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Sound Quality |
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• Above average frequency response
• Very little distortion
• Good tracking
• Sound quality seems above average overall.
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Tour & Design |
Page 3 of 12 |
Isolation |
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About our testing:
For more information on our tests, read this article.
Frequency Response (6.06)
What we found:
The CX 300-IIs had a good frequency response – it wans't amazing, but it was solidly above average. They had good bass, which is something all good in-ears have to struggle for (bass requires moving a lot of air around, so the smaller the ear bud, the harder this is to do). The curve drops off a bit towards the mid-section, at which point the curve becomes slightly erratic, but manages to stay within the lines. After that the curve drops off a bit. Typically frequencies above 10,000 are used to add "brilliance," "luster," and a handful of other rather intangible qualities to sound. If you notice the loss at all, it'll likely manifest itself as softer vocal sibilance.
The only other issue here is that the bass might actually be slightly boomy for some. Many in-ears tend to over-correct the bass due to their aforementioned hardships at replicating it.
How the Sennheiser CX 300-II compares:
What is frequency response?
Frequency response refers to the way a set of headphones either stress or deemphasize any given frequency. Some headphones might add bass or put more of an emphasis on some of the middle frequencies to boost vocals. You can read more about this here.
How the test works:
What we do is play back a sweep of frequencies at a known file. The sound is output by the headphones and recorded by HATS's super awesome robot ears. Now we have the original file and that same file filtered through the headphones. Using these two parts, we can extrapolate what the headphones are doing to each individual frequency we tested. Again, you can find out more on our "How We Test" page, here.
Distortion (10.00)
What we found:
The Sennheiser CX 300-IIs had very low distortion. Anything above an 8 or 9 here is excellent; anything close to or above a 10 will be redundant to the average consumer.
Really, you should have no problems with distortion on the CX 300-IIs.
How the Sennheiser CX 300-II compares:
What is distortion?
The short answer: distortion refers to any difference between the shape of the soundwave entering your headphones and what makes it to your ear. The long answer can be found on our "How We Test" page, here.
How the test works:
What we do for this test is play back a known audio file, which is a frequency sweep from 100 to 10,000Hz. Like our frequency response test above, we record the playback as it comes out of the headphones, then compare it back to the original. Again, if you want more info, we have an in-depth explanation here.
Tracking (8.06)
What we found:
The CX 300-IIs had good tracking for the most part. It starts out a bit right-heavy – about 5 decibels louder in the right channel than in the left – but this difference could likely be a fit issue. Part of the problem with in-ears is that, if they aren't positioned perfectly, you end up losing quality or throwing off volume in some manner or another. Even with the offset, 5dB isn't particularly significant, especially with the low frequency involved. The curve flattens out towards the 100Hz mark, at which point it's relatively even through the remainder of the frequency spectrum. Towards the high end the graph gets a bit spikey, but that's slightly exaggerated: the testing equipment isn't 100% accurate for the highest and lowest end of the spectrum, but we leave them in the graph because they're good indicators of a trend. In this case, expect the left channel to get negligibly louder for higher frequencies.
How the Sennheiser CX 300-II compares:
What is tracking?
Tracking refers to the relative volumes of each individual headphone. If the right one is playing louder than the left for a handful of frequencies, then the left one gets louder, the headphones have poor tracking. Of course, there is no such thing as perfect tracking. For more on the subject, read this article.
How the test works:
This test is very similar to our frequency response test, only more focused. We play back our known audio file (a frequency sweep from 100-10,000Hz). Again, all we're looking for are points where one channel, be it left or right, is playing back at a higher volume. In the graph, when the blue line rises, it means the left channel is playing louder; when the line dips down, the right channel is louder. If you require more information on the subject, allow us to direct you to our "How We Test" page.
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