Moonwalker
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2001
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Hi!
Yesterday I did listening and measuring tests to my Sennheiser buds. I have older pair of MX-400 (4 years old) and newer MX-350 (1 year old).
All listening was done on my old Sony MZ-R30 MiniDisc recorder, using headphone out and no added amp.
The songs used were from
Mike Oldfield: The Songs of Distant Earth
Enya: The Best of
and some random pop songs from various artists
Here is my observation and comparison between these two earbuds:
Fit (foamed): gave me no problem, but for long-term listening, I preferred MX-350 by a slight margin
Volume: On the same setting 11/30 on my MD, the MX350 appeared louder by some 4 dB than the MX-400.
Soundstage: Joke! Earbuds and soundstage! The MX-350 sounds distant sometimes, or hollow somewhat. Still, the space for music is severely compressed. MX-400 makes some attempts for tiny soundstage, but you can feel they're IN the ears and the sound is produced by small drivers.
Detail: Both buds obscure details, MX-350 in lower mid range, MX-400 in higher bands (treble). No match here for traditional phones, but both are substantialy better than stock bundled buds for MP3 players.
Dynamics: I tried find music that will sound dynamic, explosive on buds, but on higher volumes these pieces sound uncomfortable to me, and on lower volume there's no dynamics to speak of. But the MX-350 seems to catch the sudden attacks of tones better. Maybe seem a litlle faster.
Balance: MX-350 is definitely heavy on low treble, otherwise quite balanced for earbus, with typical weak low end. MX-400 seems more smooth and balanced, but its deficit on mid to hi treble is obvious, and lower end is even less present than in MX-350.
Frequency range: MX-350 is limited on bottom, power range (-6dB) is about 120Hz - 17kHz. MX-400 power range is about 140Hz - 13,5kHz. One remark: the MX-400 smoother response helps them to perceive them as more extended, there is no large dropoff in low range.
Bass: MX-350 has stronger bass, with less precision and extension than MX-400. I prefer MX-400 with Sony Mega Bass level 1 on most music.
Mids: MX-350 have mids quite clear, but little artifical sounding to me. MX-400 has better mids, balanced, but they seem rough and sandy (for lack of better words).
Treble: Quantity-wise clearly wins MX-350. They are too sharp on raised volume, but are there. The MX-400 masks them, probably the plastic screen with little holes has to do something with this issue.
Overall: The MX-350 is good bud with somewhat hollow and sharp sound, the MX-400 removes detail, adds grain but seems more natural in presentation of music for me.
Measurements:
I used white noise track made by CEP1.2 and AKG C1000S mic with subsequent EQ in CEP1.2 calibrated to remove irregularities in response and compensate for proximity effect.
Below is the chart comapring the two phones, cyan is MX-400, purple is MX-350.
I hope this post will help contrast the difference between Sennheiser's older and newer generation of traditional earbuds.
Moonwalker
Yesterday I did listening and measuring tests to my Sennheiser buds. I have older pair of MX-400 (4 years old) and newer MX-350 (1 year old).
All listening was done on my old Sony MZ-R30 MiniDisc recorder, using headphone out and no added amp.
The songs used were from
Mike Oldfield: The Songs of Distant Earth
Enya: The Best of
and some random pop songs from various artists
Here is my observation and comparison between these two earbuds:
Fit (foamed): gave me no problem, but for long-term listening, I preferred MX-350 by a slight margin
Volume: On the same setting 11/30 on my MD, the MX350 appeared louder by some 4 dB than the MX-400.
Soundstage: Joke! Earbuds and soundstage! The MX-350 sounds distant sometimes, or hollow somewhat. Still, the space for music is severely compressed. MX-400 makes some attempts for tiny soundstage, but you can feel they're IN the ears and the sound is produced by small drivers.
Detail: Both buds obscure details, MX-350 in lower mid range, MX-400 in higher bands (treble). No match here for traditional phones, but both are substantialy better than stock bundled buds for MP3 players.
Dynamics: I tried find music that will sound dynamic, explosive on buds, but on higher volumes these pieces sound uncomfortable to me, and on lower volume there's no dynamics to speak of. But the MX-350 seems to catch the sudden attacks of tones better. Maybe seem a litlle faster.
Balance: MX-350 is definitely heavy on low treble, otherwise quite balanced for earbus, with typical weak low end. MX-400 seems more smooth and balanced, but its deficit on mid to hi treble is obvious, and lower end is even less present than in MX-350.
Frequency range: MX-350 is limited on bottom, power range (-6dB) is about 120Hz - 17kHz. MX-400 power range is about 140Hz - 13,5kHz. One remark: the MX-400 smoother response helps them to perceive them as more extended, there is no large dropoff in low range.
Bass: MX-350 has stronger bass, with less precision and extension than MX-400. I prefer MX-400 with Sony Mega Bass level 1 on most music.
Mids: MX-350 have mids quite clear, but little artifical sounding to me. MX-400 has better mids, balanced, but they seem rough and sandy (for lack of better words).
Treble: Quantity-wise clearly wins MX-350. They are too sharp on raised volume, but are there. The MX-400 masks them, probably the plastic screen with little holes has to do something with this issue.
Overall: The MX-350 is good bud with somewhat hollow and sharp sound, the MX-400 removes detail, adds grain but seems more natural in presentation of music for me.
Measurements:
I used white noise track made by CEP1.2 and AKG C1000S mic with subsequent EQ in CEP1.2 calibrated to remove irregularities in response and compensate for proximity effect.
Below is the chart comapring the two phones, cyan is MX-400, purple is MX-350.
I hope this post will help contrast the difference between Sennheiser's older and newer generation of traditional earbuds.
Moonwalker
