Another adventure in Aliexpress has made me found this absolute gem. The EX650 just arrived today and it is a version with single button with mic on left side. I paid 22USD ,free shipping. The actual price in most store is around 60USD BNIB. I have tried this EX650 in Sony Store before and really like what I heard. But for 60USD it is pretty expensive for me. So when I found this EX650 on Aliexpress,I never hesitate to buy it. 1st impression - no doubt, this Aliexpress EX650 looks and sounds like original. The closest sound signature that I heard before was Audio-technica CKR5. Almost same details but EX650 has better and tighter bass.
Built quality/ construction.
On external look, this is definitely one of my best looking earphone to date. Very solid construction, both cable and brass housing are excellent. Fairly thin but serrated and tough looking cable. Complete with chin slider. At Y splitter written Thailand at one side and MDR EX650 on the other side. Single button with mic located on left cord, fully functional for taking/ending calls, but I haven't try the mic yet which is not important since I bought this EX650 purely for music listening. The strain relief at housing are made of silicone and very soft and flexible. And might be the 1st to degrade too. Strain relief on L shaped 3.5mm jack is also strong and flexible. The housing are made of gold coloured brass with half plastic on ear side. The nozzle are made of brass too and angled for better fit. Unfortunately only left side housing with default medium tip fit well. My right side ear has different shape so I have to use large tip but still not very comfortable. Not the earphone problem really just my odd anatomy making fitment for many earphone to my right ear a bit difficult and the sound also will always slightly low on all earphone. Fortunately I can adjust the channel more to the right in my smartphone equalizer.
Comparison with FXT90
My current best earphone, also from Aliexpress adventure. EX650 has more details. FXT90 has more sparkling treble. Bass amount and tightness are almost the same. Generally FXT90 still sound slightly better for me. For me the FXT90 has more balanced and slightly more aggressive sound,
Comparison with XBA10
My only other earphone from Sony, bought BNIB. Both have excellent built quality with tough serrated cable and chin slider. Only shape of cable are different. EX650 rounded, XBA10 slightly flat. XBA10 has no strain relief on housing but not really necessary due to extreme light-weightiness of the housing. Brass housing on EX650 is quite heavy but soft strain relief and angled nozzle really help to counter the weight. Sound wise the amount of details are almost the same. But bass is better with EX650. Generally I prefer EX650.
Comparison with Audio-technica ckb50
My most recent purchase before EX650. As usual from Aliexpress. CKB50 has very good lightweight housing design that fit my ear very well. The bass is tighter and higher amount. Treble is almost at same level but EX650 has more details. CKB50 has very fun kind of sound that goes well with bass heavy genre and rock/metal genre. Generally EX650 has much better built quality but in the end I still prefer sound from CKB50 which is "aggressively fun".
Comparison with Soundmagic E10
E10, one of the most popular and highly recommended budget earphone with multiple awards and all round good review. This is where the origin of 'fun' sounding earphone. The bass on E10 is bigger but EX650 is tighter. E10 has better, more sparkling treble. Unfortunately the details are lacking as compared to other earphone in this review. For that I choose EX650 over E10.
Conclusion
EX650 is definitely one of the good earphone in my collection. Details and pleasant to ear. For 22USD the price is only 1/3 of BNIB EX650. The present of single button and mic are bonuses but not really necessary. There are better earphone in my collection but EX650 is definitely one of the best. It is suitable for rock/metal music which are the majority of my music collections. On top of having good sound it also has the best look so far among my earphones. Highly recommended for certain kind of music. For bass-head, probably can stay clear with this EX650.
