Going underground with the PX200s

A stylish choice of headphones is de riguer for the MP3-type around town. For a while we went with the excellent PX100s from Sennheiser, which sound great, are very light, have a sharp silver and black design, and are quite comfortable. They also fold up like spectacles when you’re done. They're great for commuting, because they’re robust enough to cope with being folded up and scrunched into a coat pocket when you emerge blinking from the Underground. They come with a snazzy hi-tech carry case, but we’ve never bothered with it.

However, we’ve spent enough time listening to the tinny crackling from the phones of the person sitting next to us to feel guilty about noise leaking from our open-backed PX100s. Recently we switched to the PX200s (pictured right), which have a closed earphone back to help contain the sound.

The PX200s have a soft leatherette padding on the earpieces, which initially felt less comfortable than the foam earpads of the PX100s. The closed back also makes a surprising difference to the sound. At first they seemed harder, brighter, and louder after the gentler open-backed PX100s, but after a week we’d tuned into the new tone and enjoyed the extra volume, especially on noisy journeys. We're glad we made the switch and it’s good to know we’re not inflicting our musical choices on other stressed commuters. -MP