Great sound, designed for comfort with fashionable colors to
compliment your style. The 9mm drivers units deliver powerful
bass while hybrid silicone ear buds ensure a secure fit.
Review: A very reliable,comfortable, good quality. - I have
bought many of these Sony headphones,over many years. Great
sound,good Quality, not flimsy. I will not buy any others. I
would recommend. Very reasonable price.
Review: >>> DOES THE JOB - > MUSIC QUALITY – The sound-quality of
music using the Sony MDREX15LP earbuds is very good – with
typical (mediocre) earbud base. That’s just a matter of physics,
earbud drivers are simply too small to produce good base. "Base
boosted" earbuds produce louder base (which smothers the high-
and mid-tones), but "loud" (lacking any detail) is not the same
thing as "good"). Suggestion, use the earbuds when you are out,
but purchase a Sony ZX headphone set for listening to music at
home -- and enjoy the base. > VOICE QUALITY – Clean, clear and
crisp in the voice-range, without fiddling with an equalizer –
largely because the base is poor. So, these (or similar) earbuds
are clearly the choice for listening to audiobooks, podcasts,
talking on your phone, etc. Listening to music, with base-rich
music, with Sony MDREX15LP earbuds , can be very enjoyable -- but
Sony ZX headphones produce far superior base than any brand of
earbuds, at any price. > Loud vs efficient. Sony MDREX15LP
earbuds are very efficient --- the volume is "loud" at low volume
settings -- not TOO loud, there is plenty of room for adjustment.
But, louder than many other earbuds and louder than most
headsets, at the same volume settings. Practically speaking,
"efficient" means that the earbuds do not drain the battery on
your battery-operated device as quickly. "Efficient" is a good
thing. Also, if you pay attention, you can usually lower the
volume, and the sound quality will be just as good -- and your
battery will last longer. Always play music at the lowest setting
that you can hear well. Or you can crank up the volume and plan
on being deaf by the time you are 50 --- 40 if you use garbage
"base-boosted" earbuds. > EXERCISE, ETC – Stays in place better
than most earbuds. But, if you engage in strenuous exercise,
consider Panasonic ErgoFit, which fit deeper in your ear. The
down side of the Panasonic ErgoFit is that they fit so securely
that it is difficult to get them out of your ear quickly, to
answer a phone, etc. In fact, the Panasonics originally came
witha little "piggy-tail" tab for extracting the earbuds. >
SYMMETRY – The Sony MDREX15L are close to being bilaterally
symmetrical – It doesn’t really matter if you put the put the
left earbud in your right ear, etc. However, the Panasonic
ErgoFit are not, they fit deeper into the ear, and are shaped
differently to match your right and left ear canals. It can take
a while to get used to inserting the right Ergofit earbud into
your right ear, and the left into the left. > ISOLATION – All
truly in-the-ear earbuds, with cup-shaped rubber cushions, are
good at reducing outside noise, better than headphones – often
good enough for air travel (depending on the aircraft and the
location of your seat). Many earbud brands claim to feature
“noise cancellation” but do not actually have any noise
cancellation circuitry. Passive isolation (such as provided by
the Sony MDREX15LP earbuds), is NOT noise cancellation. Feedback
reduction (on wi-fi earbuds with microphones) is often called
noise "cancellation", but isn't. Beware that while true noise
cancellation works moderately well for aircraft engines (and
similar sounds), it doesn’t work at all for screaming children or
random noise. If your earbuds feel loose in your ear, you may
need to install large cushions on the earbuds, to get them to
seal in your ear canal good enough to provide good isolation. >
COMFORT – The secret to comfort when using earbuds is to use the
smallest cushions which work for you. Three sets, small, medium,
and large are included with the Sony MDREX15LP earbuds. You might
be most comfortable with smaller cushions. It a can also take a
while to build up tolerance. So, if earbuds hurt your ears, build
up slowly wearing them a little longer each day. It can take
weeks to get to the point that you can wear them all day long
without pain. Changing, or replacing, earbud cushions is easy --
just pull the cushion off, and push the new one (or cleaned one)
back on. > PLUG – The plug is angled, at 90 degrees,
unfortunately. If you pull on the cord, you won't easily pull the
plug out the socket, but you will put on strain on the cord
(where the cord attaches to the plug), and potential damage it.
In my experience, this is how most headphones fail. UPDATE --
I've owned about 20 sets of Sony MDREX15LP earbuds over the past
5 years and never experienced this kind of failure --- I don't
know what Sony did to fix the problem. My Senegal parrot is now
the main cause of failure of my earbuds --- but that's a
different story. So, I change my recommendation; I prefer the
right-angle plugs since they are no longer a source of failure. >
PACKAGING – The Sony MDREX15LP earbuds that I purchased came in
wonderful frustration–free packaging — in a small plastic bag in
a small easy-to-open cardboard box. But, I can’t promise that you
won’t get a horrible retail anti-theft pack. Amzn used to promote
and feature frustration-free packaging -- but, sadly, doesn't
anymore. Update, every set (20 sets) of Sony MDREX15LP earbuds
that I've purchased from desertcart over the past 5 years has
been in "frustration free packaging". Thumbs up for both Sony and
desertcart. > SLEEPING – The Sony MDREX15L don’t stick out as far
as some other brands, and so, may be more comfortable when
resting with your head to the side (or inside a helmet).
Panasonic ErgoFit fit deeper in the ear, and are a little more
comfortable in such situations. APTEK offers a nice earbud set
for sleeping that is even smaller–but the cushion is built-in, so
you can’t choose the cushion size. However, even with the APTEKs,
I cannot comfortably sleep with an earbud in the ear that is on
the pillow. My solution – I just use one earbud in the ear that
is NOT on the pillow. In fact, I recycle earbud sets where one
earbud has failed, by cutting the failed earbud off, and using
the working earbud, shifting the earbud from ear to ear if I
change sides. > TIP – CLEANING EARBUDS – The build up of earwax
is a serious problem. It can actually muffle and distort or block
the sound, and when it gets that bad, effective cleaning is
difficult or impossible. The best and simplest strategy is to
take a look at your earbuds every few days, and vigorously
scratch/flick the open hole of the cushion several times. That
breaks loose the wax into flakes, which you can then just blow
away. Wiping (such as with a Q-tip) doesn’t work so well (unless
you take the cushions off, clean them, and reinstall them),
because wiping with a Q-tip may just grind wax into the little
screen in front of the speakers, which is then impossible to
clean. Caveat, Sony MDREX15L earbud cup-cushions are a slightly
different shape from other brands, with a smaller hole, and seems
to collect less earwax -- even so, regularly checking and
clearing earwax is a good thing to do. If you purchase the
Panasonic Ergofits it becomes more important to monitor them for
earwax buildup. UNDOCUMENTED FEATURE: On the model without the
microphone ONLY -- there is a little slider, just above the
Y-split of the cord. If you slide the slider up to the earbuds
themselves, and install the earbuds on your head, with the slider
(and earbuds) on the back of your neck, your earbuds will stay in
place (hang from your neck), even if you take the earbuds out of
your ears. The model with the microphone does NOT have this
feature.
