[Review] Beyerdynamic MXP 50 iE

Beyerdynamic released a bunch of new products this year, and this is the MXP 50 iE – the minimal, non-fancy pair of earphones but has a single-button in-line control with a microphone. That means this earphone has a 3-line audio jack!

With Beyerdynamic cutting all the extras away and releases a bare-minimum pair of earphones, it actually does come with a cheap price of just RM159. How exactly does it fare out for its price?

Beyerdynamic did keep its packaging essence throughout all the products released this year – the MMX series and also the DX series; no exception even for the budget-oriented MXP 50 iE.

You still get the nice little window to look at what you’re getting, and here it shows the single-button in-line control, the earphones themselves and also the right-angled jack.

[nextpage title=”In the package”]

There’s nothing much to say – the image below shows everything that is included in the packaging.

That’s what you get – a frequency range of 20-20,000 Hz, a cable length of 1.2 meters and also 46Ω of nominal impedance with a sensitivity of 98 decibels. The accessories you get? Just 3 sizes of eartips and a cable clip.

Beyerdynamic cut the cost to even where accessories are affected, but don’t get me wrong, these eartips certainly are high quality and there is no doubt about that.  The S-M-L sizes of eartips are made out of high quality material and the small one does fit comfortably into my small ear canals.

One complaint I have though is throughout my usage of the MXP 50 iE on my laptop, I couldn’t use it for any sort of calls because there isn’t any audio/mic combo splitter included in the package, and that’s a bummer. I guess Beyerdynamic really did their research and made the MXP 50 iE focused 100% on mobile phone users and never considered laptops at all.

[nextpage title=”Sound test”]To further cut cost, Beyerdynamic used the conventional rounded cables instead of the anti-tangle flat cables. I’m not saying that they’re horrible – it’s still okay, and they’re light weight to the point that you wouldn’t even feel them moving about in your ear canals while walking with them in your ears.

Unlike the DX 120 iE which I had a horrible experience to differentiate between the left and right earbud, the MXP 50 iE is no exception in this nightmare too. Hold your horses – the MXP 50 iE has an in-line control, which is fixed to the left earbud’s cable, so it’s actually a lot more easier to differentiate. You just need to know if it’s L or R that is attached to the one side of the earbud, then you’ll know what the other one is within a second.

Onward to song tests on the devices! Side note, I added two new benchmark songs into the list for better range of tests.

Adventure Time – Rogue (Monster 010 – Conquest) [FLAC]

• Lows : Muffled but punchy bass
• Mids : Biased to lower frequency
• Highs : Okay-okay highs

Girls Just Want To Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper (Bioshock Infinite Soundtrack) [320kbps MP3]

• Lows : Couldn’t get the beat well
• Mids : Vocals are clear
• Highs : Clear highs

Orpheus Of The Underworld – Adya (Adya Classic 2) [215 kbps MP3]

• Lows : No punch, but only mild vibrations
• Mids : Decent mids
• Highs : Electric guitar sounds muffled

An Accent Beyond – Aperture Science Psychoacoustics Laboratory (Portal 2: Songs to Test By) [320kbps MP3]

• Lows : Trembles across the entire song clearly
• Mids : Clear mids
• Highs : High pitched at the beginning is done nicely

Rosen aus dem Suden, op. 388 – Orchestra Of The Viennese Volksoper (Great Strauss Waltz, Polkas & Marches) [320kbps MP3]

• Lows : Clear vibrations, but not emphasized as much
• Mids : Crisp instrument notes playing
• Highs : Sounds clear

Salome – The Johann Strauss Orchestra & Andre Rieu (Andre Rieu In Wonderland) [320kbps MP3]

• Lows : Bass is fairly okay
• Mids : Distinctive between lows and highs
• Highs : Flute at the beginning is a little like background noise

The Entertainer – Scott Joplin (The Entertainer – The Very Best of Scott Joplin) [320kbps MP3]

• Lows : Can hear but cannot feel the tuba’s vibrations
• Mids : Piano sounds amazing
• Highs : Couldn’t reach the upper highs

Skyliner – The BBC Big Band (The Age Of Swing, Volume 1) [FLAC]

• Lows : Bass strings are barely heard
• Mids : Couldn’t hear a thing
• Highs : Trumpets dominated everything

The Ballad Of Mr Steak – Kishi Bashi (Lighght) [FLAC]

• Lows : Drums are pretty surpressed
• Mids : Vocals are muffled
• Highs : Very clear and crisp

In The Mood – The BBC Big Band (The Age Of Swing, Volume 1) [FLAC]

• Lows : Barely felt
• Mids : Very clear
• Highs : A little distortion at peak of trumpets’ notes

After a lot of nitpicking around all the songs that I am used to listening, here’s the data I can gather. The volume of the MXP 50 iE is a little too soft compared to other Beyerdynamic products – almost like the XP3 where I had to bump up the volume to really match the loudness of the XP2. Based on the listening test, the MXP 50 iE has a frequency response that is high on bass but gradually decreases as it goes towards the mids and very low on treble.

The sound produced is as if the entire frequency range is too narrow and everything had to be squeezed within a thin frequency range. The other thing is that the MXP 50 iE sounds a perfect pair of earphones for bass lovers, as the highs are just not so good, even the mids are just a little off. Even though I said that it sounds perfect for bass lovers, do keep in mind that like Adventure Time, the bass sounded a lot more sloppy and couldn’t give a real punch to the ear drums like other Beyerdynamic earphones.

The other song that I did not include into the testing songs is Video Boy by Soulero. That song has one of the punchiest beats throughout the entire song and it’s a pretty good starting point on telling what to expect in terms of bass. In the case of this pair of earphones however, the punch just wasn’t there – it felt like there was a piece of paper, rolled into a shape of a ball, and then thrown at your face.

The in-line control is built out of a single button, and has a microphone built into the module. It’s light and small, and has a cable clip so that you can have a large fraction of the weight supported by your clothes for example. It’s near perfect, but my biggest complain is the button itself. Tactile feedback is horrible, you can’t feel if you’ve pressed it or not. Something that I discovered is that if I press only the middle part of the button with my fingernails, the tactile is a lot better. Maybe Beyerdynamic was trying to minimize the clicking sound that you hear on the side with the attached in-line button, but seriously those are the feedback that tells the user if the click was register or not.

The microphone is somehow very good. I used it to do a few Google Now searches on my Nexus 4, and it worked quite well with quite a disturbing level of music playing on my Edifier C3 in the same room. It picked up my search accurately and I had no problems with the microphone at all.

The MXP 50 iE also has a right-angled audio jack, unlike the funky DX series with the 45º audio jack.

[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]The MXP 50 iE wasn’t what I expected from Beyerdynamic, it was something that I couldn’t really get my head wrapped around. The bass wasn’t really there, the mids was with more bass than usual, the highs were a little disappointing. You get minimum accessories and a total of 3 eartip sizes, all in one package with the price tag of RM159.

Rating : 7/10

Is it really worth the price? I’ll say yes. It’s a budget earphone after all, what do you expect? I’m a huge OCD guy and really like to nitpick even the smallest things, but the MXP 50 iE does quite well in the tests for its price of RM159.

For the price you pay, I can’t expect anything out of the ordinary from this particular pair of earphones. If you’re comparing even to the XP2, that’s already RM200. If you’re willing to fork out the extra bucks, go ahead, but you’ll be having much more discomfort with the weight and cable width of the XP2 and also the lack of in-line controls.

For those who are looking for a not-so-serious upgrade from your stock Samsung earphones, just planning to get a replacement for the one you lost or as a birthday present for a casual listener, the Beyerdynamic MXP 50 iE is the one to go for.

Thanks to Jaben Malaysia for letting us review the Beyerdynamic MXP 50 iE!

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