Sennheiser have impressed us in the past with their earbuds and this latest tech set is the best so far.
The CX True Wireless promises ‘superior quality’ at a mid-range price and it’s hard to argue against after taking these nifty earphones for a whirl.
The square design, like previous earbuds, stands out from the crowd and fits surprisingly well into the ears.
There’s a push-and-twist method to getting them in and making them stay there, but once you perfect it the CX’s rarely move, even when exercising, and feel very comfortable.
Let’s start with the sound.
The basic ‘neutral’ preset didn’t blow me away to be honest.
It felt too bassy for my beloved rock music and aimed particularly at pop and dance tracks.
The mid-range wasn’t quite right and there was an overall dullness.
Now most other earbuds in this situation would be struggling, but thanks to the new ‘smart control’ app that you can download free you can tweak the EQ of the bud output to your heart’s content.
As a result, and thanks to a very easy-to-use interface, I had set up my own bespoke EQ with the bass lower, mids more pronounced and highs kicking through to give me that ideal sound for guitar-based music.
And the app lets you store multiple EQs so that, whatever genre you’re listening to, you get to have the perfect sound for you.
That’s impressive. And it’ll be difficult to go back in future.
You can also customise the touch interface presets on the buds to suit you.
One tap to change track, or answer a call, hold down to raise or lower the volume depending on which bud you’re touching, another movement and you’ve called on Siri, you get the gist.
It’s all very easy and allows a lot of control on the go without ever having to dip into your pocket to extract the physical phone.
The earbuds boast nine hours of battery life and up to 27 hours available when charging in the matt-designed, minimalist but well built supplied case.
And the buds power on automatically as soon as you remove them from the case for speedy use.
The earphones are IPX4 splash resistant too, so you can sweat all over them on a rainy jog and they won’t bat their proverbial eyelids.
There’s even a convenient ‘role switching’ feature which allows either earbud to be used on its own for added versatility, say if you want to share your music side-by-side with a pal or in a phone call, giving you the chance to better hear your own voice.
For this money, the CX’s are a highly versatile set of earbuds, very comfortable and – most importantly – highly customisable so that you’ll always get the right sound no matter what you’re listening to.
Well done Sennheiser.
VERDICT 5/5