk around with.
 
Currently I have then handing by a line in my room that i can drop anytime and pop into my desktop to listen to at any moment with the long cord.
 
Personal Amp much needed
 
Through I hate them so much, I still use them for the cord length and price
 
If you want something you can throw away later without regrets or give to someone, these would be it.

This is going to be a short review.
 
-When I took them out of the box they felt like crap, like the smallest amount of pressure would snap the headband in two or more pieces.
 
-Upon first wearing they weren't nearly as tight or sweat inducing as the Skullcandy T.I.'s I had at the time.
 
The sound was nasty. I do not know if this "burn in" thing you people talk about counts with these things or not, but I didn't even want to try.
 
If you can't get them for less than twenty bucks then keep your money.

Good, Cheap, Durable, Comfortable head phones with decent sound, can't turn them up very loud without an amp, still good for computer use.

I suppose it's unfair to give these headphones a completely bad wrap considering how low of a price that they retail for, and you can get them for even cheaper than that most of the time. The main issue I find with the Sennheiser HD201 is the complete lack of a proper fit or seal no matter how I try to position them on my head, this causes obvious issues with comfort coupled with the fact that the ultra-thin compressed pads barely keep the hard plastic drivers off of your ears.
 
Sound quality is reasonable for the cost, however better can be found - I've taken a liking to the Monoprice lineup in this price range. The HD201 actually seem to respond quite well with amplification and equalization, surprisingly well; the issue here is you'd have spent three times the price of your headphones into the source piece(s) required for you to capitalize on that.

I don't actually own these headphones, but funny thing is they are actually part of my schools media art computer lab for each computer. My teacher allows us to do anything we want during this class while working on projects or assignments, so this means listening to music in class with these. 
 
These headphones are actually not too bad for the price, and actually find them soothing sometimes. They of course aren't the best sound headphones in the world no doubt but I would really consider this as headphones for people who are looking for headphones along the $30 range because these do get the job done.
 
They are comfortable no aches pains or anything, but do kind of get sweaty around my ears using it for to long.
Sound Isolation: They're okay
Sound leakage isn't an issue but there still is some but not enough to bother people around you and I'm sure the ambient noise around will overpower the sound leakage from headphones anyways...
 
The Sound
 
Treble: These are more of a darker sounding headphones to the point where the treble does lack just a tiny bit. There is some muddiness in certain tracks at time due to the weaker emphasis on the highs. Some tracks I actually think the treble fits well on more aggressive and brighter tracks. I notice smoothness and perfect balance between the frequency spectrum. The treble can also be pretty detailed sometimes I've noticed as well. Because of the lower emphasis on the treble I believe these headphones lack some air; cymbals kind of sound smeared in the background with most of my rock based tracks. 
 
Mids: Umm.... Colored murky, bloated and muddy depending on music style. 
 
Bass: Bass has great balance to the frequency response of these headphones and isn't over the top or anything. It isn't to thin or to big its just perfect where its at. Bass does sound bloated sometimes but not all the time (again depending on music style). It delivers a slight punch, but not to the point where you'll be getting severe hearing loss or brain damage. Bass seems to be more emphasized more on mid bass, bass doesn't, really run that deep.
 
Sub-bass: No
 
Honestly if you just give these headphones some EQ from a graphic equalizer they will sound great. Maybe just bump of the high frequency's a bit, lower the muddy spectrum of the mids which is the lower mids and if you want boost dat bass up.
 
Well all in all, pretty decent pair for the price, they are a bit muddy sometimes but It doesn't really make me cringe so thats good I guess. They do offer pretty decent detail and sound for the price I'd EQ though If I were you, I wouldn't be able to live with only these headphones.

First off, these Sennheisers are super value. I paid £12 and for that price, you can't get a brand new pair of on-ear headphones that can beat this. The highs and lows, treble and bass is well balanced. The clarity far surpasses anything in the same price range. Clearly not Sennheiser's masterpeice, but they seem to be aimed at the infrequent user, who is simply looking to go one up from the poor stock earphones that came with their mp3 player (mp3/ipod compatible, very low impedance @ 24ohms).
HD 201's become uncomfortable and it gets hot under the pads after about 30mins of use, though this will keep you warm in the colder outside air..
For myself, comfort means alot. What's the point in a great set of headphones if listening to your music after half an hour become unbearable. Other than that, these would be a highly recommended bargain.

Straight out of an mp3 player or pc these won't be that good. Coming out of something with more power however they really change and become fun.

Emphasis of the upper mids, which makes them slightly fatiguing, tight bass with decent extension (45hz before a dropoff). 

With extra power these are neutral with a bit of life to them. Without any extra power they are tinny and surgical, a poor combination. 

As the title suggests, these were my first upgrade from ibuds.  They broke a while back so I'm going from memory but I did have them for a while.  First of all, they're super comfortable. The only closed back I've tried on where putting it on actually cooled down my ears instead of the opposite.  There is plenty of room for the ears and I literally fell asleep with these on a couple times.  They work well right out of an iPod, although they do come with a 1/4" adapter if you want to use them with anything more serious.  Isolation is fine, I was comfortable listening to them on airplanes or car rides without turning the volume up too much.  Unfortunately, they aren't the best choice for portable use.  The all plastic construction is lightweight but not super sturdy and the lack of a protective case means you have to be gentle with these.  Mine broke at the point where the earcup attaches to the headband, apparently a weak point because my one of my friends had his break at the same spot as well.  The cord is also too long for portable use (9 ft) and tangles easily.  Still, relatively minor complaints for a $25 phone that I used as my one and only HP (at home, portable, everything) for well over a year.  I like to recommend it to people who want an upgrade from ibuds but don't want to spend a lot. It's great as a gateway drug.  Sound-wise, I never found it to be lacking bass, and plenty of detail was there.  I don't want to go into much detail because I can't listen to them at the moment, but definitely recommended as an entry level phone for those who who favor a more even presentation. (Read: Bassheads will probably be disappointed)

these are cheap, price and buildwise, but deliver decent sound quality. The bass is pretty much nonexistant, but the mids and highs are good. The one flaw I saw was the leatherette ear pads that are very prone to flaking off or tearing. They aren't bad for the price, and if you need a pair of cheap, replaceable headphones, I would recommend them.

The Sennheiser HD201 are a surprise in the lower echolon of headphones, as they offer great sound quality for a very low price and they are a very good extention into the low end price range for the Sennheiser product sortiment, in that regards
However, because of the cheap price, they do lack in design and comfort and overall build quality. This pair of headphones is made out of plastics entirely, the cable has too much length for me and is thin and flimsy. The cushions on the headband feel good and  comfortable, but the earpads itself are a pain in the ass because they are too stiff, not breathable and overall uncomfortable - they irritate my ears in under 20 minutes.The plastic construction of the entire headphones feel cheap overall - but the headband itself doesn't break when it's overly bend, which is a strong point. It's very light weight as well - but the clamping force is a bit on the heavy side, maybe it breaks in after a while.
One last surprise on the build side was the gold plated connector - that's weird in this price range.
 
The sound signature and presence of small details on this headphone is amazing, especially for a headphone for under 30$.The sound curve doesn't have the typical flaws of cheap headphones like bloated basss/lower mids and non-presence of mids and higher mids. Instead, the sound signature seems very bright - even more than my Beyerdynamic DT990s, which are famous for their strong treble - to the point of being fatigueing, especially with very drum set intensive music. However, it's not a unnatural brightness, but you may be EQing these cans - -2db treble seems just right on my FiiO E17 with these. On the lower end, they deliver enough bass for me to be fun headphones - with the downside that they don't extend into the lower bass sections and that they don't have quite the bass quantity reserve in hand that you would expect from a pair of closed back head phone (The DT990s deliver more). The bass loses texture compared to other headphones, too, but that is to be expected from small plastic enclosed drivers.
For a 24 ohms headphone, they need quite a lot of power - they are quiter than my 32 ohms pair of Philips Fidelio L1.

As a final verdict: they are nice headphones for their price, I would recommend them to enyone who wants to take a  low-priced look at how amazing Sennheiser headphones are.
I personally use them at home, the cable is too long for convenient mobile use and I wouln't want to be seen with a cheap plasticy headphone outside of my house. It's a good headphone for Classical, if you can live with the small sound stage, as it makes that sort of music really airy. I prefer warmer headphones for Jazz. It's inadequate for electronic genres (lack of low bass) and I find it a bit too bright for Metal and Rock .

Introduction

The other headphones that I've used include the SHP9600, HD598 SE, and Urbanite XL. I listen to jazz, pop, and EDM primarily.

Build quality

Very similar to my HD598 SE which costs 5x as much. It's probably the best in it's price range.

Comfort

The ear pads and head band has a pretty nice texture. The head band is well padded but I wish the ear pads are not nearly as plushly padded but it's still okay. Overall, decently comfortable.

Passive noise cancellation

I could not hear much of the sound when I was at a busy junction and a very noisy restaurant blasting radio through the speakers. I'd say say that these headphones are okay for outside use. In quieter outside environments, I could still hear a sizable portion of the sound.

Sound

Bass

It can feel bloated or well controlled and lacking or deep depending on the song.

Mids

Instruments are airy and has a nice tonality. Vocals are clearly artificial but they're rendered fairly decently.

Treble

Pretty fatiguing. However, it's fairly detailed.

Soundstage and imaging

Pretty good considering the price range. It's so good, that my open back SHP 9600 doesn't feel that much better in this
regard.

Overall

This headphone has some pretty remarkable audio qualities from an audiophile standpoint but it's price point is kinda showing because when all the features of its sound quality is taken together, its sound can feel pretty awkward. Overall, a decent budget headphone but I'd prefer paying more. A headphone like the Momentum would deliver the same level of clarity while giving it a good bass boost, a much more dyanmic(less awkward) sound, and with significantly better build quality and comfort to boot.

I paid $15 for those headphones, and I did not expect anything great. They aren't as comfortable as you would expect, but it does the job. The sound separation is poor for Sennheiser quality. I own a pair of HD 212 pros, which can be purchase for around $20 now, and I have to say that they are much better in every aspect.
 
I don't recommend HD 201s.

I am using the HD 201 for over two years and in terms of sound quality/characteristics I’m quite pleased with it. Just recently I listened to a good recording of Bach’s choral BWV 115 played on a Silbermann organ. My jaw dropped. The HD 201 sounded so well it’s hard to justify an upgrade. Even the very low base was present but only in the background, where it belongs. I believe base should suport music rather than being a main part of it. Because the HD 201 has a bright sound it also unveils compression artefacts of poorly encoded mp3 files. A quality that would be expected from high end headphones with a rediculous price tag. If you are used to warm and smooth sounding headphones you will certainly find the HD 201 to have a harsh sound. If you upgrade from low quality earbuds you could well be impressed. For this price it becomes a must have in any headphone collection. The only two things I really dislike are the false leather over the ear and head cushions. It begins to dissolve quickly. The lenght of the cable is also too generous. 3m or 10ft is way too much for a product that is mostly used together with portable devices.

I was looking for a cheap headphone to carry with me in public, something that if lost or stolen would not be a big loss to me. I bought the HD201, and was pleasantly surprised. The highs are fairly crisp, the mids are very detailed considering the price, and the lackluster bass can mostly be resolved with an amp and a bit of equalization. They can't compete with more expensive headphones on any level, but one should not expect them to.
The earpads are not very deep, so unless you have tiny ears you'll likely find them pressing against the headphones in uncomfortable ways.
They feel cheap to the touch compared to sennheiser's higher-end headphones, but they seem solid enough to toss around without them falling to bits.
 
If you want a pair of headphones to lend to people you don't trust with your better headphones, or to carry with you in less-than-safe inner-city type places, I'd strongly recommend these.

This is my first headphone, I bought it almost 2 years ago for $24. For the price, this is the best balanced headphone you can get under $50.
It's well built, but the cables is quite long (~3m) and sometime tangled. I don't like the plethered pads, it gets my ears sweaty.
 
Things to consider to buy this headphone:
- The sound is very good balanced and it's cheap.
- You got 2 years warranty, and for just ~$25, that's awesome
 
After 9 months from purchased date, one of the speaker dead, and got replaced

I bought these as a cheap spare during repairs of my regular cans, didn't expect much but have had some good experiences with Sennheiser.
I was very positively surprised at first use. These actually sound like they reproduce sound as intended in production. And at a silly low price.
Cheap headphones (as well as some very expensive ones) often over-emphasize low frequencies. Which of course is worthless in a mixing situation.
I have seen some reviews here that actually complain about the lack of bass / beats / untz. Me, I prefer cans that colour sound as little as possible.

I bought these cans one weeek ago in a megastore near home.
I use them in my bed-room, connected via FiiO 5 amplifier and a pair of old Monster Cable interconnects to a Pro-Ject Dock Box with an I-Pod Classic 80gb on.
Wow..they sounds very,very good and i think they get better and better with a certain amount of listening time.
The bass is there,not so deep but articulate.Mids and Highs takes full advantage on this for a more balanced sound.
I fall asleep with them on.Very light and comfortable.
Great bargain.
 
   

Nothing much to say about these. You get a huge bang for your buck in sound quality, but build quality is what you'd expect from <$50 cans. They are by no means audiophile cans. Although, for the general masses, I would recommend them no questions asked if they are looking for budget headphones.

Not sure what people are talking about when it comes to weak bass. The bass isn't weak, it's just pleasant. It's just right in my opinion for every day relaxing listening. Now, if you're in the mood for some loud pumping beats, you might want to switch to a different pair. These headphones are just fine for those who aren't a basshead.