The Bottom Line
The Sensaphonics 2X-Soft are an exceptionally comfortable and very high quality monitor earphone. With custom-fit construction and over 20 years experience in hearing conservation behind them, Sensaphonics' products offer both extremely high-quality audio reproduction - of interest to both recording engineers and musicians - and a road-worthy, well-tested product for hearing conservation. However, some small durability plagued my pair, and based on other user feedback, construction issues can become a costly affair to repair, especially considering the $750 up-front price tag.
Pros
- Custom Fit
- Robust Sound Quality
- Isolation
Cons
- No Universal Fit Option - Hard To Audition
- No Wax Filter
- Price
Description
- Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 16 Khz
- Impedance: 27 ohms nominal
- Sensitivity: 109dB at 1 mW
- Weight: 1 ounce
- Cord: Choice of teflon-coated or break-away cords.
- Supplied Accessories: Hard case, shirt clip, earphones cleaning tool, adapter, storage pouch.
- Custom color options available for an extra charge.
Guide Review - Sensaphonics 2X-S Custom Monitor Earphones
These earphones are custom-constructed of soft silicone from a mold of your ear, taken at your local audiologist for around $50. The ordering process for me was very straightforward; I sent the impressions off from my audiologist, and in 3 weeks, my earphones arrived. The price is $750 plus shipping from Sensaphonics. For a guide about speaker monitoring vs. in-ear monitoring, check out our article on the subject.
Bass extends down to what sounds to be about 30hz robustly, and into 20hz territory as a tactile response. This bass is truly musical, instead of the one-note variety with most headphones. Bass quality is perfectly balanced with the high-end driver.
The mids are accurate but not pronounced; vocals stand out with extreme accuracy, and sometimes accurate to a fault. Acoustic guitars sound fantastic. High end reproduction sounds slightly rolled off past 14kHz, with the usual dip after 16kHz as is typical with balanced armature drivers.
The only drawbacks are the price, first of all. $750 is a lot for anything, especially a custom product you can't try beforehand. Second, the earpieces don't contain a wax filter like some other brands; and this caused an issue for my pair's right earpiece. Third, not a month into owning them, the attached silicone cord came out of the right monitor, causing the internal connection to become weak.
At around $300 per repair, these monitors should be more rugged. That's their only drawback, especially for working musicians on a limited budget.
Sensaphonics has since updated the 2X-S to include detachable, field-replaceable cables as the default option on all new orders. The old fixed-cable design is available upon request.
In January 2010, Sensaphonics announced a major update to their in-ear products -- the 3MAX triple-driver earphone. These offer an extra low frequency per side to give better definition to the low and mid ranges.
Bass extends down to what sounds to be about 30hz robustly, and into 20hz territory as a tactile response. This bass is truly musical, instead of the one-note variety with most headphones. Bass quality is perfectly balanced with the high-end driver.
The mids are accurate but not pronounced; vocals stand out with extreme accuracy, and sometimes accurate to a fault. Acoustic guitars sound fantastic. High end reproduction sounds slightly rolled off past 14kHz, with the usual dip after 16kHz as is typical with balanced armature drivers.
The only drawbacks are the price, first of all. $750 is a lot for anything, especially a custom product you can't try beforehand. Second, the earpieces don't contain a wax filter like some other brands; and this caused an issue for my pair's right earpiece. Third, not a month into owning them, the attached silicone cord came out of the right monitor, causing the internal connection to become weak.
At around $300 per repair, these monitors should be more rugged. That's their only drawback, especially for working musicians on a limited budget.
Sensaphonics has since updated the 2X-S to include detachable, field-replaceable cables as the default option on all new orders. The old fixed-cable design is available upon request.
In January 2010, Sensaphonics announced a major update to their in-ear products -- the 3MAX triple-driver earphone. These offer an extra low frequency per side to give better definition to the low and mid ranges.