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07 April 2011
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While the MM 550's aren't the most discrete things you've ever seen, they easily make up for that in the supreme levels of comfort, noise cancelling, and sound quality they provide. Whether you're a frequent traveller or just someone who loves music, these are a brilliant choice. Read on for a review of the most comfortable, best sounding headphones I've ever had to try.
Wow. That's what I thought when I put these on for the first time. And that was before I even turned them on. They cup perfectly around your ears, and the fully adjustable head band means even the most generously booffed of us can wear these without a problem. There's a very generous padded section around each ear cup, and padding for the top of your head as well, resulting in the same kind of comfort level you get when jumping into a Lexus. Simply put, theses are the kind of headphones you could wear for hours without a problem, and I can say that from experience. In my extensive testing of these, I had them on my head for a straight run of 5 hours, and had to be coerced to remove them. I tried them out with various different types of music, and I was impressed with all of it. From clear, crisp highs to deep, thumping lows, these deliver beautifully. A quick note about the head phones though, due to the superb quality they deliver, you might find that a few songs with a low bitrate might sound a touch warbly. That's not a fault of the headphones, that's simply a warble that you wouldn't normally hear with lower quality headphones. The other thing I did find with some long term wearing was that it tended to get a tad hot inside the earphones, but that didn't occur for a few hours. That's simply due to the closed-ear design, and is completely understandable. Unless Sennheiser somehow manages to incorporate air condition into a future set, for long term listening, you might get this issue.
Anyway, off those minor negatives, back to the review. What next... Ahh, Noise Cancelling. These have the improved NoiseGard 2.0 feature, which offers up to 90% reduction of outside noise. For those who don't know, it basically works by having a microphone on the outside of the headphones that hears outside sounds and somehow magically stops that sound from getting into the headphones. As you can see, I really don't know how it works either, but trust me; it works. And it works well. I was trying to work out the ultimate test for these, and decided to jump on the ride on mower and do the lawns. While I could still hear the mower, the sound was greatly reduced, to the point of just being this little drone in the back. I was truly impressed by that, and decided to take the headphones for a run up the road to see how the noise reduction would work then. About halfway back I realised it was probably a stupid idea; you can't hear the traffic at all, which is never a good thing. But still, live and learn; I'm still living, and I learnt that the Noise Cancelling the noise cancelling does really work.
Beautiful design and plenty of padding make these headphones not only cool looking, but comfy to boot
Ok, now for style. Well, they are very cool, all sleek and black with lights on them and stuff. Very nice, however, as with all of these types of headphones, you do end up looking like you're wearing ear muffs. Very cool, expensive, flash ear muffs, but ear muffs nonetheless. Maybe not everyones cup of tea, but really, when you're sitting in a bus or plane for hours, you won't mind trading up a little bit of style for the sound and comfort quality these provide. And chances are, no matter what the bus or plane, you'll have the coolest looking travel headphones there.
Worth noting too, these are Bluetooth headphones, using Bluetooth 2.1, which means no more cables. Yay! It also means charging . Boo! That's right, these are battery operated, which means you do have to charge them. However, that's not really a problem, since they come with a built in battery pack, USB charger, and adapters for various different countrys walls. Plus, in my battery test, these last for at least the time stated by Sennheiser themselves - a minimum of 8 hours depending what you have turned on. Also, with the Bluetooth, you can control a fair few things just from the buttons on the right ear cup; you can pause or play music, skip songs in either direction, and adjust volume. They were an absolute sinch to pair with my iPhone 4 as well. Also available is the ability to answer calls, which brings me to the next point...
As I said above, these have Noise Cancelling mics on them, but they also have another mic, which allows users to answer calls with a touch of the big button on the right ear. From what I found, calls are clear, and the noise cancelling on the headphones makes it extremely easy to hold a conversation. The mic obviously works well too, as the person on the other end of the phone had no problem in hearing me.
Back to sound quality, these incorporate a feature known as SRS WOW HD, which basically makes the sound taller and wider, giving the impression that the sound is coming from further away than it actually is. I personally didn't see a huge difference between this being on or off, although I must admit it was a touch better with it on than off. This is the kind of feature that some people really notice, while others don't. Still though, for me, it wasn't a kind of blow-me-down feature, unlike the next one...
TalkThrough is an option that makes the Noise Cancelling microphones redirect the sound they've been blocking back into the headphones. Essentially what this does is allow you to hold a conversation without taking the headphones off, and it actually makes everything clearer thanks to the mics boosting the volume of your surroundings. This is a brilliant feature and I can see it being extremely useful for someone who flies a lot, or basically anyone who needs to be able to hear at different intervals of their trip.
And, just in case you ever need to turn off Bluetooth, either because Bluetooth isn't allowed, or you want to save power, you can use the optional cable and listen to them like conventional headphones. I didn't notice any loss of sound quality when listening via the cable, and it would definitely improve battery life. Now's probably a good time to mention that turning on or off Bluetooth, NoiseGard, or SRS WOW HD are all extremely easy; you hold down the appropiate button, and it's off. Just like that.
And so concludes my article on the MM 550. Well, almost. There just a couple more things I'd like to mention. These are amazing headphones, but unless you're a frequent traveller, they're probably a bit overkill. I know for some people overkill is great, but I talked to the boys at Noel Leeming, and they quoted me $990 to get a pair of these shipped in. The Sennheiser MM 550 retails at about $789. Now that's a little more than most people can afford for a set of headphones, but hey, if you've got a spare $990 lying round, jump right in and get them. Simply put, they're the best quality headphones I've ever played with, and you know that buying Sennheiser is buying something built to do it's job, and do it well. But for those of you who just need a pair of headphones for every day use, these are probably more than you actually need. I'd also like to take this time to thank Sennheiser, they lent me these headphones to review, and they've been absolutely stellar to work with. So, in closing, I'll try and round up exactly what I think of these: Brilliant sound, amazing levels of comfort, fantastic Noise Cancelling, great for calling, high price. Now I'd say the positives far out weigh the negatives, wouldn't you?
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