Replacement iPhone earphones on test

Sennheiser MM 50 iPhone black

Manufacturer: Sennheiser
UK Price (as reviewed): £33.00 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed: $69.99 (ex. Tax)

Frequency response: 18Hz – 22kHz
Carry case: None
Tips: Small, medium, large plastic
Cable length: 100cm
Weight: 10g
Remote: Clicker

Sennheiser’s MM 50 iPhone black earphones are the cheapest earphones in this test, and so they do miss a few touches compared to the competition – there’s no carry case included, and as with Apple’s In-Ear Headphones, no clip on the mic and only three sets of tips included.

Unlike the Apple tips, the MM 50s are all made from the same soft, flexible plastic, and it was easy to get a comfortable fit. The MM50 earphones themselves are tiny: while they might be fatter than the Apple ones, the tail that leads the cord away from the earphone itself is smaller and more flexible, and along with the V-Modas, they’re the easiest earphones in the test to insert and they’re easy to wear, too.


Unlike Apple, Sennheiser has put the combined microphone and remote on the left hand-side, and as the assembly sits below where the wire splits, it’s further from the mouth than with the Apple and Bose earphones – 16.5cm down from the earphone in fact, and this contributed to callers finding the microphone quality only average. Although there’s no clip for the microphone, it’s very light and doesn’t drag on the earphones. There’s a button that’s fully compatible with the various iPhone remote commands, although it’s small and isn’t recessed so it can be hard for your fingers to find.

When we listening, we found they were reasonable at keeping out general road noise, but don’t expect the kind of deep immersion offered by the pricier hF2s. They just about passed the ‘Hey Jude’ test, and they can suffer when trying to reproduce higher sounds – the opening tambourines of ‘Hey Jude’ are too sharp and don’t sound natural. That’s not to say they do a bad job with detailed effects and mid-range sounds, but it’s bass where the MM 50s offer the most noticeable improvement over the iPhone’s bundled earphones.

While they lack the precision that you get with some of the pricier earphones – it’s not so much punch as thump – they're big and loud and make rock tracks in particular lots of fun. They're excellent at giving a sense of power and scale to a track; ‘The Fall’ is truly menacing and ‘Only Shallow’ has the heaviness it needs to let its weird guitar sounds envelop you. While the bass is big, it’s rare that it overwhelms a single song, although if you spend all afternoon with very drum-heavy tracks like Atlas they can start to sound a little sludgy.

Still, it seems over-critical to complain given the fact you can pick up the MM 50s online for £33. They’re an easy to wear, light, no fuss set of earphones that fully support the iPhone and are excellent for anyone who doesn’t mind a bit of bass in their music.

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• 7/10

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• 8/10

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• 7/10

Score Guide