Where else better to post my review of a product I like? No royalties paid by Sony, I’m just enjoying these headphones (again)…

I am now on my second set of Sony MRD-E828LP earbud headphones, after temporarily misplacing my original ones. (After buying the second set I found the originals – so now I own two sets!)

The shape of the earbud is right for me – they sit well in my ears and don’t cause pain or discomfort unless I’m lying down with them in or have used them for a long time.

In terms of the features, I can present a direct comparison between the MDR-E828LP and the Sennheiser MX-400, having bought the Sennheisers to see if they lived up to the hype. (I since gave the Sennheisers away…) While the Sennheisers feel way lighter in the ear, they’re also a lot less bass-y. Not to say that they’re bad quality – they’ve got a clearer, more airy sound than the Sonys – but they don’t suit my typical listening genres of jazz, classical, house and lounge, and some pop/rock. I like to hear all the way down to the bottom of the bass/kick/cello, and the Sony earbud design helps the buds to have great bass response without needing to switch on bass boost on my player.

And they look good too – understated, unobtrusive, not the “I’ve-got-an-iPod” white kitsch which has been forced upon consumers of late.

I bought my original set of these headphones a number of years ago (Sony have been making these headphones with the exact same specs for a while now) and they still sound excellent. After wearing my new set in for a while, I can’t pick any sonic difference between the two. The only modification Sony seems to have made in the intervening time is to the cord. It used to be a standard black insulated headphone cord, but now they’ve changed to a more rubbery cord. It still winds up nicely but it’s somewhat springy, so it straightens out really easily and doesn’t get tangled as much.

All in all I find that they are an excellent purchase, and at their consistently low price they remain the best price-for-performance earbuds on the market before investing in higher-end in-ear designs like the Shure E3 or E4.