The fake Sennheiser CX range lives on in the CX400′s
ebay advice
reviews.ebay.co.uk/Fake-CX400-vs-Genuie-Sennheiser-CX400-Earphones-How
concern over low price
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=143112
Owners experiences and views
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=740680
Good or bad? You make your own mind up about this one.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/Portable-audio-iPods/Headphones/auction
head-fi.org posts
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/how-can-i-define-fake-cx400-313793/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/fake-px400s-good-bad-240490/
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About two months ago l bought a pair of Sennheiser CX400 earphones from an independent retailer on Amazon; this was before l became aware that there are fake earphones. My suspicions were aroused when l was not terribly impressed with the earphones after having heard so many good reviews. l contacted the retailer who apologised and suggested that he was unaware that he was selling fake CX400 and kindly refunded me the £15 that l had paid. l then tried to write a review on the Amazon website to warn others that they may be being duped into buying fake earphones but the review was never posted. l contacted Amazon to find out why and to warn them of what was going on and still they have done nothing. It seems to me that Amazon are deliberately turning a blind eye to what is going on via there website.
That’s very interesting James. I think Amazon is in the same position of other popular sites. It would seem that fake gear, whether its known or unknown to these large sites (and I’m sure they do know full well about it) pulls people in to their sites.
There are some claims that they are fighting the surge of fakes but how genuine these claims are and to what degree they’re fighting counterfeit goods is another question. My thought’s, not very hard!
Try a to write a comment on amazon again, and please keep us all up to date.
Thanks for your input and I’m sure your comments will help many others who find themselves in the same situation as you did.
[...] Basically James bought a pair of fake Sennheiser CX400 earphones. You can read the rest of the story in the comment section of the post: 2 Responses to “The New Fake Sennheiser CX Range. Welcome To The Fake CX400” [...]
It is getting harder to tell tell fake Sennheiser earphones, unless you do some critical listening tests. If you have good hearing, you will tell in 2 seconds if the earphones are fake. Because these units are canalphones, I made sure I inserted them well into my ears, so much, that they hurt a little. Using my PC, I sampled various music from classical to rock and was unable to replicate “high performance dynamics and powerful, bass-drive stereo” as advertised by the genuine Senneiser.
Instead, all I heard was a flat low frequency response, treble, more treble and absolutely no bass from these fakes. In Winamp presets, I applied “full bass” and this would normally sound like a booming, slightly muddled sound with genuine headphones, but it didn’t. There was slightly more bass, but insufficient bass to suggest they were genuine.
The output of the fake headphones were so low, that I had to increase the volume output by at least 30%. I have an arsenal of spare average quality $20 headphones at home and they all out-performed these fake Sennheiser ones, with clear sound and good bass response. But there’s more!
This test proves beyond doubt, my CX400 headphone was not top quality and an original Sennheiser. Touching the headphone leads anywhere, produced a unnerving acoustic rumble through the earpiece. I can only put this down as bad diaphragm isolation and faulty workmanship in the drivers. This has never occurred in any earphones I have bought in the past and definitely would never occur in genuine Sennheisers.
This last audio test is conclusive to fake headphones. Just listen to your favorite music and turn the volume down low, almost off but not quite. Try any of your genuine headphones, including Sennheiser and if you have good hearing, you will still faintly here the music. With the fake phones, because of their lack of sensitivity, the sound will cut out before this and it’s doubtful that they are of the correct impedance.
Final Conclusion: Never ever buy Sennheiser headphones from eBay!
Mine was a recent 2009 purchase from a 100% eBay Power Seller. According to his feedback, about 100 buyers bought similar headphone products with no complaints! Was I the unlucky one, or is most of the population deaf and suffer from headphone numbness. This Power Seller advertises freely on his listing that he promises genuine Sennheiser CX400 and 100% genuine sound. I have requested my money back and after 2 days, still no reply. Looks like a trip to PayPal and eBay to expose this seller.
In the possibility that the eBay seller is in fact genuine and all other buyers did receive genuine headphones, this only leads to my speculation. In China, there is a factory or factories, that produce genuine Sennheiser headphones. Possibly, with or without Sennheisers knowledge they also produce non genuine ones in the same factory. Assembly line 1 makes the goodies and assembly line 2 the crappies.
The headphone packaging is so good now, that it’s almost impossible to distinguish the genuine ones from the fake.
So, maybe, just maybe I was unlucky and received a fake one, that was legitimately packed with the genuine ones off the assembly line, who knows.
Hope this info can be of help to you all.
Question is; do fakes sound ‘better’ that’s the what some people say. IMHO the answer is no. different, maybe, better … i don’t think so.
I honestly can’t believe that “fakes can sound better” either. There is no way a fake phone costing $10 to make and made from cheap parts, can sound superior to a genuine one made from quality parts and costing $100 or more…i don’t think so either.
That’s what people claim. I have to say that the Audio Technica ATH-0N3 sounded meatier, but not better.
These are the worst items that Sennheiser has ever put out. Im talking about the genuine product. Pieces of garbage. Completely ruined my opinion of the brand. I’m on my second pair of two , both have the same reduced volume level problem in the the left ear channel after a few weeks, and low distort with certain sources. Purchased at Myer Emco, authorized reseller. First set used on zune, netbook, notebook, mobile, etc… the replacements have been used solely on a new ipod touch with volume limiting enabled, and no abusive music.. They never leave my desk, the cords don’t get twisted or tanged, and they’ve only had about ten hours of Joe Bonamossa pumped though them. yet they failed in the exact same way as the first. Garbage.
At this level, I think radiopaq is hard to beat, however stay away from the ‘Full Range’ radiopaq from HMV!