Sennheiser CX 6.00BT Review

By Roydon Cerejo | Updated: 11 October 2018 20:08 IST

Highlights

The earphone are comfortable to wear even for long durations
Audio quality is good but the high notes sound shrill at higher volumes
The Sennheiser CX 6.00BT is priced at Rs. 7,490

Sennheiser CX 6.00BT Bluetooth earphones have been in the market for a couple of months and now that we've finally got our hands on a review unit, we thought we'd take them for a spin. Designed for everyday, on-the-go use, the earphones follow a design language that's pretty similar to the Sennheiser Momentum Free.

The Sennheiser CX 6.00BT promise a comfortable fit, easy to reach controls, and, of-course, good audio quality. At Rs. 7,490, they also cost almost half of what Sennheiser charges for its premium Momentum Free earphones. Let's see if the CX 6.00BT manage to actually deliver on the features and performance they promise.

Sennheiser CX 6.00BT design and features

The simplistic design of the Sennheiser CX 6.00BT make them easy to carry around. The chorded design means there's no neck band, so it's just the cable that rests around your neck. You get an in-line control module on the right and another, slightly larger module on the left which houses the battery. There's a little adjustable node at the end of the chord, which can be used to adjust the fit of the earphones after wearing them. They're very light so you barely feel them around your neck, but the modules are suspended from your ears so they tend to dangle about. This doesn't make them ideal for any active use like running or gymming.

The Sennheiser CX 6.00BT feature tiny earbuds with a dual-tone paint job

The earbuds themselves are built very well and have a small profile, so they don't stick out when you wear them. They are built from high quality plastic and feel quite solid. We like the subtle blue accents, which look good. The quality of the silicone ear tips is good too and they fit snugly in your ears. The plastic control pod houses three buttons — two for volume and a centre one for play/ pause. You can also use the controls for other things like skipping tracks and activating your phone's virtual assistant. The earphones also feature a single microphone and a Micro-USB port for charging that's covered by a flap.

Sennheiser doesn't detail the size of the drivers, simply stating that it use a “proprietary speaker system”. The The Sennheiser CX 6.00BT work on Bluetooth 4.2 and the drivers have a frequency response of 17-21,000Hz. They are also available in just one colour, which is black. The rechargeable battery promises up to six hours of battery life on a single charge and the earphones also support high-resolution audio codecs like aptX and aptX Low Latency. The earphones don't have any IP rating for sweat or water resistance, and other notable codecs like aptX HD and AAC are missing.

In the box, you get a three extra sets of ear tips in different sizes and a Micro-USB charging cable. Sennheiser's website states that the CX 6.00BT come with a case, but the company is actually referring to the acrylic box the earphones ships in, which isn't the same as a travel case. We would have liked at least a carry pouch for the earphones themselves for everyday use.

The headphones ship with extra ear tips, a charging cable but no carry pouch

Sennheiser CX 6.00BT sound quality and battery life

We used the Sennheiser CX 6.00BT for a few weeks on a daily basis and found the ergonomics and comfort level to be really good. We didn't have any sort of fatigue issues even after using them for a couple of hours straight. The ear tips sit snugly in your ear for the most part, without budging. They offer a decent level of passive ambient noise isolation but not a lot. We did find ourselves having to readjust them every now and then when we ran while wearing them, as the suspended modules tend to yank them out a bit.

The ear buds don't have any magnets in the housing to lock them together when you aren't listening to music. The ear tips do a good job in preventing sound from leaking, so those sitting around you shouldn't get disturbed.

Audio quality is definitely above average as the Sennheiser CX 6.00BT have excellent presence and a wide and immersive sound stage. Low frequencies are handled very well with well-defined bass that's punchy and tight, which is on full display in tracks like Stargazing by Travis Scott. The mid-range frequencies are also treated with great care as vocals sound crisp without getting screechy and there's plenty of details to be had in instruments.

The Sennheiser CX 6.00BT has an in-line remote for answering calls and controlling music playback

We've typically never had issues with most Sennheiser earphones in the above frequency ranges but the highs is one area where we've seen them falter many times, and sadly, it's the same story here. While there's good sharpness and clarity in treble, the Sennheiser CX 6.00BT does get rather piercing and sibilant at high volumes. This is a real shame since the bass and mid-range really opens up at higher volumes, but the high notes are a bit difficult to handle after a point. This is especially noticeable in tracks like Chains by Fleetwood Mac.

We tested the Sennheiser CX 6.00BT with a variety of music tracks, ranging from music streamed from Apple Music to high resolution FLAC files. We mostly used the Samsung Galaxy S9+ for our testing, but also used the earphones while paired with an Apple iPhone XS and a MacBook Air. You can connect to two devices at a time, which we found very convenient as we could answer calls and listen to music from our laptop without needing to take the earphones off. The microphone works well for voice calls too. The buttons on the in-line remote aren't very chunky and we didn't have any issues locating them. The button press is solid and reassuring too.

The earphones also work well with videos, with no noticeable audio-video sync issues. Battery life, however, is slightly disappointing. We typically managed to get about 5 hours of use, with the volume mostly set to 80 percent or above. There are voice prompts for checking the battery level when music isn't playing and you get warning messages when it dips really low. When charging via a laptop, the earphones took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to charge fully. An LED on the in-line remote turns from red to blue when the earphones are fully charged.

Verdict
The Sennheiser CX 6.00BT impressed us with their inconspicuous earbud design, light weight, good build quality, and decent feature set. Audio quality is good too, but the slightly shrill highs are when you bump the volume up can get fatiguing very quickly. Around this price, you can also find Sony's WI-SP600N which feature noise cancellation and an IPX4 rating for sweat resistance or Beyerdynamic's Byron BT in-ear headphones, if you prefer a minimalistic design.

If you're a heavy user then the battery life would be a bit of an issue, but other than this, the CX 6.00BT delivers decent audio performance, coupled with good ergonomics.

Price: Rs. 7,490 (MRP)

Pros

Light and well-built
Strong bass with detailed mid-range
Two active connections possible
Inconspicuous design

Cons

Sub-par battery life
Highs sound shrill at high volumes
No bundled travel pouch

Ratings (out of 5)

Design/ comfort: 4
Audio quality: 3.5
Battery life: 3
Value for money: 3.5
Overall: 3.5

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.