Sony MDR-EX90LP Stereo Earphones
by Sony
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List Price: Our Price: $99.95 You Save: $0.04 (0%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sony MDR-EX90LP Stereo Earphones
Customer Review: Good headphones, good quality, good sound
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought these headphones for my iPod after a long debate between these and their similarly-priced Bose competition. I finally decided to go for these as they were a bit smaller and seemed a bit sturdier than the Bose ones. Overall, I'm pretty happy with them. I mainly use them while travelling in airports and in airplanes, and for that they are pretty good. As far as sound cancelling, I still get a little ambient noise from my surroundings, but I have missed more than a few gate calls for boarding, even being within the general area of the gate because I had these in with music playing at a reasonable level! They do cut out a lot of aircraft noise on the airplane. I was surprised that I actually had to turn down the volume on my iPod once I got on the aircraft from what it was in the terminal! Other plusses include the fact that I can wear them for hours at a time without my ears hurting (and I have small ear canals, so that's rare) and without the ringing in my ears that often comes from the improper harmonics of cheaper in-ear headphones.
I will also say that my wife borrowed them and at first she wasn't that pleased with them, especially with regard to fit. However, after using them for a bit and adjusting them to fit properly, she has really fallen in love with them.
The only reason that I didn't give these five stars was because I don't know if the sound quality is $80 better than the $19 LG headphones that I used to have. Yes, the sound quality is definately better, but is it worth that much extra money? My honest opinion is that I _am_ happy I bought these, and I will continue using them, but I am not certain they're the very best deal out there. Would I recommend them to someone else? Sure. I personally like them, and I would tell someone else that they're a good option (especially if you can buy them for less than the list price) but I'd also tell them to shop around first and figure out what suits them best.
Customer Review: Crispy Sound Quality. Best for SONY's MegaBass, not as good for movies or gaming.
Summary: 4 Stars
I would like to point out that this headphone NEVER says it has noise isolation, so beware don't mixed up with EX71/EX81 architecture though they are very similar. With less noise isolation, you won't feel the vibration of the cord that much and also provides more heat dissipation during workout. This is important, not just for sound quality but health issue during workout. I tried to use the EX71 when I was running, then I had a headache after couple minutes. This was due to the noise isolation design to prevent heat dissipated from my body through the ear canel.
MDR-EX90LP is considered as Mid-Hi Range, it was the cheapest model of the Mid-Hi to Hi End ear bud type of headphone (though there are more competition nowadays), and I was going to give it a try.
I bought the MDR-EX90LP headphone since June, 2006 and have been using it ever since. I have compared with the headphones from Sony Ericsson W800i and W810i, these headphones are the same as EX71 and EX81. I must say that MDR-EX90LP does have crispier sound espeically for vocals and pop music. The EX71/EX81 just not as clear and kind of muffle at the treble. When you have a Walkman phone or Sony's product with MegaBass technology, the MDR-EX90LP seems to provide more distinct frequencies at the bass and also the treble at the same time compare to EX71/EX81. You can definitely notice that EX71/EX81 is unable to output some frequenices while the MDR-EX90LP can. The song becomes a lot richer after using MDR-EX90LP. However, if you are into gaming like BATTLEFIELD, MDR-EX90LP cannot really provide enough gun power, this also applies to movie sound effects. For best experience, ear-cover type with strong vibration and bass is needed for gaming and movies.
Customer Review: Decent but I expected better from the reviews here
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased these cans based on the Amazon reviews. If they were better than stock Nano 2G earbuds, I wanted to give them a try. I agree that they produce better sound.
Treble: I am not impressed by their ability to reproduce the high percussion sounds, like cymbals. My listening was lacking the clarity produced by my reference headphones, Sony MDR-V6 over-the-ear cans. I just cannot get over the fact that I am unable to hear some of the percussion dancing in my head, like in the V6s. If I am going to listen to a song, I'd like to hear everything.
Bass: The bass reproduction is very good--clean bass without distortion or messy gimmicks to falsely boost the bass response.
Spatialization: I thought the spatial placement of instruments was excellent.
Comfort: The extra-wide portion of the EX90LPs that does not go in the ear canal rubbed against my ear, making the cans uncomfortable after awhile. They did stay in the ear well. Also the chord has an unusual construction, it is split with more cord length for the right earbud than the left, as if they want you to loop it behing your head to plug the right ear in. I think they wanted the weight to be on your shoulders, rather than pulling down the cord as it runs to the player.
EQ: I was not able to get the best sound out of my Nano 2G on the same EQ setting on both phones. The MDR-V6s liked the "rock" setting, however I used "spoken voice" to get the best sound from the EX90LP for the classic rock I listen to. Perhaps the treble could have been better except for the Nano's limitation of EQ presets with no way to adjust treble.
Customer Review: Good match for an MP3 player
Summary: 4 Stars
The one critical difference between this headphone and the others in the MDR-EX series from Sony is the width of the drivers. This headphone uses 13.5 mm drivers, whereas the MDR-EX81, MDR-EX71 and MDR-EX51 all use 9 mm drivers.
The larger driver yields two distinct improvements: (1) better clarity, and (2) greater efficiency. The efficiency is important if you want to use this headphone with an MP3 player since most MP3 players have very little power. This headphone is rated at 106 dB/mW whereas all the ones with the 9 mm drivers are rated at 100 dB/mW. This is a difference of 6 dB and the rule of thumb is that it takes about 3dB for us to hear a clear difference in the volume level.
Note that the greater efficiency is not just important for playing music loudly, it is critcally important for a proper delivery of dynamic range at low levels of volume. It should therefore not be surprising that these headphones are a significant improvement over the ones with the 9 mm drivers.
There are still some caveats: (1) you must make sure that you place the buds properly in your ears to hear the improvement that the wider drivers give, and (2) just don't expect these headphones to give you the same kind of sound that you get from a top of the line over-the-ear headphone hooked to an amplifier. There is no such thing as a headphone for an MP3 player that can give you a Sennheiser HD600 type of sound. That said though, these are very good phones for an MP3 player. Certainly they offer a noticable improvement over the ones with 9 mm drivers.
Customer Review: Excellent Sound, Moderate Comfort
Summary: 4 Stars
Before purchasing these headphones I read most of the recent reviews here on Amazon... one in particular about the lack of comfort on these headphones. I was skeptical, and figured this had more to do with the shape of your ear, and that they would be fine.
After enjoying the great sound quality of these earbuds on a flight yesterday for 12 hours, I must admit that my left ear was a little sore. The 13.5mm driver is suprisingly large, and won't fit well in all ears in my opinion. The ear canal is fine, but the driver that sits adjacent to the canal in your ear does push on my ear somewhat... and although I did wear the headphones almost my entire flight, in the end it was considerably painful to put the earbud back into my ear. I'm going to try pushing past the discomfort for the next few days to see if my ear will get used to it, but I highly recommend trying these earphones on before purchasing them if you can.
Overall, I gave this product a 4/5 stars, since the sound quality is excellent. I'm certainly no hardcore audiophile, but I can appreciate a nice set of earphones, and these are nice. I certainly would enjoy them more if they were more comfortable, but don't get me wrong... even knowing about the slight discomfort these things come with, I would still buy them again.
Overall, I do recommend these earphones. Slight discomfort should be expected, but I'm assuming you can get used to it. I can sleep in them as well, with my ear on the pillow, no problem.