I decided to provide a utilitarian review of the Sony MH1C on Amazon; hopefully someone here finds it useful:
I stopped looking for the ideal pair of headphones after finding these. I was searching for something that was durable, provided excellent noise isolation, could accommodate eartips that inserted deep enough to minimize occlusion effect, emitted minimal cord noise/feedback, included a microphone, and had good sound quality. These paired with Shure olive tips include all of the features I was looking for in a pair of headphones. I regularly stock up on MH1Cs to pass on to friends, many of whom also appreciate their utility and durability.
I have gone through one pair so far in about three years--they hold up much better than most in-ear headphones I have tried. Their weak point appears to be the strain relief near the connector, which can eventually be the location of a short from one too many falls of a music player from one’s pocket while connected. I suppose their weak point would be weaker without the strain relief, but could also be stronger with an improved strain relief design.
I believe they are very intelligently designed wear-wise. When I wear them as they are supposed to be worn, and run the cable under my shirt, the microphone is situated very close to my mouth and therefore in an ideal location for talking, and stays in place there because the reinforced section where the cable splits hooks onto my shirt collar. The cable produces very little cord noise/feedback, especially when it is run under a shirt, and is tangle-free. Also, I think the cable design prevents strain on the connection between the cable and monitors when worn under a shirt, since hooking the reinforced section where the cable splits on a shirt collar prevents strain on the cable sections connected to the monitors. The lack of strain between the cables and monitors probably helps add to the lifespan of the headphones.
The design of the monitors allows for retrofit of Shure olives, for deep insertion of eartips (see
http://www.head-fi.org/t/632892/review-sony-mh1-the-best-kept-secret/1500 for instructions for retrofitting olives to the MH1Cs). Paired with olives, the headphones probably provide upwards of 30 dB of isolation, unaccompanied by occlusion effect (e.g. noises of your swallowing/talking/etc. due to bone conduction) when inserted deep into the ear canal, similar to Etymotics but without the terribly loud cable noise (which more than makes up for the lack of occlusion effect for Etymotic headphones in terms of unwanted noises). I would rather wear MH1Cs paired with olives than noise cancelling headphones for blocking noise, as they do almost as well and probably sometimes better on their own, but without the hissing noise or silly need for batteries. If I really want to block out external noises, I can pair them with earmuffs (e.g., 3M Peltors) and probably outdo most noise-cancelling headphones, again minus hissing or batteries.
Also, I use them with the microphone side eartip only while driving, to talk on the phone or listen to audiobooks; they make it much easier to hear phone conversations due to their ability to block out road noise. I think using these for talking in the car bests holding a phone up to one’s head; connecting to car speakers to talk on the phone; or wearing a Bluetooth headset that may not block out road noise as well, generate occlusion effect, and has a battery that has to be recharged. They are less distracting, much easier to hear, and don’t excessively suck or require the recharging of batteries like other alternatives for car phoning.
When I compared the MH1Cs with a few other headphones I bought at the behest of recommendations in head-fi.org forums (ranging from $10-200, and many of which broke within a few weeks or months), I much preferred the MH1Cs sound-wise. I never hear sibilance with them, and though a little recessed the treble is very clear. Bass is adequate for my wants without an amp, and mids are prominent. When listening to music I use them with a Cowon J3 or my iPhone with the CanOpener app. Paired with a headphone amplifier (Fiio F11 and Digizoid ZO 2), their sound quality didn't seem to improve much, although the sound signature included more bass when listening to bass-heavy music (I don’t use the amps much, too lazy to charge their batteries). There are probably many headphones out there that sound better, but the MH1Cs sound pretty good to my ears, which is good enough for me.
My only complaint is that the microphone doesn't consistently work with my iPhone. When it isn't working, I either have to press the bottom button repeatedly or do a hard reset on my phone to get it to work again. If Sony revised the MH1Cs to work more consistently with iPhones, they’d be just about perfect in my book (although they’re pretty close as-is). Overall, these headphones are pretty darn good, and have caused me to stop a largely wasteful consumer quest for the holy grail of head gear (thus hopefully avoiding my fate as another Patrick Bateman).
. It was later evident that even if I replaced the filters with brand new ones it wouldn't matter. Problem seems more internal.
