Sony Headphones Review MDR-ED21LP

My thoughts on the £20 MDR-ED21LP Headphones. I would recommend £20 as a minimum to spend on lightweight in-ear headphones. (Around £30 for full-size wraparounds, where BeyerDynamic's range is absolutely superb.)

At these prices, don't waste money on gimmicks such as in-line volume controls, integral microphones or pretty colours. Manufacturers charge money for these, in that less dosh goes on the components that count!

The Sonys are better than the basic iPod headphones, but nowhere near the audio quality of the Sennheisers that I also show in the video. But there are factors that work against the Sennies though, and all is revealed in this video.

Sorry again for its grainy quality. When the proverbial ship re-enters my dock, I will invest in a better camera, I promise.

PS Most of what I say in this video about the intrinsic quality of the headphones also refers to other MP3 players - and let us not forget the dear old cassette Walkman too. There were some truly magnificent cassette Sony Walkmans, plus a great mid-price unit I used to have from Sanyo. If you are lucky enough to still own working models of any of these, clean up the heads and bung a pair of '21LP's or Sennheisers on them. Play a few pre-recorded cassettes on them and luxuriate in far better sound than any MP3/WMA/AAC download!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Apple
• iPod
• headphones
• Sony
• MDR-ED21LP
• review
• sound
• quality
• Sennheiser
• BeyerDynamic
• Walkman
• cassette

[MarkPMus]

These have broken since I made this vid! And I found the little rubber bit for my old Sennheisers!

[HanfordC0D]

Did you get Punched in your eyes before this video.?

[MarkPMus]

@HanfordC0D No I exist on very little sleep! Also it was dark and the iMac camera hates darkness.

[wxrodrigues]

nothing like the open air head phones from sony they work better

[AgentQuinn]

1 more thing: after few years those rubber bumps become harder and require replacement. AFAIK you can't buy those separately (like in-canal rubbers that reviewer lost can be easily bought and replaced). So they have expiration date and you'll have to buy a new pair after few years : /

It's the common problem of all Fontopias since their ancestors around 1995.

[AgentQuinn]

Fontopias are the only earbuds that won't pop out of my ears just by themselves.

I wonder if they're still produced, I bought mine in 2006.

[1nane3]

Cuasimodo

[DrAnchorActor]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH U THINK THESE ARE THE CHOICE I WILL GO WITH I NEDD A NEW PAIR NOW TOO, THANKS.

[4mulas]

Thanks for share your review

[BSD2000]

For an inexpensive set of Sony IEM's, I would reccomend the MDR-EX082's. They have a nice full sound (plenty of bass) with a rich, clean midbass and sweet treble. For the price ($15 ~ $25 here in the states) it's hard to beat. I have a pair of Sennheiser CX300's that sound brittle and harsh compared to the Sony's.

Actually, the MDR-EX082's come very close to the SQ of my Shure SE 530's, which are the best I've heard so far. A bit less refined then the SE 530's, but just as sweet sounding.