review:
i bought these earphones after reading about them on the internet and after wondering what all the hype is about.
These earphones are Sony's top of the line ear phones and the reputation among the internet is that these are the best sounding earphones that you can buy. So, what's the verdict??..... well- here it comes, and i must say that i expected better.
These earphones sound good. Excellent imaging- the best i've heard from an earphone. Excellent detailing- u can truly hear every detail in the music. As for mid- bass and bass, it's a different story. I must say that it is ok. It is very acceptable but it doesn't have the warm sound that are produced by the MDR-848's which are one model down. They don't have the stronger midbass, and the bass response just isn't deep enough. Another problem with these is that they don't handle enough power.
The thing i've heard about headphones is you have to 'break them in' before they perform at it's optimum- and after running these earphones for about 2 weeks, there was only a slight improvement in the power handling. At volume, it is easy to make the sound crackle, and in fact, they can't get very loud at all. For the price of these earphones and from all the rave reviews out there on the internet, i expected much more from these headphones and i must say i was disappointed.
In an atttempt to give some sort of compassion for these headphones, i plugged them up to my Sony MZ-R50 (i normally run them on my Kenwood DMC-L7R), with it's lower power output, and listened- and again, it was easy to make the earphones crackle. I had expected for Sony to make earphones which could handle the power output of their own machines!!- but obviously they could not!! The cheap standard earphones which came with the Sony can handle more power than these top- of- the- line MDR-E888's!! This is just not good enough from Sony!!- Sony have a reputation of making quality products, but from my last few Sony experiences, i have been disappointed by every one.
I believe that this is the only review on the internet which is critical of the Sony MDR-E888's performance- as i have only seen reviews praising the sound quality from the E888. This is absolutely what my page is about- and the reason why i have created the Audio File pages on my website. Too many people who have no real audio knowledge are writing reviews on the internet and it's just not good enough.
The MDR-E888 is good- but it's not good enough. It is suitable for moderate volume listening of moderate pop level music.
It produces good detail, but it can't handle very much power for when you want to turn up the volume a bit more.
I reccomend the MDR-E848's. - the next model down. I have used the 848's for years untill they wore out and i have always been happy with them. I am happy with my 888's however- but am disappointed they are not better for the reasons mentioned above.