Sennheiser has lengthy held a pedigree for enabling individuals to bob their heads to nice sound. Straddling the road between audiophiles and extra informal listeners, the corporate goals to enchantment to a variety of listeners whereas sustaining a excessive normal of audio high quality, and are all the time value a pay attention. At this value, the CX 6.00BT solely add to the intrigue.
There’s a barebones high quality to those Bluetooth wi-fi earphones we might respect. Sennheiser likes to look a bit of slick with its merchandise, however that’s not the takeaway we acquired after listening to tunes on these.
The CX are made for the everyman on the market: reasonably priced sufficient to be a worthy improve from a less expensive pair that went bust, but at a value level that means nice worth. They received’t be for everybody, however we usually favored what we noticed – and heard.
Design
It’s clear the main design precept was in reducing down the CX’s weight. At solely 49 grams, these had been among the many lightest pairs we’ve ever examined.
The opposite standout characteristic was the small-sized earpieces housing the drivers. If cumbersome earphones have triggered you grief earlier than, that received’t be an issue right here. Each earpieces characteristic contoured frames with a barely pinched look, and which ought to feed simply into your ears. Although the restricted dimension is maybe uncommon for a pair of earphones, these with ears on the smaller aspect ought to respect the sleeker construct.
The earphones are an unassuming black, with navy blue buttons and a few mild silver detailing. They’re plastic, however don’t really feel overly low-cost, which is actually what we might anticipate from Sennheiser anyway.
That being stated, we might cease wanting proclaiming these as winners of any magnificence contest. The CX 6.00BT are a bit like their identify – fundamental and considerably unassuming.
The cable connecting either side is fairly normal, with an inline mic, playback controller and battery charger on the fitting aspect. A clip helps choke up any slack to maintain them from dangling or falling, however we didn’t have a lot of an issue both manner.
The 4 sizes of eartips ought to guarantee any pair of ears can handle right here, although if none of them suffice we might suggest contemplating Comply Foam ideas – which deform to some extent the place they’ll higher passively isolate noise. We tried them to gauge efficiency, but in addition managed tremendous tremendous with the included gel eartips.
It could’ve been good if Sennheiser included a pouch or case to hold the CX 6.00BT round, however as an alternative, you solely get the cumbersome plastic case the earphones ship in, which we weren’t notably eager on utilizing on-the-go. You probably have a pouch from an older pair mendacity round, use that. If not, you might have to spend money on one individually.
Connectivity
Maintaining issues easy out of the field, Sennheiser places the CX 6.00BT in pairing mode straight away. We swiftly paired them with two telephones – one iPhone and one Android machine. The earphones assist pairing with two gadgets concurrently, that means you possibly can hearken to music on one, whereas then taking a name on the opposite, for instance.
A built-in voice assistant confirms a connection or disconnection, together with incoming calls and battery stage. The earphones prioritize the supply machine sending audio over, although it wasn’t easy to regain a connection as soon as it had been misplaced. We needed to reboot the earphones to re-establish the wi-fi connection, inflicting a minor nuisance. Fortunately, that didn’t occur usually.
Cutouts had been very unusual, in actual fact. Sennheiser says the CX’s vary is an effective 30 toes, and our checks appeared to confirmed this. Until obstructed by a wall or comparable, the connection was regular throughout the really helpful distance. We might stroll round a small house with out actually dropping the sign.
The CX 6.00BT does assist each AAC and aptX, in addition to aptX Low Latency. That covers each iOS and Android software program, however within the latter case, Low Latency assist means video syncs notably properly with the audio. We concur with that, discovering little to complain about when watching clips on YouTube, reveals on Netflix or enjoying video games.
Efficiency
The match is essential to discerning how these sound. In any other case, it turns into a lot simpler to jot down them off. We are saying that as a result of it took us attempting a number of of the eartips to get the fitting really feel. Smaller earpieces modified how we positioned them, just because there was extra wiggle room.
By default, the CX 6.00BT skew towards treble, with slight sibilance on cymbals and vocals. Bass is potent, albeit restrained sufficient to permit some steadiness. It was the mids that felt the emptiest, although not with out some recourse.
Sennheiser’s free CapTune app is a playback and EQ software made so as to add customization for choose headphones within the firm’s lineup. The CX 6.00BT are amongst them, and we wasted no time sussing out what we might do.
There are presets primarily based on the style of music you’re listening to, with the choice of intensive customisation on the EQ. On prime of which can be bass and treble boosters, with sliders to regulate how far outstanding you need these frequencies to be. Tinkering with them helped flesh out a extra balanced sound for us, the place hip hop, rock and jazz might sound equally resonant in their very own manner.
It’s nice to have these choices, however there’s a catch: we might solely use it with tunes saved on our gadgets or by the Tidal streaming service. The CapTune’s extra options had been misplaced when attempting to attach the app to Spotify, Google Play Music, Apple Music or some other choice. On the plus aspect, the app can natively play MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, OGG, AIFF and Apple Lossless recordsdata, when you’ve got them in your telephone.
We had been impressed with the general readability of no matter we performed. Streaming from an unsupported supply, like these we talked about, nonetheless sounded good, if a bit of flatter. We discovered we needed to increase the quantity extra usually when in comparison with listening through CapTune.
Passive noise isolation is respectable sufficient as soon as sealing issues up, however we weren’t in a position to block out all of the ambient sound round us. Driving on the subway, the prepare was audible within the background, forcing us to lift the quantity additional.
Name high quality was very good on each fronts. We shocked individuals on the opposite finish when revealing we had been utilizing earphones, and got here away impressed on the readability of their voices, too. Once more, in noisier environments, calls is likely to be more difficult, however the inline mic’s noise cancellation labored like a attraction.
Battery life
Rated at “as much as 6 hours” per cost, we might say it’s nearer to 5, particularly due to how a lot we needed to increase the quantity. That’s removed from spectacular for a pair of wi-fi earphones, however we will excuse it to a level due to the worth level.
The excellent news is we had been in a position to get two hours of playback after solely a 10-minute cost, and a full battery after 90 minutes.
Last verdict
We’d hesitate to suggest these outright for bass lovers. Sustaining an excellent seal does the job of bringing out the lows, however these aren’t quintessential bass-heavy earphones. They’re extra even-keeled and fairly agnostic in direction of all genres.
We’d additionally warning towards utilizing them within the health club excessively, as a result of there’s nothing sweatproof happening right here. These are greatest used for on a regular basis commuting, mild exercises or at any time when the temper strikes to hearken to tunes wirelessly.
And you’ll’t go incorrect with the $100 price ticket. Whereas it’s a tighter race to zero than ever earlier than for wi-fi earphones, we expect Sennheiser did sufficient to face out with an excellent pair within the CX 6.00BT. As long as you get some use out of CapTune, you need to come away happy with the sound on supply.