Good sound quality, as well as good bass for thee size and price. Low cost.

Large size, short cord.

For the price, these are very good in the ear headphones. The audio quality is solid, with suprisingly good bass and clear treble, as well as strong response with higher frequencies. The product is also helped by a small volume slider on the cord, which adds convinience. On the downside, the cord is a bit short. Also, the actual earbuds are quite large and difficult to fit in the ear. The sound isolation is also decent at best.

Similar Products Used:

Wide range of brands, varying from Sony professional grade to some cheapo Radioshack pair.

Compact size

Bought for my MP3 player to replace OEM earbuds (also made by Sennheiser)
Bottom line: Severly disappointed with the 500. Very limited bass and thin, tinny sound as compared to the OEM earbuds.
Even the manual equalizer on the MP3 could not help to boost fidelity.
Sennheisers reputation for quality took a hit with me.

Clear treble

Bass is non-existant

I bought these earphones based on the reviews I read here. Now I wish i had not listened to the reviews. These earphones have NO bass whatsoever. It's pathetic. The standard iPod pohnes are just as good. Wether im listening to Arch enemy (Death Metal) or rap or any type of music, its hard to listen for the lack of bass. I will be complaining to sennheiser about this.

Similar Products Used:

Standard iPod (5G) phones

Great highs and for the size of the headphone it packs quite a bit of mid and bass response, although nothing compared to my bose tri-ports

the in-ear part is a little weak. I have small ears, but they still seem bigger than most in-ear headphones. It almost hurts to try and get these in my ear all the way.

For the price, the best in-ear headphones around. Clear, crisp highs, descent mids, and existint bass.

Excellent value and quality. I love these headphones. If like me you are a music lover (not music freak)youll appreciate the quality and ignore the comments about volume issues- did your mum never tell you listening to music too loud is bad for you!

Very useful volume control slider on the cord. Very portable and easy to stash away.

Poor bass, poor sound quality.

I bought my set of MX500 earbuds primarily to listen to MP3s on my Audiovox Maestro PDA during trips. After reading the glowing reviews here and at headphone.com, I was expecting a sound that would come reasonably close to my Grado SR60s or even my Radio Shack headphones. I was sorely disappointed. Bass was almost non-existent and the earbuds had a very tinny sound to them. Worst off they fit very poorly and kept falling off, I even tried some silicon ear pads but that didn't help. To make sure the sound quality wasn't because of the PDA, I plugged the MX500s into my computer system where my SR60s usually reside. It was definitely the MX500s performing poorlyl, it was a night and day difference between the SR60s and the MX500s. While it may not be fair to compare an earbud to a full headphone, I was lead to believe that the MX500s would at least sound decent. I was mistaken. If you want good sounding ear buds, there's probably no such thing because of the physical limitations of the earbud (smaller size won't be able to reproduce bass as well as a full size headphone). But if you want the best sounding earbud (which will still sound poor vs a good set of headphones), based on reviews I'd say this is your best bet. I wasn't satisfied with the sound quality of these earbuds so I'll stick with headphones from here on out despite the easier portability of earbuds.

Similar Products Used:

Grado SR60 Radio Shack HD45

Good sound, good bass response if you like that. :)

A bit bass heavy if you want level response, not quite as loud as I'd prefer.

Good sound, excellent response from bottom to top, although a bit heavy in the bass. Overall a little better sounding than my old sonys, way better than the temporary phillips earbuds i was using, but not as loud as either. Decent volume, but they may not be loud enough for airplanes and the like.

Similar Products Used:

Several Sony earbuds, Phillips, various crappy earbuds included with cd players.

Very lightweight and comfortable. Clear, strong sound with a nice balance between treble and bass. Don't overlook the tiny little foam caps inside the storage case. If you have large hands, you may need to engage the assistance of a friend with tiny fingers to help you slip these onto the ear pieces. The foam seems to improve both the comfort and the sound.

I've been trying to think of a weakness to list here, but I just haven't come across one yet. I have read that some people think that the wires are not long enough, but for my 5'6", there is plenty of length. If portability is what you are looking for, then I would recommend the MX500s without reservation. And for fast service with free shipping, I was extremely pleased with making the purchase directly from the Sennheiser website.

I purchased the Sennheiser MX500s to replace the headphones that came with my Nomad II MP3 player. After reading the unfavorable reviews on this cite regarding the quality of the volume control, I was somewhat apprehensive about this particular feature. However, I have found it to be very convenient and I am glad that I paid the extra few dollars. These were purchased directly from the Sennheiser website for $17.95 with free shipping. Just about as easy as it gets. As for the sound quality, I am still amazed that sound this big comes from something this small. My purpose in buying the MX500s was to have a lightweight listening device for workouts and I am very pleased. They are so lightweight and comfortable that I almost forget that they are there. If the volume control eventually fails to work, then so be it....for $17.95 delivered, I won't complain.

Durable, Quality Construction, Nice look, Pleasant Sound

Volume Control

The Sennheiser 500MX "in-ear" headphones conform to most "on-the-move" listeners needs.

Firstly they are simple yet stylish (In my opinion).

Secondly, they are soundly constructed (pardon the pun), which is a must for portable headphones. For instance, a number of times I have, by accident, had the bud pulled out of my ear by the the cable getting stuck on something, and yet there are no signs of any type of loose-connection yet!

Thirdly is the sound they produce. Now let's face it, if you're going to buy a portable headphone, there will inevitably be compromises in it's sound quality, thus it cannot be compared to any "Home-listening" headphone. That said, I must say that I am impressed. Comparing the MX500 to my HD-580, I can recognise subtle similarities; Relatively clear and revealing sound, adequate and even distribution of frequency responce on all levels, whilst still being a 'budget' phone.

What can I say, after being enlightened with my HD-580 Sennheiser purchase, I entrusted Sennheiser with my portable-phone selection, not really doing any homework myself. Quite frankly, I haven't been dissapointed.

Well, perhaps I have been an itsy-bitsy bit dissapointed; The volume control. It really is a tad shameful. I find that if it is not on "Max", then the balance of the sound seems to travel more to one headphone. I bit dissapointing, but easily fixed; Just use the volume control on the device powering the phones.

If you're an audio enthusiast, with a professional set of "home" phones that you use extensively, and are looking for a decent set of low-profile, budget, and effective headphones for those times when your out on the move, I reccomend these.

Cheers,
Tomas

Very clear(too clear sometimes?) and good sound.

Volume control keeps noise(distortion) when I slide the button.

Best buds that I´ve ever used. Strong bass.