Sennheiser PX 200-II

The PX range is one of Sennheiser's most reputed headphones collections. But with more and more headphones flooding onto the market to cater for our growing number of portable devices, the German manufacturer has perhaps not moved in the best direction with its updated version of the PX200.

Design: where did that case go?

There's been no real change in design since the previous model, the PX 200. The PX 200-II has the same lightweight design, high-quality finish and discreet but not-too-fragile feeling of its predecessor.

Unfortunately, Sennheiser has changed one very important thing. The hard case and accessories have been ditched, and the pack now just includes the headphones with a cloth pouch. The problem is that due to their lightweight design, the PX 200-II aren't the most hard-wearing headphones around. You'll therefore have to handle them with care, especially when carrying them in a bag, otherwise you may end up buying a new pair of headphones much sooner than you expected.
The cable is of a decent length and will be long enough to reach an mp3 player in your trouser pocket.

Audio Quality: 10 Hz - 27 kHz, for real?

It's funny to see how some manufacturers' advertising departments seem to go crazy with the tech specs of certain products. Now's not the time or the place for another rant about how it's actually pointless to achieve such extremes in frequency, but it's certainly worth pointing out that the likelihood of a product actually reaching these frequencies is pretty improbable. In fact, we couldn't help but laugh the first time we used these headphones, as no matter what Sennheiser's marketing may say, the bass was simply nowhere to be found.
In fact, the PX 200-II only really deals in medium and high frequencies, which makes the overall output sound dry and aggressive.

Nevertheless, these headphones do offer excellent accuracy and a nice, wide sound stage. This helps make up for the lack of bass. The PX 200-II certainly aren't soundproof though, as they're too small and not tight-fitting enough to keep your music private. So if fellow commuters start shooting you dirty looks, don't say you have been warned!

In the end, we're a little disappointed by this new PX200-II. Sennheiser fails to use the long years of experience clocked up by the previous version to improve the product in any meaningful way. We're also disappointed to see our beloved hard case has been ditched.