Sennheiser CX 300-II

Frequency Response (6.06)

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.

Comparisons

See how the Sennheiser CX 300-II compares:

Monster Turbines Compare

Shure SE420 Compare

Sennheiser CX 95 Compare

Apple iPod In-ear Headphones Compare

Click here for more information on our frequency response test.

Distortion (10.00)

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.

Comparisons

See how the Sennheiser CX 300-II compares:

Monster Turbines Compare

Shure SE420 Compare

Sennheiser CX 95 Compare

Apple iPod In-ear Headphones Compare

Click here for more information on our frequency response test.

Tracking (8.06)

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.

Comparisons

See how the Sennheiser CX 300-II compares:

Monster Turbines Compare

Shure SE420 Compare

Sennheiser CX 95 Compare

Apple iPod In-ear Headphones Compare

Click here for more information on our frequency response test.