Category: Techtoday
You won't see me spending $200.00 on a pair of Dr. Dre Beats headset, much less a Lady Gaga branded one. I can never justify buying any one of the Sennheiser or Audio-Technica noise-canceling or wireless headphones CNET recommends either. For the price tag of one of those fancy headphones, I'd rather spring for a more practical investment such as a portable hard drive. It's amazing how the proliferation of smartphones and MP3 players has inspired the masses to shell out hundreds of dollars on a one-trick pony accessory (Bluetooth and wireless is not a primary function). I was perfectly happy with earbuds when I was toting my Sony Walkman in the early 90s and still invested in cheap earbuds when I migrated to my first MP3 player (a 256MB Samsung Yepp). I persisted with the flimsy and damage prone audio accessory when I received an iPod Touch two years ago and was perfectly happy with the much-reviled stock Apple earbuds. What can I say? Besides having virtually no disposable income, I learned the hard way years ago that I'm tone deaf (six years of playing the alto saxophone). Even if I did have the sensitive hearing of Daredevil and could distinguish the subtle differences between individual notes, pitch, treble, and bass, I'm satisfied with listening to Duke Ellington performances, the Cowboy Bebop OST, and Will Ferrell's Love Me Sexy in a 128-bit, VLC -ripped MP3 format. Heck, I'd be happy listening to a YouTube downloaded Michael Jackson song.
Sony MDR-ZX100 for RMB119.00
For the whole of 2012, I was using a cheap but excellent Creative pair of earbuds that I bought for an embarrassing price I won't mention here. The earbuds survived 13 months of being switched between mobile devices and my laptop, thrown into my satchel, and generally pulled and squashed on a daily basis. A few days ago, the left earpiece stopped working but the right still worked like a champ. When that earpiece finally dies, I'll have my Linux machines and iOS devices give it a 21-gun salute. However, since I review my foreign languages and listen to BBC podcasts on a daily basis, it was imperative I purchased a replacement headphone for my MP3 players. The Sony MDR-ZX100 was available on 360buy for RMB119.00 (around $20.00) and for the first time in my life I considered a full-sized pair of headphones over earbuds. I briefly considered a similar Philips headphones for RMB99.00 but Philips earphones have never survived very long in my experience so I opted for the Sony MDR-ZX100 instead. My Chinese co-worker ordered it for me and I received it promptly early the next day.
Sony has a range of headphones available for the discerning audiophile. Thankfully, they had the low-end MDR-ZX100 for non-discerning, penny-pinching non-audiophile too.
Sony Quality and durability
Sony has received tons of criticisms in the last few years for their performance in the electronics market. Everything from the Sony Playstation 3, their Experia phones, ereaders, Vaio laptops, and Bravia televisions have struggled to gain an audience. The remarks are always the same - Sony products are too expensive for their feature set and performance (which can actually be said about Apple's products but there you go). However, even jaded critics cannot deny that Sony's products maintain a consistent level of quality. I've harped regularly about the screen and page refresh rate of my Sony PRS-600 ereader but it's been 3 years since I purchased it and the steel exterior looks brand new and I'm currently reading Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming on it.
Despite the price, the Sony MDR-ZX100 appears durable and (dare I say it) attractive. I could have opted for a red or blue exterior but decided on the relatively safe choice of piano black to avoid looking like a try-hard hip-hop enthusiast. I was impressed with the headband, which didn't have the flex other headsets have. Moreover, it fit my mutated bulbous head quite nicely. I was also especially happy with the reinforced connector between the cable and the earpieces. It's normally on that contact point where most earbuds snap or split. The gold-plated L-shaped stereo mini-plug is supported by a rubber handling similar to those found on power adapters. From my perspective, the design fit my requirements for headphones - durability and longevity. You can easily accumulate hundreds of dollars replacing headphones and earbuds so finding a headphone that was resilient was perfect for my needs.
BBC podcasts, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Pimsleur Mandarin II, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the Sony MDR-ZX100
I reiterate that I'm not picky about audio, but as I listened to my BBC podcasts on my iPod Touch, Dan Damon sounded more British than usual while Lucy Kellaway was 300x more annoying than the last time she spoke on air. I connected the MDR-ZX100 to my iPad and watched the episode "Along Came a Spider" from Season 2 of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The volume quality on the iPad 2 was significantly better than on my iPod. I practically applauded when Spidey broke the arm off of one of the Snake Society members. Next, I connected the Sony to my old ASUS 1000H EEEPC, which along with an already terrible audio chip no longer emits sound from its right speaker. I streamed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on SMPlayer and almost forgot about writing this blog when River Phoenix scowled and said "It belongs in a museum."
Finally, my last test for the Sony MDR-ZX100 was running a lesson of Pimsleur Mandarin II. Although I really don't mind if Frank Sinatra's Fly Me to the Moon isn't as bouncy as it should be on the Sony MDR-ZX100, I am concerned about catching the nuances of Mandarin words using the Sony. I'm happy to report that although the Sony MDR-ZX100 doesn't have the best volume when connected to a first-generation Creative Zen (which I use for all my language audio lessons), it performs just fine whether you're listening to a nasal French accent, putonghua expressions, or Castellan words.
Better than Earbuds?
I would definitely still buy cheap earbuds for jogging and working out but even a regular Peter Parker like me can recognize that the Sony headphones provide superior audio to earbuds. If you listen to an anime or J-Pop song and can identify the kana of the lyrics while using a headphone, then you definitely bought a pretty good audio accessory. It was while using the Sony MDR-ZX00 that I actually noticed the differences between a poorly converted or compressed .MP3 file from an expertly ripped one.
For the frugal, the Sony MDR-ZX100 is a great buy especially if you'll be using your headphones for activities other than entertainment (such as audio lessons and podcasts). There's little doubt that audiophiles will gripe about treble, bass, and pitch if they tried the heaphones but for my part, I'm just happy it fit comfortably over my large head. I was satisfied with the Sony MDR-Z100's performance when connected to different audio sources (the iPod Touch, iPad, 1000H EEEPC, Lenovo Ideapad, and Creative Zen) and while playing different types of audio. It's lightweight and durable and it doesn't make me look cheap when I'm walking down Nanjing Road in Shanghai. After all, it's a Sony.
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