Sony MDR-XB250 Extra Bass Headphone Review

Let us begin this review from the price point, Sony is targeting the ultra budget market with the XB250. In Australia we can pick one of these up retail at about 40 Australian dollars. Online of course this can be purchased for less.
Packaging is as simple as can be, no box here, and the contents included is just the headphone and nothing else.

First impression is that, its all plastic construction, as is to be expected. Some of the components are made to look like aluminum, but are not. Sony has borrowed styling from some of their upper level models, and named it starting with MDR as well. However, here is a serious balancing act going between cost and material.
The headphone is rather lightweight, which is why the headband does not need too much of clamping force. On that note, while the cushion is not deep, the lower clamping force in a manner balances out. I wore it for a few hour at stretch, it was not unpleasant.
The headband is also adjustable so fitting these should not be too much of an issue.

Glad to see the gold plated jack that Sony has included, and it appears to be something that Sony does in regular basis. The cable are what Sony calls finely-grooved Serrated Cable, which I agree they are. They also say that is to reduce tangle, I’ll agree to that as well, it helps reduce, but its not tangle free, bit of a difference there.
Now the business of sound. I’ll just get to the point and say that there is indeed extra bass. The long answer is more involved. The headphone is rated at 24 ohms, and that falls at the lower side of things. But it did not appear that loud, except for the level of bass. So what appears to me is that the mid and treble is toned down to some extent, by some kind of filter. In most case it is ok but in full volume, I could hear some distortion.

Suppressing mid and treble is not something that I personally am happy about. But that is my taste, I like my mids to have that organic feel, to flow freely, a personal preference. But I can certainly see why Sony tuned the XB250 in this manner. There are a wide variety of genres that will benefit from such tuning and large audience who will appreciate it.
In the end it holds true, that we get what we pay for. It is constructed keeping cost down, but apart from choice of material, I have nothing negative to say. If cost compromise is kept in mind, then one may not be disappointed. As far as the sound goes, at this price point we can not have everything, but Sony has shown us that we can have at least one thing and that is extra bass.

The Giveaway
I’m giving away these headphones along with some other earphones this month. More information about the giveaway is presented in the March Giveaway page. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel to keep up to date with future giveaways.