-
"Polished and clean. Great Sound." on by syuri
Pros: Sound is better than ex71. Excellent build quality.
Cons: Not Great at cancelling noise.
Summary: The review saying "ex71 goes to finishing school" is spot on. These are more refined and defined. They sound great to me, good bass, clean highs, mids are OK. I found myself listening to them more than the others I've tried. They are not hard to fit and are very comfortable. Work great in the gym for me.
They don't cancel noise as well as their little brothers, but they sound better. For me the price difference (double) over the EX71 is worth it, but I can see how some of the reviews I read on this item would argue that. The only real problem I've had with them is tryng to get them back from my wife!! -
"Not an audiophile pair of earphones" on by wolfgang_fener
Pros: Quality built, nice leather pouch, nice looking
Cons: muffled, bass heavy un-natural sound
Summary: I recently ordered these earphones to go with my new Iaudio7 *flac* player along with a pair of etymotic ER6 and audio-technica CK7.
The only reason why I got these sony earphones is because I found a very good deal on ebay (paid 35$+shipping for a brand new unit) and I was curious. No these are not the fake sony earphones made of plastic reported on ebay, these are the real metalic ones.
There is a reason why these earphones couldn't maintain their above 100$ initial price level : these are no audiophile earphones.
The EX90 will outperform any stock earphones provided with most portable players but they won't provide a level of clarity of sound accross the whole bandwidth expected from 100$ earphones.
The sound is extremely velvety and warm, some people may like it for casual listening but if you want to be able to distinguish every particular instruments in a classical orchestra, it just won't do it.
High frequency responce is average at best, cymbale's harmonics are completely cutoff.
Actually it kind of sounds muffled and boring.
I would rate it a mediocre 4 for such expensive earphones if it was not for the quality of built and nice leather pouch. A 5 then. -
"Good sound detail, accented midranges" on by ikonomov
Pros: Good sound detail, great dynamics
Cons: not enough bass, too much midranges
Summary: I give this headphones 5/10, because in terms of sound quality and what is currently available on the market today, it is exactly where they stand. Ear canal headphones can deliver astonishing detail in sound, but these headphones have a very major flaw in their frequency response graph. More specifically they lack bass and have a peak somewhere in the midranges, which reproduces a very unpleasant and unbalanced sound. If the sound source you will use with these headphones have detailed equalizer, you might be able to balance the sound to your liking, but I found it impossible to do for my music taste. As we know a nice pair of balanced headphones should not need much adjustment in the tone. For those that are not much familiar with this type of headphones, the best manufacturers for ear canal headphones are Sennheiser, Shure, Ultimate Ears. The prices range quite a bit, some in similar price range as these phones. It has always been a mystery to me why people spend their big money on the sound source, and not on the headphones. Hearing through the right headphones is like seeing color TV for the first time.
-
"Many crucial downsides, not worth $100" on by Slider821
Pros: High Quality housing, lightweight, won't fall out easily
Cons: Mediocre sound, Mediocre Bass, POOR noise-cancelling, hurt ears, weird design
Summary: First off, I do not give biased reviews. I bought these after hours of research on reviews.cnet.com and other review sites for a replacement of my stock ipod headphones. After reading many poor user reviews of the bass quality of many of the top rated earbuds on cnet’s site(I mostly listen to hip-hop but am well verse in all types of music), I decided to go with the MDR-EX90LP earbud headphones from sony.
First, the PROS of these phones:
Once they are in your ears (which may take a bit of effort and getting used to at first) they certainly won't pop out easily from a nudge or tug. The high quality large metal housing the earbuds sit upon rests snugly in the bottom part of your ear lobe (the Antitragus) while the silicone covered speaker extends into your inner ear lobe.
These headphone are relatively lightweight and don’t jar around in your ears, they fit snugly with the 3 size silicone earbud pieces included for different size ears.
The headphone cord if different from many other earbud/in-ear headphones.
First of all it does not wrap around the top of your ear like most Shure and other top rated headphones (often something people complain about), instead, the cord hangs out of your ears like the regular ipod earbuds and in-ear earbuds from Apple.
Secondly, instead of the one-cord to two-cord split like many headphones along with the Apple earbuds, Sony uses the one cord split design. The cord from the mp3 player goes up to the left earbud and then out of the left earbud, behind your neck to your right ear. Some might not like this design, I however am impartial to either design, they both work just fine.
Unlike some other sony headphones, you cannot hear the cord movement in the earpiece of this model, very much a pro to the 90’s.
Now, the CONS of these headphones:
What first struck me about these in-ear earbuds were that they blocked out exterior sound (noise-cancelling) very poorly. Almost everything was audible, nothing was blocked out, even while listening to music, I could hear all outside noises. This is a con for many paying $100 to get nice earbuds that block out sound, however, maybe some joggers or bikers would want to hear outside noise, so these might be a pro for them (I used these for jogging and also working out, and was very disappointed).
~After comparing these to Apple’s In-ear earbuds, I concluded that the silicone pieces Sony uses is very thin and plyable, allowing much outside noise to be audible, while Apple’s was thicker and fit more snugly than the Sony’s.~
These are highly praised for plentiful bass however I was very disappointed in the little bass I heard, even after testing each silicone earpiece size for hours. Don’t get me wrong, the bass was audible, so this may please some grips of the Shure and Etymotic reviewers, but I never received the thumping bass I got from Apple’s In-Ear phones.
For $100 earbuds, the sound is mediocre. The bass is somewhat quiet, the mids are simple and not outstanding and for those trying to achieve high bass out of these phones, the highs will soon become much too overpowering at higher volumes (compared to the mids and lows).
The large metal housing was too big for my ears and ended up hurting after using them for an hour or so (though not as excruciating pain as felt when removing stock apple earbuds that came with the ipod after a few hours in your ear).
The cord is somewhat thing which may lead to fraying after a while, however I doubt this will be one of your concerns unless you are yanking on it all the time. The thin cord tangles often though, especially with this behind-the-head design.
The silicone eartips come off easily, and often got stuck in my ears after pulling out the earbuds.
*Please Note* A few of the grips I had with these phones may be because they do not fit my particular ear (such as the housing pain and lack of bass) however even after having all of my friends try them compared to the Apple In-Ear earbuds, the Sony’s didn’t receive one praise of their bass. But, this does NOT mean that I didn’t have them in correctly or I had a wrong size eartip, I knew what I was doing, they just didn’t work.
OVERALL
Overall I was disappointed with these phones and will be returning them. To me they are certainly not worth $100. They hurt my ears, they didn’t produce the advertised bass, and the biggest thing was that they performed terribly at noise-cancelling (which, if worked correctly, could offset some other gripes. Gave them a 5 instead of a 4 because all ears are different.
Final thoughts: Don’t have high hopes for these if you buy them and DEFFINATELY keep your receipt, though even if they didn’t work for me, they might for you. Earbuds fit all ears differently, so take all reviews with a grain of salt before you have tried them for yourself.
After the comparison test I did with these Sony MDR-EX90LP earbuds and the Apple In-Ear Earbuds, I will be buying the half the price Apple’s.
Any questions, please respond. -
"Not up to the expectation" on by cwtham
Pros: Clarity on treble was superb.
Cons: Lack of bass or barely any bass at all
Summary: I owned the MDR-ED31 groove earphone for a couple of years. It was great especially on bass, as the name indicated. But the treble was below those standard earphones (namely one used on iPod). I loved my MDR-ED31.
Comes the MDR-EX90, looks great. I've always wanted something that could continue the legacy of the MDR-ED31 with better clarity on the treble. Upon using it, I noticed that I need to crank my volume higher, as compared to my MDR-ED31.
Treble was excellent, everything sounds crystal clear, except... where is the bass?
Doesn't worth the amount of money I paid for, as this almost tripled the MDR-ED31 earphones.
PS: I used to owned an earlier model of the groove earphones, but wasn't too sure what was the model number. That was even better, as the ear piece was smaller than the groove, which doesn't make one's ears feel uncomfortable.
Sony MDR-EX90LP user reviews
Where to Buy
Pricing not available
Set price alert
