Sennheiser Consumer Audio CX True Wireless Earbuds - Bluetooth In-Ear Headphones with Passive Noise Cancellation, Customizable Touch Controls, Bass Boost, IPX4 and 27-hour Battery Life, Black

I’ve been reluctant to go wireless, mostly because of sound quality issues of Bluetooth. But I really like the idea of being free from wires while at work, I already have phone/meeting headsets that are Bluetooth and love them. These went on sale Cyber Monday for a good price so I thought I’d try them.I found them a little bit of a pain to setup. The “Quick setup guide” was lacking information. Once I downloaded the full manual I figured out what I was missing and then got them setup and working with my phone. Sound is very clear and bass is excellent and not muddy. It does take a little tweaking of the EQ in the Smart Control app. Noise cancellation is very good considering its passive. These are generally comfortable but can cause a little fatigue if in for long periods. I’m in and out of meetings everyday so generally this is not a problem for me. I have found that I cannot position them the same in each ear. Everyone’s ears are different but unfortunately the only way to know is to try them. Battery life is good, though I stick them in the case when I leave my desk and the charge tops off on its own. Being Bluetooth, they do drain my phone a lot more than wired buds. I can’t comment on failed bub issues yet, it’s too early, so we’ll see.I didn’t intend for these to be used with phone calls but ended up taking a few calls while wearing them. I was surprised at how good the voice sounded. Warm and no distortion. The person I was talking to said it was pretty good. She had no trouble hearing me.A few complaints in the reviews I noticed of which have fairly simple solutions.1) Lack of bass. Make sure you are using the correct size ear adaptor and that it is snug in your ear. This is critical. They have the medium on out of the box. They seemed fine, but after a couple of days I took a chance and tried the large. Wow, dramatically better. I also found you have to wiggle it just a little to get the maximum effect. Also download the Smart Control app to get a bit more bass from the EQ. I suggest trying the Sound Check component of the app.2) For the units that are prematurely dying, I wonder if the contacts are dirty. The full manual specifies they do need to be cleaned from time to time. Also, they do have a 2 year warranty but you have to contact a Sennheiser partner.EDIT: I mentioned above that I got a little fatigued with them in for a while. After pulling out a couple of hunks of ear wax with the right ear bud, I decided to try some ear wax remover. Not only do the bud fit better, they are more comfortable. Something to think about if you are experiencing discomfort.

Great earbuds

Overall the earbuds are good, but the outstanding part is their 2 year warranty. I've had these in my ears for almost 20 hours (they last ~10 hours on a full charge and charge to full in maybe ~20 min) a day, everything from work to sleep. They're quite sturdy, but they will eventually break; that's were the warranty comes in. You just send them in, pay for shipping and they'll send you out another pair. It's hard to do better for the price.

Edit: originally rated 1 star as the earbuds that I received were open-box/used. I don’t think it’s fair to Sennheiser that my 1 star rating remains on here because that was a fault of Amazon. These earbuds sound great. Absolutely great. The connection seems to be good so far as well (I’ve seen a lot of negative reviews saying otherwise). They are very comfortable for my ears, I’m a Tool Maker/machinist and wear an earbud in one ear I all day and other earbuds that I’ve tried get uncomfortable or start to fall out but I have had no issues with fit at all. As far as the features on the app: the equalization is only a 3-band eq which is a shame, I’d much rather at least a 5 or 7-band eq but it’s better than nothing for sure. The side tone feature is supposed to use the mic to feed into the speaker, allowing you to hear outside talking, but it doesn’t seem to really work at all. I haven’t tested a phone call using them yet so maybe my mic is defective but I really wouldn’t care because I don’t need it. Overall this is a great pair of earbuds for the price.Original review: This item came in with the packaging already opened with another piece of tape over the original seal. The earbuds were covered in earwax and ear hair. Disgusting. If I wanted to buy an “open box/used” I would’ve selected that option instead of paying full price for it.Edit 3/14/2023: it's been 8 months and the connectivity issues have been becoming a decent problem. I take them out of the case and they won't connect, so I put them back it and take them out again and usually they'll connect after the second try. But lately I've been having to re-pair them to my phone. I'll take them out of the case and instead of the usual "power on..... connected" notification, it's just silence. And it's not as simple as just re-pairing them because they won't go into pairing mode unless I reset them. The battery life is also taking a dive.I started out really loving these, now I've been very disappointed because they're just such a hassle to deal with. With all of this, especially only being 8 months of use, I'm going to have to update my review from 5 stars to 2.Edit 7/17/2023: the right earbud just stopped working all together, it'll power on but refuses to connect to BluetoothEdit 1/24/2024: I've been trying to get as much use out of these just to justify the amount I spent on them before I replace them but all it has really given me is issues with connectivity and reliability. I expect any earbuds at this price range to last years, I should have no problem getting the same life out of earbuds that you would expect from a phone. I wish I would've just either returned them or thrown them away a long time ago. I'm going to start looking into replacements now. Adjusting my 2 star rating to a 1 star.