Sennheiser’s new earbuds cost as much as a MacBook Pro

Sennheiser's new earbuds cost as much as a MacBook Pro — seriously?

(Prototype credit: Sennheiser)

The Sennheiser IE 900 is a pair of high-stop wired earbuds built for one thing: the finest, more detailed audio quality possible. The best wireless earbuds will often promise much of the same. But the IE 900 is dead serious about being an audiophile's best friend, integrating a "unique triple-chamber absorber organization" and the best 7mm transducer Sennheiser tin come up with.

That's all not bad, but the IE 900 costs $1,300. That'south more than a MacBook Pro for just a pair of wired earbuds! Here's why yous should call up twice earlier dropping that much cash on the IE 900, even if have the affinity for High-Res Audio that Sennheiser is cyberbanking on.

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I should first say that I haven't used the IE 900 myself; having reviewed the Sennheiser IE 300 before this year, it wouldn't surprise me if this new big brother really does sound uncommonly skillful. I besides believe it'south perfectly acceptable to spend big on top-tier headphones when you have the hardware to support them, similar a home hi-fi system.

Nevertheless, being a pair of dinky, mobile-focused earbuds imposes limits on the IE 900 that make it hard to see how even best-in-class operation would brand it worth more than $1,300. And in Sennheiser's defense, these concerns aren't specific to the IE 900 itself.

Phones are not real hello-fi devices

The biggest problem is that smartphones and tablets but aren't ideal devices for the studio-quality playback that the IE 900 is aiming for.

For starters, information technology'southward become normalized for smartphones to omit a 3.5mm headphone jack, as manufacturers assume — with understandable, if not specially atomic number 26-clad logic — that the owner is much more likely to utilise wireless headphones or earbuds instead. To use the IE 900 with, say, a Samsung Galaxy S21, y'all'd need either a 3.5mm to USB-C adapter or a much more expensive portable DAC.

In other words, yous either demand to spend even more money or employ a cheap adapter that could introduce distortion and unwanted noise. Audio Scientific discipline Review staffer "amirm" tested various three.5mm to USB-C adapters for the Google Pixel series, and found different models could produce inconsistent results. Perhaps not to the extent that an average user would notice, or intendance. But for whose with a more discerning ear it would be unfortunate if audiophile-course buds like the IE 900 were at the mercy of a dodgy dongle.

The built-in DACs of many phones likewise lack the power output to fully enable high-impedance headphones. Luckily the IE 900 is a depression-impedance pair, rated at 16 ohms, but that doesn't change how you can't rely on mobile devices for the kind of audio that four figures would get y'all when buying in-domicile hardware.

In that location are already high-spec earbuds for less

Again, I'g not going to sit hither and say the IE 900 will audio better, worse or the same as any other set of headphones until I've tried it. But it does have an awful lot in common with the IE 300, which at $299 might exist the far more attainable option.

Besides the obvious, outwards design similarities, the IE 300 as well has an in-business firm 7mm XWB transducer, aureate-plated MMCX connectors and a special membrane foil to reduce unwanted resonance: all headline features of the IE 900. The IE 300 even has its ain resonator chamber, if not the 3 that the IE 900 has. Are two extra chambers and an upgraded transducer actually worth an extra m?

And, while I don't buy into sometimes-made assertions that you tin't really hear a difference betwixt CD-quality music and Hi-Res, the IE 900 does announced to promise a level of sonic fineness that the man ear just won't perceive. Its stated frequency response is 5Hz to 48kHz: an impressive spec on paper, merely generally the homo hearing range is only betwixt 20Hz and 20kHz.

Sennheiser is correct in thinking that some smartphone owners will desire the very best audio quality on the become. And even with high-performance Bluetooth codecs like aptX, the best manner of getting that quality is with a pair of well-crafted wired headphones. Only knowing the limitations of mobile playback, and that you can already go a great-sounding pair of Sennheiser buds for a fraction of the price, information technology's non clear why paying $1,300 for the IE 900 makes sense; perhaps become the MacBook Pro after all or one of the other best laptops picks.

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James is currently Hardware Editor at Stone Newspaper Shotgun, simply earlier that was Audio Editor at Tom'south Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and annihilation else that intentionally makes noise. A PC enthusiast, he also wrote computing and gaming news for TG, usually relating to how difficult it is to find graphics card stock.