Sennheiser MX W1

Frequency Response (4.19)

The MX W1s didn’t have the worst frequency response. The bass end is emphasized well; it drops off at the lowest end, which should give a strong base without a lot of boominess. Towards the higher end, however, both lines drop significantly and dance around at our lower limit. They take a small dump up only to dive down past the lower limit, at which point they start getting a bit scribbly.

This loss of the high end is somewhat to be expected, given the odd way these headphones fit into your ears. When they’re secure, they don’t necessarily fit flush with your ear canal, which not only ruins isolation, but causes you to lose some high end as well.

Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad frequency response, but the headphones do handle treble poorly.

Distortion (1.76)

The MX W1 actually suffers from less distortion than we would have thought. We expected a ton of distortion because the signal needs to be compressed in order to be wirelessly transferred. Since your music is crunched to a pulp then has to fly through the air before it reaches your ear, it’s understandable that some distortion exists.

Regardless of the trials and tribulations that only wireless headphones know, the distortion is definitely high in the low end. Towards the 1kHz mark, however, the distortion falls back down to nominal levels.

Tracking (6.76)

The MX W1s don’t have perfect tracking, but it’s not abysmal either. The main issue with tracking will undoubtedly be positioning errors. If you don’t have them just right, one ear piece will generally play slightly louder than the other, and these headphones are really hard to position correctly.

This being said, if you look at the graph and how it wanders from left to right and back again, the slopes are all relatively shallow (no vertical spikes) and the amounts involved aren’t particularly noticeable. A four decibel decibel difference isn’t going to shock you so profoundly you pop your monocle. We’ve seen headphones with far better tracking, but again, the MX W1s are wireless in-ears.

Maximum Usable Volume (9.31)

The MX W1s were capable of a very loud 117.1dB. We award max points for 120, but anything over that is aural overkill.

Isolation (0.45)

The MX W1s did not have the best isolation. The ear buds don’t fit really flush with the ear, so there isn’t a lot to block out sounds. They don’t have active cancellation either.

Because of the barely-there isolation, the MX W1s might not be the best headphones for people on the go. If you’re going to walk outside, ambient noise is going to overpower (or at least rudely intrude upon) your playback. We would not recommend these for the average commuter for this reason.

Leakage (7.04)

Interestingly enough, considering the poor seal, the MX W1s didn’t leak much.