Creative SBS A40 review - 2.0 desktop speakers on an extreme budget

These promise to offer a decent improvement over the poor quality inbuilt computer speakers. At a really low price of S$15, what remains to be seen is how much they deliver in terms of audio quality.

The creative SBS A40

The speaker packaging.

Pros: extremely cheap, decent detail, warm, mellow and non-invasive (not harsh) sound

Cons: heavy distortion even at moderate listening levels, some treble detail is hidden and bass is heavily lacking in definition or low end fullness. Bass port is mostly a gimmick.

Looking at these speakers, what immediately comes to mind is how plain these speakers look. They are completely black in colour with an equally black cloth stretched over the sturdy plastic speaker grill. The speakers are made out of hard plastics that do not feel particularly sturdy or rigid, but are pretty decent for the price. Nothing else to see here, let’s move on.

These are USB powered, so they can be conveniently connected to your computer’s USB port and powered right up. However, as these are USB powered, they lack the overall loudness and power of a speaker which is connected to its own power supply e.g. to a nearby wall socket. The volume control knob and on/off button are both located on top of the right speaker, with a green LED light (also on top of the right speaker) indicating whether the speaker is on or not.

Moving on to sound quality, these are actually not bad for the price. Music plays in decent quality, but with bass heavy music, the bass has a thudding quality to it due to the lack of bass extension, and it also lacks in fullnesss and richness. Some treble details disappeared completely due to the not that well extended treble. Mids are pretty decent, being played out a little warmly, and vocals are also quite lively.  When I listened to a few piano sonatas, the low notes became dull thuds and the higher notes had a tinkling quality similar to that of wind chimes. It is also quite obvious the grandiose presentation and wide dynamics of piano sonatas cannot be fully represented. Frequency response is stated as being from 100Hz-15kHz, so the lack of bass and treble extension can be easily explained.

Adding on to these speakers faults though, is that there is heavy distortion even at moderate listening levels. The bass port is also mostly a gimmick, as the bass is not extended through it. Covering the bass ports on both speakers with my hands and then removing my hands, I could only perceive a very slight widening of the sound but no added bass. I also taped cardboard to the back of the speakers so that I could listen to more songs at one go with the bass ports covered and upon uncovering the bass ports, The bass was also perceived to not be extended more when I played the same songs. There was only a slight widening of the sound.

At this price, I am nitpicking quite a bit, as they do improve on the poor fidelity of computer speakers. However, for the same price, you can pick up the extremely cute SonicGear Tatoo 101 2.0 desktop speakers which have much better bass extension and more realistic bass presentation, much more extended treble and a lot less distortion. In the end though, my opinion is that you spend a decent amount to get a better 2.0  or 2.1 desktop speaker system to satisfy you more. At S$59 is the Creative Inspire T10, a 2.0 desktop speaker system and at S$69 is the Creative Inspire T3300 which is a 2.1 desktop speaker system. Both of these will give you infinitely better audio enjoyment and I recommend you spend more for speakers around the prices of the T10 and T3300.

Don't they look so cute? These literally palm-sized SonicGear Tatoo 101 speakers can actually be found for less than S$10 and are the way to go if you are on a really tight budget and want something much better than the SBS A40.

MDR-EX110LP - Sony, you can do better

     The MDR-EX110LP is a budget IEM with good fit, a nice compact bud design and comes with a cord winder. It comes in a variety of bright colours that fit well with the shiny chrome finish.

Pros: Compact, comfortable, should fit almost all ear sizes, good isolation and stays snugly in ear. Fairly well balanced sound.

Cons: Bass does not extend well, gets lost among other sounds, lots of sibilance, details lack crispness and a defining edge, even for a budget IEM,

The variety of colours this IEM comes in.

Close up view of the shiny earbuds with their unique design.

     These look quite good, I must say. The shiny finish of the earbuds are not overdone, it is toned down yet stands out, providing a good look. The SONY logo is written on the back of the earbuds at an angle and is quite conspicious, which may please some people. A healthy array of accessories such as a cord winder and different bud sizes round up the package, and all of this at just S$39.

     However, sound is another matter entirely. As these are IEMs, I will not focus too much on soundstage, but even then, the sound cannot compete with other budget IEMs. The bass is not overpowering, but actually lacks power to avoid getting drowned in the mix. It is often lost so easily. Mids and treble is tolerable at best, with details blurring out due to a lack of crispness and edge and there is also lots of sibilance. 

  

     The sound is a real turn-off, despite everything else being rather good. Also, if you care to top up another S$6, which I advise you to, you can get the MDR-EX220LP which is angled for an even better fit in the ear and most probably will provide better sound through the usage of 13.5mm drivers, unlike the 9mm drivers the MDR-EX110LP are using.

The MDR-EX220LP.

Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear review - A Basshead's Joy

     The Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear review is very nicely designed and has great sound, and come in red, green, ivory, black, brown, blue and pink shades, but in a very competitive price range, retaining at S$299, is it worth it? Let us get into it.

Pros: Greatly balanced mids and highs with rich detail, nice design, extremely enjoyable emphasised bass

Cons: Might not fit everyone's ears, slightly boomy bass

     These look so phenomenal, with all that alcantara leather and the premium stitching. The earcups are so nicely and subtly styled and to finish it all up, at the bottom of each side of the leather padded headband is a Momentum word laser engraved on a piece of metal to finish up that premium feel.

     The soumd is great, with detailed, smooth and balanced mids and highs. In the short listen I took, I did not hear any particular emphasis on any frequency range within the mids and highs. The bass is quite deliciously emphasised, with all the subtlety I need enough to betray the audiophile inside of me. Once in a while, I always like a fun sounding listen. In case you are thinking though, these are true, thouroughbred basshead cans with the refinement in overall sound and emphasised bass a true basshead will want. Alas, detracting from the overall experience is that the bass can get quite boomy, loose and flabby on occasion, especially when taxed with bass-heavy tracks. Also, the purist in me does cry out for a more neutral sound, as this is a pair of cans coming from Sennheiser.    

 

      Also, to ruin the package, the Earcups do not swivel back and forth, so people may find unecessary pressure on the back of their ears and too light a pressure on the front of the ears, causing an inconsistent seal and ruining the sound quality a little as outside noise leaks in. also, library use with these are not recommended due to the high sound leakage.

     This is a disappointing drawback, but overall, these are extremely nice sounding if you like balanced and detailed mids and highs and greatly emphasised bass. Even audiophiles out there, sometimes you should be a bit more adventurous with what headphones you listen to, like what I did. You may find a wholly different but maybe an even more enjoyable sound. Advice to potential buyers though; You should try these out if possible at a store before purchasing them, so as to ensure that they can fit on your ears well without putting too much pressure on the backs of your ears, especially if you are wearing glasses.

     Great job Sennheiser, especially on balancing the precarious value between sound and design, but maybe a slight tweak to include earcups being able to tilt on the slider with the Sennheiser logo will be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: This is a frequency response graph taken from Headroom of the Sennheiser Momentum On Ear.




Graph shows neatly emphasised bass from sub-bass all the way to mid-bass without any hint of bloatedness in the mid-bass and without any hint of poor sub-bass extension, as often seen in bass-emphasised cans. Mids are fairly smooth but slightly recessed, and the 10kHz peak may result in slightly fatigueing listens over time. Treble rolls off early and results in a relaxing listen but with lesser detail then I prefer. This graph delivers about the same sonic experience with the listening test I conducted.

Sennheiser PX 360 review - A traveller's go-to pair

     A great looking travel headphone, these headphones have a few cons some may not expect, coming from a pair of cans from Sennheiser.

Pros: good bass and mids, nice-looker, nice case, good portability

Cons: strange emphasis on particular frequency range, small cups may not fit everyone, fragile, non-detachable cable

the PX 360 (above), and partially in its case (below).

     The Sennheiser PX 360 headphones look good, and are very comfortable, at least to me, but the earcups fit just nicely over my ears. Any smaller and I would not be able to fit these over my ears. What with these being advertised as circumaural headphones, the earcups should be bigger. the headband is nicely padded and the headphones are very light. The case and foldability makes these quite a good pair of travel headphones.

     I first auditioned these at the one and only Sennheiser shop in my country, Singapore. They looked as good as in the promotional pics and folded up very nicely upon testing of the folding mechanism. They have a metal reinforced headband I think, as the sliders are metal. Now, onto sound quality.

     These have very nice, smooth, controlled and tight bass. The mids are quite even and the overall frequency response is very nice and balanced in the mids. The bass is punchy enough for a clean, natural sound, but sometimes gets overwhelmed by the sharp and fatigueing highs. Still, these sound especially good with classical and instrumental music. Now, there is some bad news.

     The highs are smooth, but when I played Simple Plan's "Jet Lag", I noticed quite a strong emphasis on vocals, high-hats, cymbals, and any other sounds in this frequency range. The same is for other songs. Of course, vocals will be nice with slight emphasis, but the vocals are really too bright and fatigueing for me. I then tested the Sennheiser Momentum On Ear, and for $70 more, I get superbly even highs and mids, nicely naturally emphasised bass and great design, but at the expense of foldability, and it may not fit everyone, as the earcups do not swivel forward or backward slightly, so some people may experience uncomfortable pressure on the back of the ear.

     Overall, these are great headphones, but more work on the highs, and a detachable cable, would be greatly appreciated, especially in its price range.

EDIT: a frequency response graph of the PX 360 taken from Headroom.

Rather rough and frighteningly unrefined frequency response. Bass is not too well extended into the sub-bass region and rolls off early, mids are bumpy and high-mids to treble are very bumpy with lots of peaks and dips. Explains the emphasised cymbals, high-hats and vocals threatening to take over the sound. Treble also rolls off early. Very bad and rough sound for a headphone of this price, especially since the ATH-M50x are exactly S$1 cheaper than these. I will review the ATH-M50x soon. For those of you who know the ATH-M50, the ATH-M50x are its successor with 3 detachable cables and better sound quality over the previous ATH-M50.

ATH-S300 review - budget winner? Not quite

     The ATH-S300 is a budget "street monitoring" headphone from Audio Technica. Audio Technica is one of the world's most foremost audio brands, so can they please with this paitpair of budget headphones for the daily commuter?

Pros: Good sound for money, folds flat, one side cable

Cons: quite bloated midbass, recessed mids, slightly recesd treble, looks like an inverted satellite dish on my d fatigueing presentation of sound.

The ATH-S300 come in 5 different colours

The packaging looks really good

     The ATH-S300 is very light weight and comfortable on my ears, with hardly    any clamping on my head. Now, you may suspect this leads to bad sound isolation, but the fine fit earpads provide extremely good noise isolation with really good comfort. However, if there was just a thin pad on the headband, comfort would be even better. The little surface area of the headband on top of your head creates a hot pressure point after a while.

     The design of these pair of headphones look really cool and may look bulky but they are actually quite compact and the earcups also swivel to fold flat for compact storage. I found a random drawstring pouch at home so I wastogether,  use it to sis, re my headphones in my bag.

     The sound quality did not sound really good when first out of the box, but they improved a little over just the next few minutes of usage. The mids and highs were brought and the bass also improved. However, the sound quality is still not impressive for the price, S$58,  as there are other competitiors such as  the Sony MDR-ZX300 which is retailing at S$55, which is better with a more neutral and even sound, better and crisper vocals and a less fatigueing and hard sound. The ATH-S300 has very recessed mids which is coupled with quite a bit of mid-bass bloat. While listening to classical music, the mids were so recessed it was quite terrible, especially during piano sonatas or orchestral pieces. Instrumental separation also was quite bad. Treble is also slightly metallic, listening to higher strings such as violins. These pair of headphones are meant more for listening to modern, bass-heavy songs. Slightly aggressive treble does lead to a fatigueing listen after a while. The treble is also, surprisingly, a bit recessed so some songs have a dull, dark sound. I am not too sure how aggresive treble and recessed treble can be produced. The 2 just do not seem to go together, yet here it is. For budget  cans with better, smoother overall sound and sweeter bass, you should go for cans from Sennheiser or Sony.

     Overall, I would say that these are the go to headphones if you are on a budget and want extreme bassy sound, comfort and noise isolation. These pair of headphones did well in all these aspects and even managed to surpass expectations of headphones at this price range, though they do lose to almost all the Sennheiser and Sony budget range.

MDR-ZX300 review - Budget Goodness!

     I am here today with an MDR-ZX300 review. These are a pair of budget cans costing S$55 from Sony. They are basically the more expensive sibling to the MDR-ZX100. The styling of both headphones are the same except that the earcups of the MDR-ZX300 are shiny while those of the MDR-ZX100 are not. So how are they, let us find out.

Pros: Nice design, slim, easily identifiable right side due to red piece of plastic, balanced sound with good vocals, rather sweet sounding for the price.

Cons: Nothing of note.

 

They come in 5 colours all with shiny earcups

The shiny earcups look good, don't they?

The box looks good too

     These headphones look really good, with handsome stylish looks. They are extremely light and do not clamp too much on your head, so they feel really good. The earpads are soft and comfortable. They have a thick 1.2m cable which terminates in an L-shaped gold plated stereo mini plug. The cable is tangle free, so the many times I pulled it out of my bag after putting it inside the cable is most of the time never tangled.

     The sound quality is superb, with even balanced sound and great bass. Bass is nicely textured and defined, and is quite good without being overpowering in the slightest. Mids and highs are profoundly smooth for the price. Of course they will not sound as good as more expensive offerings from Audio Technica, Sennheiser and even Sony itself, but they sound really good for the price and sound even better than cans from other companies such as beats or skullcandy that cost many times more.

     Overall, I say these pair of cans are awesome for the price, so if you are looking for a pair of headphones to replace your standard set of earphones that came with your phone and have a budget of S$55 and want a stylish pair of cans as well, look no further. Get these immdiately!

Razer Hooligan review

Pros: Circumaural earcups, velour earpads  

Cons: very bad and unrefined sound, especially bass which lacks refinement and depth. Looks like a satellite dish on my head.

     Recently, I had the opportunity to review the Razer Hooligan headphones. Razer is generally known as a "fashion bling-bling" brand which produces headphones of good design but bad sound quality. Can they overcome this with the limited edition Razer Hooligan? Let's find out.

     In one word, they look good, feel good and have good portablility and foldability, and the velour earpads help in relieving heat during really hot days. Now onto sound quality.

     The sound quality is really lousy. The mids and treble is lacking in overall clarity, and the treble is also very grainy. soundstaging and neutrality are totally absent, and the bass lacks depth and definition. Individual bass notes are barely hinted at. They do not sound much better than an MDR-ZX300, or an even cheaper MDR-ZX100, for that matter. These cost nearly 4 times the price of an MDR-ZX100.

     The cans, although being circumaural, are uncomfortable as the earpads are hard, despite having velour earpads, and the headphone clamps to your ear quite a bit, creating a very tight pressure point. Also, the velour pads are very small in thickness, so the pressure point is even smaller and thus the listener will experience fatigue around the ears where the earcups clamp over long periods of time. Some supraaural headphones are more comfortable in my opinion. I wonder why my friend bought these pair of cans when previously he was using a fantastic Audio Technica ATH-SJ55.

     For the price, go and get a Sennheiser HD 229. They sound and look much better.