Competition: Win a pair of Sennheiser HD238 headphones. @closed, no winner!@

[Matt]

Win a pair of The New Sennheiser HD238 headphones!

And Someone will win these!


The Competition

I love the Sennheiser HD205 headphones. I wrote a review on Amazon in which I stated that they are:

One of the better Sennheiser's!

I've been having a quick update on my current equipment list, and I can across what looks like a suspiciously cheap pair of Sennheiser HD205 headphones. The Sennheiser HD205 headphones retail for $69.95, but Amazon themselves usually have them for around $50, as do many other 3rdf party merchants on Amazon.

So here's the deal. There are some Sennheiser HD205 headphones on ebay going for less than $20. Going by my 'Less than half price, then bells should be ringing" rule, and bells are going off in my head, and so I need someone to check these out for me. I can't order these because I live in the UK and the sellers selling these for under $20 only ship to the U.S.

Now, I'm not accusing sellers of selling fake gear, it's just that my alarm bells are ringing, and it's better to be safe than sorry. It's also better that we all know what's going on when it comes to fake headphones.

Competition Rules and Task

1) You simply need to compare your genuine HD205 headphones with a pair that are found on ebay for less than $20. Your review should include.

a) Pictures of decent size and quality of both pairs, side by side.
b) Send me a private message with a conformation that you've bought a pair of HD205's from a seller on ebay for under $20.
c) Name the seller you bought them from.

here's the ebay link
http://ebay.com/sennheiserhd205


2) The winner needs to be a U.S. resident (Amazon.com shipping rules not my rules)

3) The first person to post a satisfactory review (see number 1) wins!

4) Competition closes on April 30th 2009, yet it's on a 'first review wins' basis.

Good luck!

[anumeric]

heh... i just saw these on ebay (and made a best offer) and happened to stumble upon this page while googling afterward... if my offer is excepted ill be sure to try to get some pics of them next to a known genuine pair if i can.... maybe just got a b&m and purchase/return? what would be the best way of doing that if i dont already have some?

please note that these are not new, but instead refurbished, the seller has a good rating on ebay, has quite a large store front with many other "normally" priced audio products (other sennheiser included)... also there are two fairly reputable resellers on amazon that seem to be selling the 205's at about the same price (shipped) as this guy on ebay (less if you have prime i would imagine)... more and more i'm thinking these are legit.

[Matt]

Like I said better be safe than sorry. even at below $20 it's awfully cheap. However as the competition states: I want photos of the genuine and the under $20 dollar pair side by side to qualify for the competition. I hoped this would apply mostly to HD205 owners.

This isn't a 'pointing finger' thing, but I'd just like to make sure. If they're refurbished and they're O.K. (and I've had some dodgy refurbished gear before) then happy days!

[anumeric]

got my offer accepted... 8.41+shipping.. $20 even.... pretty damn good if they turn out to be legit. now to find some real 205's.....

[Matt]

have you got a friend with a pair?

[anumeric]

i have a few friends with various models... dont think i have one with the 205's though.... ill figure it out.

it seems that the ebay seller is the same seller on amazon selling these for $15 as well... doesnt really give any weight to the legitimacy of these cans, but i thought it was interesting nonetheless.

[Matt]

This company sells used Sennheiser's awfully cheap. I want to see what state they're in.

[anumeric]

florida... at least thats where my 205's have been shipped from.

[anumeric]

got my 205's today... they sound pretty good to my ear (have owned e3c's and hd280 pros) off the bat without any burn in period... though i'm not sure if that is necessary with refurbished cans. as far as i can tell from pictures there are no distinguishable differences, though i'm sure its difficult without side-by-side comparison.. still working on tracking down another pair of 205's for comparative purposes.


as a side note, what is the proper way to "burn in" a new set of headphones? as far as length of time (ive read about 20hrs), loudness, eq'ed, etc?

[Matt]

For the HD205's, I should think 24 hours would be sufficient. At the moment i'm burning in my HD238's. I've had them on for about 10 minutes.

[Aenn]

Burn-in is the "workout" of headphones. Diaphragms can be a tad stiff out of production. Burn-in is an exercise to relax the materials and smoothen the sound somewhat. Depends on the make how much of a change there is and how long it takes.
Pink noise - noise shaped like much live music - is often used for burn-in. Real music also works fine. 5-minute silence breaks between some 15-25 minutes playback, as rest.

[Aenn]

Here's our own Audiotest CD. It has digital silence, pink noise and some music samples.
http://headphonedeals.org/guides/audiotest-cd/

[cbinger]

Has no one checked into this yet?  I actually just purchased a pair of HD 228's from this seller (dakmart) and just received them. 
Didn't even consider them to be possible fakes until I received them in a plastic bag marked "Sennheiser Refurbished".  Then I googled and found all this info about fakes.  Didn't know it was such a problem!

Can't find ANY info on fake Sennheiser 228's.  Plan on trying to go by the Apple store to compare them and see if I can see anything.

This competition links to the Dakmart seller though, so wondering what anyone else had found.

[Matt]

I need a bit of help on these, because i saw someone walking past me today, and their Sennheiser HD (I don't know which one it was) had a really glossy shiny black finish on. My hD238's don't have this kind of finish on them. I just wondered of anyone had the HD218 or HD228 (cbinger) and check if there was a really glossy finish to them. Any photo's or images?

as For Dakmart, there was a seller on ebay who claimed to be supplied by Dakmart. They (Dakmark) deny having any association with the seller.


http://www.fakeheadphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=44.0

[Den90]

Matt
I don't have a HD218, 228 or 238, but on the official site, there is a 360 view:
HD218
HD228
HD238
As you see, only HD228, has a glossy finish.