Rating: 
Summary: Headphones great, but don't lose the earbuds
Review: The headphones sound terrific, but gross as it is you'll have to constantly clean them for earwax because it makes a significant impact to the sound quality. I could live with that, but the thing that was most irritating was that the earbuds come off very easily, so it's easy to lose them when you carry them around in your pocket with your MP3 player. For some reason, Sony doesn't sell packets of ear buds, and after scouring high and low including the Sony store, the only place i found to buy the earbuds was the Sony replacement center which wanted to charge almost $8 a piece for each individual earbud!! (including taxes, shipping etc.). The headphones are basically unuseable without the earbuds.So the lesson is, if you're a careful, meticulous person then definitely buy these because the quality is excellent. If you're someone like me who plans on carrying them in your pocket all over the place, be prepared to either shell out a daylight robbery type of price for replacements or buy new headphones altogether pretty soon.
Rating: 
Summary: your mileage will vary
Review: I recently purchased Sony EX71 earbuds, since I was weary
of the unbearable no-name buds that I happened to use once
before while listening to MP3 from my Compaq 3850 PDA. I was confused by the many discordant opinions about these
buds; except all agreed that the buds were comfortable.
Shure e2c earbuds have been described in much less polite
terms as to comfort, which was my main discriminant in
purchasing the EX71. I'd be curious to try the Shure, though.
Yet, I decided to try a pair of EX71 and do a little subjective
testing of my own. The results may be of general interest, so I
am posting them here. As to the comfort, I subscribe to the general opinion. Sony
EX71 are positively very comfortable. I tried and sit under
them at work for 5 or 6 hours with no more discomfort than
that of reasonable over-the-ear phones. That's not bad for
a device in close contact with my ear canal. As to the sound, the issue is thorny. By way of summary I
can say this: I think the EX71 are not bad at all, but I also
think they are difficult to drive--not an easy load from my
experience, and if poorly driven they sound truly terrible. Here is my setup 1)
Winamp with MAD MP3 decoder
Delta 2496 Audiophile card
META42 phone amp with AD8610 (mildly bright amp) Here is my setup 2)
Compaq 3850
PocketMusic 1.2 MP3 player (www.pocketmind.com)
Cans driven directly from phone plug Comparison headphones: Sennheiser HD580 Let me premise that I cannot hear anything above
16,000 Hz, as tested with a tone generator and the
HD580. On the low end I can hear down to 16-18Hz. Impression on setup 1: The Senn are clearly superior :)
but the EX71 put up a good fight: EX71 buds are pleasant
to listen to. In more detail: (a) The bass lacks the depth and precision of
the HD580, but as long as you don't push the buds too
deep in your ears the bass is acceptable. The "as long
as" is a very important conditional clause, and, to me, it's
an advantage because I find it uncomfortable to have
objects deep-seated in my ears. I understand this can be a
serious drawback for those using the buds in very noisy
environments or while jogging or sporting. On the other hand,
bass is there in reasonable quantity and quality. Not bad, not
bad at all. (b) Mids are a bit rough and a bit muddy on the
EX71. The Senns are smooth as velvet, clear as drinking
water. EX71 are cotton, but not burlap. The difference is
easily audible, and tolerable. The EX71 are reasonably well
defined and selective, different components can still be picked
up easily. (c) Mid-hi and high end in the EX71
is somewhat too exuberant; the EX71 pull out hiss from the
darkest corner of a recording, tending to exacerbate the
harshness of mediocre remasterings of '70s or older tracks.
In these cases, a good DSP is just about mandatory. On good
tracks, the EX71 are pretty good, more brilliant, even if less
defined than the HD580. Still easy to listen to. Impression on setup 2: The Senns are merciless, MP3
artifact in the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra at
128Kbps are truly annoying. However, the 3850 does a
reasonable job of driving the cans both when the digital
volume control is half way and when it is full way up.
The sound level is OK at full volume. The EX71 at half
volume are unpleasant, at full volume they are
unaudible--not because the sound level is too high, but
because the sound quality is insufferably poor. Apparently,
the 3850 has a hard time delivering current (EX71 are
rated at 16 Ohms), an attribute probably shared by much
portable electronic equipment. The EX71, it seems, easily
provoke bad electronic behavior and are very intolerant
of it, too. This seems to me as an alarming mix. --------- Since I bought the buds for portable use, I tried a 3rd
setup hooking up a second META42 with a Burr-Brown OPA2132
(a more mellow, darker-sounding amp) and plugged the EX71
into the META42. This worked MUCH better; the general tenure
of the result was still hissy (not much, but audibly so,
probably from the PDA as the amp is as quiet as a church
mouse). The sound quality improved remarkably, and I never
drove the PDA volume tab past halfway. By way of example,
on one occasion when I took the setup outdoors I thought I
heard a bell tolling in the distance in the real world, while
I was listening. Repeatedly I took off the buds, only to
realize that the sound was actually part of the reproduced
musical program. In sum, I will keep my EX71. They are comfortable, very
small, and if properly driven their sound is not bad at
all to me. People that hear past 16,000 Hz or have
different priorities may certainly think otherwise, but
I'm pretty happy with my pair of EX71.
Rating:
Summary: Great for Sony portables!!!!
Review: For everyone out there with a sony cd-player or Minidisc player, my best advice is to find these headphones and purchase them. I have read some reviews that their bass is too heavy, but that's only when you get greedy and turn the bass up to 'bass 2.' These headphones naturally produce bass, similar to the Bose TriPort headset.
The reason these headphones are at the top of my list is for the simple reason that I own a MZ-N10, and the headphones are the proper length for cd players/minidisc players with remotes. Kudos to Sony for thinking about us, and realizing that the headphones equipped with their top-end portable models aren't that good, and need upgrading as soon as you buy them.
Rating: 
Summary: Small earbuds for small ears!
Review: For a few weeks now I have been searching the world wide web over for a pair of earbuds that would fit in my rather small ears. The good news is that these definitely do the trick. The earbuds are made of a very soft and malleable rubber and the smallest size bud is really very small so they fit quite comfortably. If you struggle as I have to find a small enough pair of earbuds look no further...these are they...and although they are a bit pricey they are well worth the expense!
Rating:
Summary: Great earbuds
Review: I've read reviews claiming that these earbuds sound thin. I've read reviews claiming that they're bass heavy and boomy. Can the reviewers be listening to the same earbuds? I listen to streaming audio all day both on my laptop and via my Dell Axim as an MP3 player and I've gotta say that, if it's in the recording, the EX71's reproduce it. When there's bass, they put it forth. When there's no bass, well, they don't create it. The top end is accurate maybe a little rolled off above 15kHz. But, you can adjust the top end. In the earpiece, there's a little hole in the material where the highs escape. If you enlarge that hole, you get more high frequencies. Don't make it too large -- there's no way to make it smaller. I'm pretty experienced when it comes to audio equipment -- I've owned everything from Adcom gear and Infinity speakers to Cary tube gear and Magnepan speakers -- not necessarily paired in that order. =) The EX71's are not as transparent or as good at resolving low level detail as the best gear out there but I think that the Sony's are a good listen, especially considering what they cost. I'm not afraid to use these on the metro. Out of curiousity, I might get a pair of Shure E2's to use in the office or at home. But, for what they cost, I doubt I'd use them on the train, unless they offer a lot more isolation than the Sony's. One thing the Sony's do is isolate you from extraneous noise much better than traditional earbuds.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Sound Quality! Hi-Fi on the GO!
Review: Amazing sound quality! You will not believe your ears. After trying these you will never go back to the [garbage] you've been pumping into your ears. The sound is hi-fi. Now, the downside: I went through 2 pairs before I got one lasting longer than a couple days. (both in warranty so no problem) Now, my current set has [pooped] out. About 1.5yrs later. But I did put them through their paces. So, YMMV. The Weird Side: You can't hear a thing if you have these things on and playing. (Or even just on ... almost) So, if you're used to jogging, biking, etc. while listening to tunes, get used to getting the wits scared out of you by cars that get right on your tail before you notice them. The bottom line: The price is a little expensive for portables, but believe me they are WORTH it. Every Penny!
Rating: 
Summary: Not good for active people
Review: When I had read all of the reviews of these headphones I was pretty excited to try them out. When I opened them up and listened to them sitting at home they sounded great! Then I went for a jog.......a totally different story. Once the earphones are in place they do a great job of cancelling out sound but any movement of the cord at all (bumping against your shirt while running) transmits the sound directly to your ears. Anybody who has used a stethoscope will know what I'm talking about. While running (even walking) you hear this constant loud bumping sound being transmitted to your ears. I cannot believe that I haven't heard this mentioned before, its pretty significant. For sitting at home their great but if you plan on moving your body at all, forget it.
Rating:
Summary: Smaller, but - uh - cleaner.
Review: The Firesign Theatre also said: "Living in the complex world of the future is a little bit like having bees live in your head." Welcome to the future. The down side: you have to let these diminuitive latex prosthetics insinuate themselves into your ear canals in a most unseemly fashion. The up side: Karl Hyde and Rick Smith arpeggiating those little hairs in your cochlea, directly. From inside your head. It's like the board is plugged into your head, a digital connection, no speakers at all. If that's too much intimacy for you - Hey. I totally understand. Best to stay away from these things. They are outrageous.
Rating:
Summary: These earphones are just like earplugs¿
Review: These earphones are just like earplugs... God and bad goes with that! When I first used these earphones I was kind of disappointed. They didn't sound better than my original Ipod earphones. I put them half sloppy in my ears and thought that this is how they are supposed to sound. It took me a full day before I pushed them into to my ears like an earplug. BIG DIFFRENCE!!! I like them because I can type on my keyboard without hearing myself typing. I wish they had some more bass but besides that for the money you can't go wrong. I paid $34 including shipping. They are pretty comfortable after a couple of days. I use them for hours and I don't get fatigued. I like them more and more... But beware... You won't hear the door bell!
Rating:
Summary: Believe the hype.
Review: I recently bought a Rio Chiba 256 cheap off of Ebay and after reading all the glowing reviews decided to buy these from Amazon for a reasonable 34 bucks to replace the 10 dollar Sonys I got from Wal Mart.
While impressed with the Chiba I thought it could stand to be a little louder because I do like loud music on occasion.
Thats where I'm a little disappointed with the 71's.
In my Chiba the $10 Sony's actually sound a little louder than the more expensive 71's.
The 71's have zero distortion and sound better however so they are worth using.
Sitting here typing on the computer on the other hand shows just how great these headphones are.
With the extra power soundwise the computer has vs the Chiba you can really see what the 71's can do.
With some power to them they are truly unbelievable!
I just wish my Chiba could sound like that!
Oh well its probably better for my ears that the Chiba is on the quiet side.
BTW I don't listen to anything less than 128kbps which to real audio snobs I know is garbage but I'll bet more people are using 128 than are using higher scan rates or newer formats. In closing if you have a high powered portable like I heard the Karma is or you plan on listening to them on a computer then buy them you'll be amazed.
If you plan on using them only in a Chiba or similar MP3 player that is on the quiet side you won't be disappointed but you won't be blown away either. BTW I really debated getting the 51's without the extention but I'm glad I opted for the flexibility of the 71's. I don't use a armband but the short cord is just perfect for a jacket I own. Overall an amazing piece of technology. 10/10
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