Sennheiser HD 201

My son loves his music, and is regularly buried away listening to some form of noise on either his phone, his iPod or his computer. Normally, he has a set of earphones that he can use, but is notorious for always damaging them in some way (as most kids seem to do), with either the cable breaking or the ear piece pulling out, or whatever other way they can possibly be damaged. The other problem we sometimes have is that if we are out in the car, whilst we will listen to Radio 2 etc, he will want to listen to his own music, and often whilst he can hear it on his earphones, at times we can also hear that feint musical noise in the background to our listening, which does get annoying.

So when his last set of earphones finally gave up the ghost (he stood on them this time!!) we decided that a set of headphones may suit his needs better, perhaps being a little bit more robust to daily use and abuse. In order to test this theory out, we didn’t want to spend a fortune in case they too got damaged, and hence, looking on Amazon, these Sennheiser HD201's seemed a good bet. At just under £17 (now under £15), and over 650 rates averaging 4 stars, we thought these were the ones to go for.

The headphones themselves feel fairly robust and appear to be well made, and give the impression that they cost a lot more than the sub-£20 that we paid for them. The ear pieces are what are classed as ‘over the ear’ type in that they fit comfortably over the ear rather than pressing against the ear, hence being much more comfortable to wear for longer durations. The cups around the ear pieces are also heavily padded, adding to that comfort factor, but equally providing a nice seal to prevent external noise getting in, and more importantly, any internal noise getting out. You can also adjust the overhead head band to ensure sizing and comfort are suitable for yourself.

Weight wise they are 165g, which is very lightweight in terms of the headphone weight scale, so not going to be too cumbersome on your head. The lead is long, very long, coming in a 3m overall, going down to the 3.5mm jack plug which is a standard fit for most mobile phones, mp3 players and computers. The headphones also come supplied with a 6.3mm plug adaptor which can be used to step up the 3.5mm jack plug to 6.5mm to suit larger stereo systems or some TVs.

What are they like in use? To be honest, surprisingly good. I’ve tried these myself a few times on my computer and my phone and the sound quality is very good and clear, providing a nice balance between the bass end and the treble. The claimed range is 21Hz (bass end) to 18000Hz (treble end) which is reasonable range in terms of frequency response for earphones/headphones. But don’t get too hung up on the ranges because at those values, you are towards the extremes of the human hearing range for most people, and to many, the difference between say 18000Hz and 20000hz will be undistinguishable. To me the bass is not so deep that it excessively vibrates the speakers in the ear pieces, and treble is high enough to easily hear and distinguish voices and fine whispers. So generally, a good balance of all round sound.

But what really matters though is that my son thinks they are brilliant – very comfortable and much better than his old earphones. And thus far, after a few months of use and abuse, they seem to have lasted him well with no breakages. From my point of view, I am also equally happy because there is no sound 'leakage' from the headphones when we are out on a car journey.

In summary, for the relatively cheap price of these headphones, they are very good quality. The 3m long lead might appear to be a little excessive, and might annoy some, but my son just bundles the excess into his pocket when he is out and about. With so many good rates on Amazon, these have proved to be a good buy and hence justify a 5 star recommendation.