Sennheiser PX 100-II : Urban survival gear

FULL REVIEW

Earphones in general are antisocial, but when you’re stuck in traffic behind an auto rickshaw with a ruptured silencer, you’ll thank ze Germans for making the PX 100. The PX100 is lightweight, flexible, durable, and though it doesn’t cancel out ambient sound, it can overwhelm it with music of your choosing.

Form Factor: In-ear vs. open ear cup vs. noise cancellation
If you’re looking for portability, there are plenty of in-ear headphones bundled by default on the music player you are using, and their performance may vary, depending on manufacturer. It’s an integral part of the user experience and some manufacturers have shown good taste by bundling high quality headphones by default. I-River used to bundle Sennheiser headphones with their MP3 players back in 2006, and they were nice. I have a special distaste for those rubberized ones that get shoved deep in your ear, these create a kind of vaccum and seem to have a magnetizing effect on all the chunks of wax you never knew existed.

Noise cancellation headphones aren’t the best urban survival gear, even though you might wish for one when you’re stuck behind the tailpipe that’s a few decibel units above a Harrier jet on a summer afternoon in India. These dorky implements are best left to frequent flyers and air traffic controllers who flag off jetplanes on a tarmac. A friend of mine got a pair for 15,000, and I hope he is able to synthesize happiness out of it, because I’m getting a whole lot more use out of the PX-100 II at a fraction of the price. Sure, it may be pricey to begin with in the first place, but not when you factor it across the lifecycle of use and sound quality you get out of it. I’d equate it getting a Mercedes S class ride for your years.

Build Quality: Old vs. new
My first PX 100s lasted me more than a couple of years, surviving dozens of inadvertent yanks, rains, floods. Externally, the unit gradually showed signs of wear and age, but managed to faithfully deliver thousands of hours of superb playback quality over two years of use and abuse. (Pro-tip: if you are experiencing any warping effects on your PX100s, try blowing at the earpads to dislodge any dirt or dust.) Friends who experienced the headphones personally eventually figured out a way to get one shipped for themselves, half a dozen of my friends who have picked one of these and still use it today.

The PX-100-II, which is a pricier, improved version, retains the snug and comfortable fit, adding a thicker layer of plastic reinforcement to the metallic headband. The new edition features a single corded design, which helps make it less prone to getting tangled while on the move. The cord is around 4-feet in length, and has no volume or playback controls - this makes it less conducive for on-the-fly adjustment. The cord has a satisfying thickness to it, looks and feels like it’s built to last.
The original PX-100’s came in a hard case that was useful when packing it while traveling, but more often than not, while traveling, they stayed on my ears. Maybe the company realized that, which is why they’re not bundling the foldable hard case with the PX-100-2, going instead with a rather flimsy pouch.

The design of the foam ear pad doesn’t look like it has changed – they are replaceable, and have a tendency to come off. I managed to graft a replacement from a cheaper headset found on a low budget airline before, ideally I’d like the unit to come with a few spare ones, for the inevitable day that the pads need replacing. This has happened to more than 2-3 of my friends, and I’d count it as a design flaw.

Sound Quality
I think the first five minutes that you give the PX-100 II’s are the best – when your ears just warm up to the richness, depth and clarity coming from a default implement, like say, the headphones with an iPod Touch. There’s a saying, talking about music is like dancing about poetry, so I’ll leave my playlist aside and let you know that these headphones were subjected to, and are seasoned enough to reproduce high bitrate music at high volumes without much distortion or fuzz. If you’re coming from headphones that are cheaper, you will feel a discernible improvement and newfound awareness of whatever hearing you’ve got left.


Conclusion
After using the new PX-100-2 over a few weeks with a range of devices, my verdict hasn’t changed much. I’m getting one for keeps soon. Open ear cup design works best for me, and the PX-100 II’s are easily the best in class.

Specs
Frequency response 15 - 27000 Hz
Sound pressure level (SPL)114 dB
Impedance32 Ω
THD, total harmonic distortion< 0.1 % (1 kHz, 100 dB SPL)
Connector 3.5 mm straight plug
Cable length 1.2 m single-sided cable

Features
•    Open design for natural sound reproduction
•    Single-sided cable for convenient handling
•    Steel-reinforced headband for high durability
•    Fold and flip: registered design allows the ear cups to be turned 90° and the headphones folded towards the headband (headphones will lock in open and closed positions)
•    Convenient carrying case included
•    Optimised for MP3, iPod, iPhone (iPod and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries) and portable media players
•    2 year warranty

Delivery Includes
•    PX 100-II headphones
•    Carrying case

Unit sourced from Sennheiser India