Sony EXTRA BASS In-Ear Sports Headphones

Sony’s EXTRA BASS In-Ear Sports Headphones (MDR-XB510A) are advertised as delivering powerful bass and at the same time are supposed to be water and sweat resistant, thus making them perfect for active and sporty lifestyles.

Sony’s EXTRA BASS In-Ear Sports Headphones (MDR-XB510A) are advertised as delivering powerful bass and at the same time are supposed to be water and sweat resistant.

A comfortable and secure fit for athletes

At the same time, according to Sony, the earphones are targeted at offering a comfortable and secure fit to sports buffs, no matter what sport you are doing, while the built-in arc is tailored to move freely with and support the extended cord.

The earphones come in four colours – red, green, blue and black, to cater to athletes with different tastes and preferences.

I had the chance to review the Sony EXTRA BASS In-Ear Sports Headphones and here are my thoughts and comments on these earphones. The colour unit that I received was the red one, which I think is quite appropriate for females.

The earphones come in four different colours.

When the earphones first arrived, I must admit that I had not realised though, that these are not wireless earphones at the beginning; my go-to earphones are wireless ones. Also, because I have a iPhone 7+, I was left scrambling to find a “Lightning to 3.5mm Jack adapter dongle” so that I could try out the Sony earphones. Fortunately for me, I had managed to locate one quickly enough and thus could get round to using the earphones!

What’s in the box

The box comes with a pair of the earphones, together with a clip, a carrying pouch, a headphone cable length adjuster and various sizes of earbuds, and this is supposed to cater to those with both smaller and larger ears.

The Fit

The middle sized earbuds were originally attached to the earphones and these were a bit big for my ears, so I had to look for the size that fitted me.

I ended up going with the smallest earbuds as I have rather small ears compared to the average person. Fortunately these ones had seemed to fit me fine.

I received the red colour unit.

Running with the earphones

I tried out these sports earphones on my runs. Being an earphone with wires, it was initially a bit troublesome to have my iPhone 7+ to be located within the cable distance.

Then again though, I suppose that the wires can be tied up or loosened depending on exactly where you want the phone to be when you are running, so as to feel comfortable. For example you can tighten the cable if you want to wear your phone on an armband, or have the cable loosened if you want to tuck the phone into a waist pouch.

But a major plus point of having earphones with wires, is that they will never run out of battery! So you can run on and on for miles without having to worry at all about your earphones dying on you or the need to recharge them.

You never have to worry about these earphones running out of battery!

The fit when running, is decent enough. The earphones feel quite firm inside the ears, thanks to the arc support that holds them firmly in place, and they also do not come out of the ears that easily, especially when I am bouncing during my runs or pushing the pace. This is probably due to the earphones’ extended Y-type cord with an adjuster that is supposed to be easily tailored to fit depending on your face shape.

The drawback though was that I also tend to sweat a lot here in Singapore and thus, the split Y-type cord adjuster has the tendency to be affected by sweat or perspiration and become slightly loose as a result of that. As such, I found that I had to tighten the Y-type cord adjuster a few times during a particularly humid 5km run to keep it in place. It had been a bit of an inconvenience. Perhaps these earphones could be more suited to temperate climates rather than tropical ones.

Yet the earphones are supposed to be sweat proof, as well as IPX5 washable so this is supposed to mean that they can handle heavy rain without any technical problems. I have not yet run in the rain to test this out, but this is still reassuring to know that at least the earphones will not short circuit – if I get caught in a downpour with the earphones on!

Music Quality

With regards to the sound quality when listening to music, it is fairly good. The stereo effect is pleasant and distinctive too.

The mid range is clean and clear, but it would have been better if the bass and treble could have been further enhanced though. This would make the music feel more satisfying.

The music quality is clear and distinctive.

This is despite Sony advertising that the earphones are able to pump the low-end frequencies with an acoustic bass booster for powerful rhythms to drive you to give your best each time when you are working out.

Other Features

Other features of the earphones also include the ability to change the music that you are listening to with the push of a button on the earphones. The in-line remote and mic lets you skip music tracks, answer calls and at the same time change the music volume from the earphones itself.