sony mdr-ex500lp earbud

[The Vinyl Adventure]

sony mdr-ex500lp earbud



Just bought a pair of these from the shop today, didnt check up on them first - i got them staff priceand was atracted to the aparently large 13.5mm drivers!?..

im wondering if anyone has lived with a pair for a while?
the reason i ask is because im wondering if anyone knows what sort of break in to expect on them?
out of the box, after about 45 mins of use im about as confused as i possibly could be as to weather they are any good or not!!
im using them with my ipod with 256kbps mp3s, i have listened to quite a lot of music - regina spector, crash test dummies, nightmares on was, counting crows, fugazi, imogen heap....

the overwhelming respose im getting from them is a lot of bass - quite one noted bass at that! a quite dull lower mid, the dullness is still there through lower vocals then there seems to be a really clear higher vocals and higher mid, and then then a grainy high end.
vocals are quite odd.. they are ranging from dull to detailed within a few notes and its quite amazing the detail that does come through on there higher mids....
im just confused .... anyone got insight? could this just be that they are not broken in... does that happen with earbuds??

i have been using some dirt cheep earbuds for a while now (they said llama on them - says it all) so these are quite clearly better .. and they are very comfy..

[The Vinyl Adventure]

they do completely block out home and away on the tv....and hannah cant hear them at all... bonus

[Themis]

I can't stand in-ear earbuds, sorry. I find that most of them have too much bass. Only the Shure ones (that I owe) are ok, but, in general, I don't like the sound. Moreover, they don't fit perfectly in my ears...
Don't think it's the break-in : rather a non-perfect fit in the ears.

On the iPod, you can try to put an Equalizer setting to get them right...

[Alex_UK]

Hi Hamish, I've got a pair of Shure in ears for when I absolutely have to be insulated from the outside, or must have no leakage - I don't recall them needing much of a burn in, but IMHO virtually all audio electronics improve after some use - I would suggest running them in for a bit when you can when you're not using them and see how they develop. This would appear to be confirmed by Amazon reviewers - they need a run in - but are very well regarded, you'll be fine!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-revi...DateDescending

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Cheers alex, I never think to look at amazon for reviews and couldn't find any sencible comments anywhere else! I'm glad for the burn in view that people seem to share on these, it's always nice to have that sort of thing confirmed especially with earbuds - something that can't be taken back! Have left them playing since my last post and have just walked up the offy with them in. They have def improved quite drastically! That sweet spot of detail seems to be spreading in both directions to the extent that the big one note bass and lower mid dullness have both become less of an issue! At this stage though they still have a long way to go to match some of the comments on amazon! That said my staff price made them a good buy at their current quality! So happy days I guess!!

[Beechwoods]

I have a pair of Sennhieser in-ear phones with similar silicone buds. I found that I needed to play with different sized buds a bit until I found the ones that properly matched my ears. And there were two sets - one which sat deeper into the ears and gave unnatural bass response, and one which didn't and sounded more natural. Not sure how much leeway Sony give you - did you get a selection of different buds with the phones?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Yeah 3 different sizes, I went with comfort without even experimenting for sound! That is worth investigating! Cheers!
Listened to wish you were here on the way to work this morning.. The guitar at the begining was blood lovely sounding! Once the rest kicked in it got a bit muddled though - I guess some of that can be put down to the mp3 compresion though??

[Themis]

Once the rest kicked in it got a bit muddled though - I guess some of that can be put down to the mp3 compresion though??

Yes, these artifacts are common on lossy encoding.
Also, to my ears, mp3 is more "bassy" than aac.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

they do seem to aproved more over the day. there is definatly a colouration to the sonnd, although its not that bad a one.. if that mkes sence?
basically im happy!

[Alex_UK]

I reckon MP3 may be the culprit - try them from your Caiman, with some uncompressed music you know really well - its the only way you'll satisfy yourself as to how good they are really... But you can't expect miracles with 'phones that retail at £50, anyway, really?