Sennheiser MX 471 earphones

Sennheiser's MX 471 headphones offer amazing audio and an amazing price tag!

Good Gear Guide

The Sennheiser MX 471 earbud headphones offer superb audio quality and comfort at an affordable price. Each set of ear buds comes with unique gold markings — no two pairs are the same.

Pros

  • Adjustable earbud size, excellent audio quality, very fair price

Cons

  • Small amount of sound leakage and background noise

Bottom Line

The Sennheiser MX 471 headphones only cost $49.95 and come highly recommended. They offer great audio quality and a good design.

Would you buy this?

  • Where to buy

    Priced from: $ 24.95
    Selling at 4 stores
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The earbuds have been designed to accommodate users with smaller ear canals, such as many women. However, the MX 471 headphones come bundled with foam ear pads, as well as rubber ear sleeves, making the earbuds customisable and able to fit larger ear canals.

The headphones have a nifty cable slider to reduce slack and Sennheiser has also used a symmetrical braided-design cable, which is designed to reduce the chances of the cords tangling. It seemed to work well in our tests, and we didn't have to fiddle or untangle the earbuds from the main cord, which we had to do with Sennheiser's MX90 earbuds, for example. The Sennheiser MX 471's braided cable is better than a standard rubber cable at minimising rustle. We found the cable rustle of the Sennheiser MX 471 to be quite minimal, although it isn't as quiet as a fabric weaved cable, found on the Sennheiser HD 800's headphones.

We really noticed the size difference of the earbuds compared to larger models. The smaller size makes the MX 471 headphones very comfortable to wear, and they are extremely light.

The overall audio quality exceeded our expectations, especially considering the competitive $49.95 price tag. We tested with a variety of music genres and the results were pleasing across the board. The bass didn’t overpower the finer notes in any of the music we listened to, which ranged from hip-hop to rock; to be honest, we’ve never heard so much detail in Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’ before! Listening to Dangerdoom — a hip-hop duo with an eclectic soundscape — was a great test for the MX 471 headphones. While bass is an integral component of Dangerdoom's beats, there are also a lot of messy symbol samples and high hats that were not covered up by the booming bass. The little earbuds allowed the finer notes and details to slither on down through our ear canals with ease!

Despite the MX 471’s small stature, the overall power and sound quality of the headphones is quite phenomenal. Audio quality is crisp and clear, and the mid tones, treble and bass are balanced perfectly. Unfortunately, they don't block out all background noise; if you wear them on a noisy bus, for example, you might have to listen at a high volume level. But considering they are not designed to be noise-cancelling earphones this is acceptable. There is a small amount of noise leakage, too, but it's not pronounced enough to become a problem for anyone around you.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the Sennheiser MX 471 headphone experience, and at $49.95, we think you’ll be hard pressed to find earbuds with the same level of quality.

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