Digital Trends

Sennheiser MX 90VC January 8th, 2007 | by Brandon King

Design and Features

If you glance quickly down the seats of a busy city train or a street in a college town, you’re bound to see a least a few dazed-looking patrons with the signature white iPod ear bud wires streaming from their ears. As any audiophile or well-informed consumer will tell you, the ear buds included with most portable music players are junk. As the never- ending battle to pack in more features at a lower price marches on, quality ear buds are often the overlooked casualty.

Ear buds do have some inherently nice aspects. They are easy to insert and remove quickly while on the go. They are relatively easy to untangle, and take up little space when stowed away. They are cheap and therefore easy to replace. And finally, they are matched to the players they ship with, so the consumer doesn’t have to worry about whether they can be driven by the media player they came with.

However, there are a couple major downfalls of the ear bud. Companies generally skimp out on the quality of the ear buds they include with a device. More annoyingly, ear buds easily get knocked out of place, making them less than ideal for any vigorous activity like jogging.

Sennheiser has re-invented the ear bud with their “Twist to Fit” design found in the MX 90VC. Rather than just letting the ear bud rest on the bottom of the ear, the MX 90VC has an extension above the bud piece, topped with a rubber wheel, that wedges the earpiece into the ear. The earpiece is inserted at an angle and twisted while in place, causing the wheel to roll along the upper edge of the inner fold of the ear, wedging the driver into place.

Included with the stylishly magnetized box are the headphones, carrying case, foamies, and several sizes of rubber wheels. The rubber wheel sizes can be swapped out to get the right tension between earpiece and ear. The hard case fits the earpieces in a custom-molded cord wrap. The headphones feature a unique in-line volume control. Rather than using a dial or slider to adjust the volume, a central cylinder slides through a tube piece to adjust volume. The accent plastics are a sophisticated tan color, with sharp, stylized edges.

One unfortunate side effect of this design is that the ear buds are much more prone to tangling. The wheel tipped extension creates a snagging point for the connector of the other earpiece. This isn’t a major problem, but it negates one of the advantages of the ear bud’s design. Also, the plastic parts have an attractive glossy coat that is unusually stiff in cool weather.

Image Courtesy of Sennheiser