Sony's MDR HW300K

Sony MDR HW300K Review

Hello everyone, Simon here. Today I shall be Unboxing, reviewing and putting my two cents on Sony's MDR HW300K Wireless Headphone.

When most of the people hear the name Sony all they can imagine is its sheer design, beauty and most importantly the new technology that it brings to the world. And now it's brought a new wireless headphone which is packed with power, super acoustic balance and also a sheer beauty to hold. Yes, of course all within the budget. 

Headphones are inundating the market with no quality and bad design nowadays. With being said that I also want to the hold the opposite of it being true. Some good manufacturers are still producing very good headphones within budget and also over-budget. However, great things come at greater price. One of the headphones which literally put me off of my couch was MDR HW700DS. This headphone packs with sheer quality, power and superior sound reproduction. While saying that I need to stress on the price also. It comes quite costly at 52,549 INR at Amazon (discounted). Now what is the special about this headphone which makes me speechless is it's superior/superb sound reproduction with 9.1 channel output.

[Un-Boxing]

Let's focus on HW300K as of now. The carton it comes in is no special compared to Sennheiser or other manufacturers but it surely is packed so tightly and neatly. The outer box is covered with a thin sheet of plastic (very thin) which opens up by itself with a small force of our finger. Taking out of the plastic sheet unveils a box which has the picture of headphone and some writings/specification. Now opening the loop at the top shows us a way to unravel a small Styrofoam kind of element which can be pulled to see the contents in it. The box contains a headphone unit, a micro USB charging cable, an Aux cable and a transmitter with an adapter. The adapter is nicely designed and also comes with a pretty long cord. Believe me it's almost 2 meter cord. And it's Indian plug which helps me to plug it swiftly and easily without the aid of any other adapter! uncovering most of the accessories and starting it to charge was my first step. Since it comes with a factory recharge of 20% it's better to be charged and then use it or test it.

After a charge of nearly 4.5 hours I thought I couldn't wait enough to test it. So I'd to skip the normal charge cycle by half (~nearly). Yes, it shall need a charge cycle of 8 hours after it depletes. Now connecting was easy in setting up the headphone. I simply turned in the adapter to the plug and later connected the other end to the transmitter. It won't light up unless you use an Aux cable from a source (~laptop, mobile, PC or Mac). Once done with all the connections, you don't a driver for it to work, all you need to do is play a movie or song. Once it starts the transmitter lights up small green LED. That means all is well. Now put your headphone on and just to your left, there is a switch that needs to be pressed like 3 - 4 seconds. you'll hear a beep and the sound starts! Voila, it's done.

If you still don't hear any thing and the transmitter is intermittently parsing green light mean you've not made a connection from source to the unit. Try re-connecting it and also make sure you go to sounds option in control panel make the default source as headphone jack. Now you will hear the music or sound which is played through the source.

[My Views] 

Even though this a good build, quite often you can hear a screeching/squeaky noise from the hardware of the ear cups. Yes, they do irritate you a little bit. Being an audiophile I was pretty much irritated and all that I had to do is not to move my head (lol, yeah that's the only solution for this weird build). Coming to audio output it's quite good at this price. But still could have been better since it's SONY. Small frequency and  bass are good. Turning the volume to max. could result in some distortion which is a drawback. Experts say that turning up the volume should always be to 80% max and 25% min for a good sound reproduction. It mainly depends on your system which can parse sound signal. Another thing that bite this headphone is the battery. It can take up to 8 - 9 hours to charge and may deplete within 6 - 7 hours of use which is not good. People don't want to charge their headphones daily as they do with their mobile. These are meant to have a playback cycle of at least 30 hours. Which is practically impossible in this range. However Sony's Bluetooth headphones do work to the above said period. Now the good part is it comes with an Aux cable to connect to your mobile or computer as wired headphone. Hit the jackpot, aye. Well for some it's good for others ain't a big deal. It's little bulky and is closed ear cup, which means it covers entire ear and isolates you from the surrounding space. Thus creating a good cinematic effect.

I saw a horror, action and an adventure movies which proved me that it's a keeper for sure. These are better than your ear buds which gets inside and might harm your ears.

[My two cents]

Use a total customization software of your choice to get good quality sound from your system to the unit. By making this, you'll certainly be happy. And try not to listen to AAC formats at low bit rates. Keep MP3 as min. and try for FLAC if you can to spot the difference. Even though it's just a stereo output this might sometimes fool you with 5.1 effects. Of course, that depends on your system too. So if you're under budget strictly, then go for this and you won't regret it. If you can shell out a little bit more, my suggestion is Sennheiser RS 175 or greater. It come with optical cable which may parse in 5.1 channel output and also it comes with a stand to hold the headphone plus charge it. The charging cycle is less compared to the headphone we are comparing now.

[The goods & not so good part...]

1. comes with a aux cable for wired and wireless headphone
2. has good sound reproduction system
3. plays all music at different frequency with system customization
4. hassle free listening up to 4 - 5 meters.
5. good charging system and playback
6. can rotate and fit snugly to ears
7. comes at a decent price
8. wireless transmitter is small and works charm

1. the battery drains faster
2. cannot play with more than 5 meter distance or with obstacles
3. sound and bass quality is not to the standard level
4. no HDMI or optical cable support
5. listening for long hours could be painful
6. squeaky noise with little adjustment of the cups
7. not so good with wired connection as with wireless playback (don't know why)
8. last but not least comes with a micro USB charging plug which is lame (could have come with wireless or on-stand charging)

it's a must for the people who are not-so audiophiles and if you're in budget.

Well that's it for now. If you've any queries or want any suggestion follow me up (you know where!)

With love, peace and respects, this is Simon.