The Sony MDRXB50AP/B (catchy right?) are a midrange in-ear headphone, meaning that they will perform better than most headphones you get in a box with your smartphone but not as well as more expensive, more refined headphones. And that is exactly what these headphones are geared towards, with the inclusion of an inline mic to play and pause your music without having to take your phone out of your pocket. Relatively inexpensive, optimised for your phone, headphones which you can take anywhere. Sounds ideal right? As a concept, yeah, they are pretty ideal, but let’s see how Sony has managed put this idea into practice.

Cred: Sony

Specs

Design

There isn’t a huge amount to be said about the design of these headphones at first glance. They fit in with the minimalist design language that Sony tends to follow with their bigger, over-ear headphones. The grey silicon ear buds that mould to the shape of your ear come in 3 different sizes in a nice Goldilocks configuration; too small, designed for the BFG and just right. I was particularly disappointed with the way the ear buds fitted to be honest. Usually a silicon ear bud will simply fit in your ear and you don’t really notice it once it is in unless it is a particularly long listening session. However, the Sony’s became uncomfortable, even bordering on painful within 15 minutes. The only saving grace here was the fact that it never got more painful than this even on a 4-hour coach journey so I guess that’s a good thing…

The rest of the ear bud then protrudes out of your ear more than your standard ear bud a la the Sennheiser In-Ear Momentum. The design does seem to mimic the Sennheiser’s quite a lot actually, even down to the silver disc on the end. 

There is an in-line mic which supposedly works with both Android and iOS on the left-ear cable which can pause/play music and to take calls with but no function to control the volume. This is slightly disappointing as Apple’s free headphones can control the volume from the in-line control. I don’t see a reason why you can’t when you have spent good money.

What is more of a problem however is that the pause/play function did not work on my Android devices (my Samsung Galaxy S6 and the wonderful beast that is the Hudl 2. Don’t knock it, it’s brilliant). This was irritating as one of the reasons I chose this pair over another was the fact that it explicitly stated that it would work on Android. The Hudl I can maybe forgive as it is pretty old, running Android 5.1 Lollipop and cost less than £100 in the first place. But my S6 is less than 2 years old, is a former flagship and is running the latest (by Samsung standards at least) Android 7.0. There is no reason that I can see that they shouldn’t work.

Other design features include a 90-degree headphone jack to protect the join and a few options of colours to take your pick from. These are Black, White, Blue and Red (however the Blue and Red options both have the same black ear buds, just different coloured cables and in-line controls.)

Performance

Now this is a tricky one because it really depends on what you are listening to. If it is something slow and acoustic, for example London Grammar’s Oh Woman Oh Man, then these headphones sound pretty good, especially for the price. It’s a nice warm, round sound that is very easy to listen to and whilst you won’t be blown away by the clarity it is perfectly fine. The piano is clear and the guitar rolls through its riff with no trouble. The highs aren’t really present however, and I’m not sure you’d even know there is a constant cymbal beat if you didn’t know the song. But on the whole the ambient feel of the song was portrayed relatively well.

However, London Grammar listeners are not the demographic these Sonys are chasing after with, “EXTRA BASS” sprawled across the box. Without wanting to categorise people too much, I feel like the majority of people who buy these will be more likely to follow the charts where a lot more is happening in a song and this where the headphones begin to stumble.

“EXTRA BASS” is definitely not false advertising. It is there by the bucket load and is overwhelming at times which would be fine, but the bass is muddy and feels like a drunk Barry White slurring his way through the humming section of Mary’s Boy Child. So all you get when you listen to Lorde’s masterpiece that is Green Light is a wall of sound that swallows up the piano riff in the pre-chorus. At the other end of the scale, the top end just becomes white noise.

The headphones cannot keep up with the fast cymbals in Mr Brightside and suddenly there are visions of The Killers playing on a beach where instead of using cymbals they just use the sound of waves crashing on the shore.

Conclusion

As I was writing this I worried that I was being too harsh on the Sony MDRXB50AP/Bs and that I haven’t quite got the right balance of being critical given that this is my first review. The only reason I got these in the first place was because my beloved Sennheiser In-Ear Momentum IIs had died a death and I needed a quick replacement whilst in America.

But then I remembered that for only £10 more I could have got the Beyerdynamic Byron’s or SoundMagic E10 and would have served as a much better quick replacement. They are leaps and bounds above the Sonys. If you are looking for a pair of sub-£50 headphones, these are my two recommendations. The Sony’s are still better than the free pair you will get in the box, however, I feel your money will be better spent elsewhere.