US$10 Earphones Challenge - Buying Sony MH1 In 2019

I put this Sony MH1 earphone as the most tempting budget earphone up to today. Thus, I am quite remember at the first time I am using this Sony MH1, the felling for this earphone is not so much fun. The sound quality is very bass oriented and the staging is quite narrow. These earphone also not comfortable in my ears at all. I have no choice at that time since this earphone is the only one I have, so I bring this MH1 for on-the-go. The truth is, the more I listen to this MH1, the bass become more control and the high frequency reveal to it's full potential. This MH1 is a gem on mid-range and this is happen after the earphone breaking in.

The reason I put this Sony MH1 again is because buying this earphone for US$10 in 2019 is a steal. MH1 sells in bulk, means no packaging from Sony Ericsson at all. Don't wish for the warranty as well. So the risk is all yours. But the good things is I never got myself Sony MH1 fake on the market yet. Even I search online, there is no fake or counterfeit for Sony MH1 product yet.

Sound quality for MH1 after bereking-in are very very good especially if you like warm vocal with solid music instrument without ear fatigue. I cannot wondering in the long travel, let's say more than 4 hours on the airplane but I got on my hands a crap sounding earphones except with this MH1.

One thing I have experience with my pre-owned MH1 before is the filter cap inside the earphone are easily pull out by itself. It is only attach by glue and once the filter are not intact, the sound get distorted. So keep this earphone in room temperature is a great things you want this MH1 perform well for long period of time.

The tape style cable like in this MH1 is yes and no for me. Yes because you will not find the cable are easy to tidy up and not messing around unlike the round typical cable. And no because it is not very comfortable to wear with the earphones.

The left channel has the mic and control buttons for headset. This MH1 is OMTP configuration which means the jack 3.5 mm connector has different layout to today CTIA standard. Connect directly thi MH1 to audio player, in many cases, cause the sound become mono and canceling each others. Since I using this MH1 primary only for listening to the music, I will remove this mic module board and connect directly the cables to the earphone. This method also modify the OMTP to CTIA connector. It is now a true stereo earphones connector without changing the sound quality. You can also follow the easy method for converting the OMTP to CTIA in this post.

You might wonder why not just change the cables to the better one? I've tried before and I fail. So without any risk to lose again, I just using whatever the MH1 using in the package including this cable.

I bypass the cables so no more mic connection between the 3.5 mm jack to the mic module board. It is now a true stereo earphones.

I also cut the plastic case and joint them together with glue. Not look pretty at the first sight until I sanding the surface and wrap it with heat-shrink tube.

And this is what it like when finished. More information regarding the MH1 driver impedance is 16 ohm. This earphone has good sensitivity level so no worries to be driven directly from any DAP without external amplifier.

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