I received a pair of Sehheiser MM550X cans today and I’m suitably impressed
though everything isn’t roses with this system, there’s nothing much to
complain about really as I regard the gripes I have as minor irritations to be
aware of so as such they will be left to last.
The MM550 is a comfortable closed headset which is of a lightweight but sturdy
build and can be folded up into a carry case supplied for travelling.
As such the user is provided with all manner of adapters for these cans
including an adapter for connection to an inflight entertainment system via the
use of the supplied cable that turns these cans into a very nice sounding pair
of wired cans but the main attraction of the MM550 – apart from its build and
travelling versatility – is the Bluetooth component without a doubt.
The MM550 come equipped with AptX decoding which is noticeable right away when
paired to my Samsung Galaxy S6 and to me the aptX facility is the big sounding
feature for these cans.
Naturally voic calls can be made and answered from the MM550 using Google Now
or similar – SIRI on an iPhone – and the microphones on the MM550 give
extremely good definition in phone calls particularly if you’re able to use HD
Voice on your phone’s network.
I’ve not tried the active noise cancellation feature yet though for a closed
set of cans I wonder why you’d need it?.
The MM550 also provides a “Talk Through” function, suppose you’re listening to
your favourite tracks on a long flight and you wish to hear what’s going on
around you, press the “Talk Through” button and you’ll hear! Without removing
the cans from your ears.
Music sounds wonderful through these cans – whether using the direct cable
connection of Bluetooth – but the Bluetooth experience is certainly made more
worthwhile given the control you have over your music collection from the MM550
system itself which is provided with track forward and back buttons as well as
using the master button as a pause.
I haven’t listened to the MM550 for an extended period of time yet though I
doubt I’ll encounter any problems with sore ears given the weight of this
headset and its luxurious leather padding around the cuffs.
So to the couple of bad things about this headset and the first is annoying.
The lithium-ion battery can be charged either inside or outside the headset but
if you’re charging inside the headset be sure to put your hand over the battery
when you remove the USB charging cable or the battery will come too, that’s
right, out of the headset itself and that’s a very poor design.
The MM550 has direct cable connection however in this mode the headphones are
completely passive meaning that they rely on the amplifier of the system
they’re wired to for volume and that’s fine in theory and really I have no
argument on that score.
The problem is if you’re wanting to direct wire them to the headphones output
of your Cell Phone or similar thinking that the microphones of the cans and the
remote control buttons will work, they certainly will not., as I mentioned at
the start of this review a minor gripe though I’m sure Senheiser could improve
upon this if they really wanted to.
Now is the perfect time to buy the Senheiser MM550 headset as its been
discontinued and you should be able to get it for a good price as I did.
So why didn’t I go for the replacement model? The replacement model has touch
buttons which don’t appeal to me all that much though having said that the
newer model does have an IOS and Android App which might be useful.
