- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 25 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Excellent earphone but beware of the fake chinese copies."
Pros: Quality of built, genuine leather pouch, great look, excellent balanced sound.
Cons: Too expensive in Canada but US price is ok (Sony didn't adjust to the new exchange rate)
Summary: First, beware of the fake Chinese copies plaguing the web (eBay). Sony only distributes to a very select list of authorized dealers and this list doesn't include all those eBay sellers. These crooks buy a 5$ copy to a Chinese company and illegally sell it as if it was the real thing. More details about this fraud: http://wolfgangfener.livejournal.com/71103.html?mode=reply .
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Now about the real MDR-EX90LP.
These are excellent earphones. The sound is well balanced and I don't understand why some people think there's not enough bass. I use these earphones on my Iaudio7 with a flat equalizer, only sometimes adding a tiny bit of Mach Bass (setting at 1/10) and BBE (setting at 2/10. More than that and the sound would not be natural. In short, there's plenty of bass for me.
Now the most interesting thing is the sparkling highs. Out of the box it sounds a bit harsh but a 24h burn-in (at high but still listenable volume, preferably with CDs or lossless files like FLAC) will put the final polish on those already nice earphones.
You will ear things in your recording you probably never heard if you don't already own a pair of high-end headphones. Listening to Iron Maiden (original release recordings, not the bad re-masters) I can ear the noise of the picks on guitars, the shimmering harmonics of the cymbals... While listening to Renee Fleming Handel album, I can almost feel the texture of her lips (yes, a very sensual experience but maybe I have too much imagination). On many orchestra recordings you will be able to ear things like musician shifting weight on a chair or the little squeaks of the floor.
This kind of sensitivity to details is to be expected from a 100$ earphone. What is also expectable from canal phones (or hybrid canal/bud) is a limited soundstage. The orchestra remains "in your head" so to speak. In that respect, the EX90 doesn't exceed my expectation and this is why I subtract 1 point there.
The other missing point was lost because of relatively poor isolation. It is halfway between an ear bud and a true canal phone like the Etymotic ER6. Of course some people may prefer it but when listening to classical music with huge dynamic range (for example Richard Strauss Alpine symphony), it may be a problem in noisy environment.
It is an excellent 8/10 nonetheless.
Sony MDR-EX90LP:
