One of my ‘being in flow’ things is running and doing circuits at the gym. It’s a great way for me to relax and come up with novel solutions and listen what I love a lot – music; in the form RnB, Soul, Jazz, Latin, and Movie Soundtracks.
Over the years, and going from being into audiophile hi-fi, 5.1 surround systems and then portable devices such as Sony Walkman’s, Mini-Disc players and now Smartphones, I’ve had many different headphones and occasionally earphones. And there’s one universal problem I’ve had with them (including leading brands such as Sennheiser, B&W (yes, the P5s), Denon, Bose, and Bose (yes, the A8s). After about 9 to 12 months use, I repeatedly hit the same problem – something in the cord breaks and it works only one channel. The usual warranty repair is performed and we have a rinse and repeat cycle in the next 9 month time frame. By the second time, I’ve lost trust in that model of headphone or earphone.
Today, my P5 and a backup pair Denon DJ cans (£250 worth of headphones) both failed on me as I prepared for my morning run. They both went 1-channel on me. My spare Bose A8’s are okay but clearly lack the bass and midrange response of the B&Ws, so while running with these on, it occurred to me that I’d been looking at the wrong solution. As my home music is wireless (oh lovely Sonos), then why not the headphone solution. Enter the Sennheiser MM100’s.
Suited for runners and gym goers, I always had the preconceived notion, that without wires, the musicality of the sound wouldn’t be good enough. Surprisingly playing non audio enhanced Spotify on my iPhone 5, they sounded musical and pleasant once paired over Bluetooth. You can always tell a good pair of cans are good when you want to play more tracks to listen to those extra tones and instruments you feel you’re hearing for the first time. So far this is has been revolutionary. Freed around the house, at the gym and commuting to the office, the on-device controls on the headset are awkward and take some getting used to. But simply not worrying where the cables are and just concentrating on your interaction with your smartphone or tablet is a surprisingly nice feeling. I’m so surprised this had not occurred to me before.
I’ll report back after a month once the euphoria of ‘look ma no hands’ wears off and I’ve tested the headset quality in taking calls on the iPhone. But today heralds a breakthrough – and hopefully a longer life on headphones which no longer means a 1-channel pair which no longer work after 9 months. We’ll see of course.
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