SonyMDRZX310AP, blue ZX headset with cable driver

Comfortable, great price and sound quality.

I needed some headphones. In the ear ones do not suit me at all. They either hurt, fall out, don't sit well and give you rubbish sound, or are just tinny. So I went for some over the head ones. Being a bit of a sound buff and liking decent sound systems, I was struggling to find decent earphones. I didn't want to get those massive things you see people wearing nowadays that are bigger than their heads but I didn't want to get tiny things and find the sound output was rubbish. I looked for middle of the road sized ones and because I wasn't sure about them, I didn't want to go and spend a small mortgage on a set that I was only going to be using now and then. So, I went for these and for the price, I thought, well if they're not great it is no great loss.As it turns out, the sound quality is fantastic. Sony are generally pretty reliable for sound and vision technology and these are a no exception. Ear coverage is pretty good but not complete, which suits me. This cuts out almost all external noise nicely. The wire is a reasonably good length. The connector is an angled connector which is great on a mobile phone where they stupidly put the jack connector on the bottom of the phone.Only a small criticism for me would be the over head arch is a bit on the bulky side but as they're adjustable, if the arch is too narrow it would be flimsy. These are pretty sturdy so form vs function trade-off which isn't a big issue. Part of me wishes I had got a wireless set of headphones as the wire can get in the way BUT, my experience with wireless headphones has always been that you find they're dead when you want to use them, or they run out of power during playback and keeping them fully charged all the time without discharging the battery would eventually kill the battery, so I did make a conscious decision to buy a wired set.All in all, no regrets and should these ever give up the ghost, I'd buy another set or an equivalent one from Sony. You don't need to pay the earth for headphones.

The headset is quite compact and comfetable on both years. The padding help keep the ears soft and pain free. Good quality sound and mic records recordings. Good for Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams & Online Conference Calls.Note: This is suitable for new sound cards that has a single jack for audio & mic. If you have an older jack that requires audio and mic seperately, this will not work fine, you will have to get a audio spliter, that will sonnect the sing;e jack and divide teh audio and mic streames seperately. But if you get a external USB sound adaptor, which has a single jack input, will help connect this via a USB port. Got this for my Raspbarry Pi device, but found that it does not have a proper audio input jack or built in sound card funtionality, ended up having to buy a USB audio adapter to use this on the Raspbury Pi in order to use Zoom, Skype & Microsoft Teams. Works perfectly and a comfertable fit on the years. Meterial seems to be of good quality pastic as well.

I brought a pair of these upwards of 5 years ago and they had reached the end of their life. I'm a bit of a creature of habit, so I was very happy when I found out that they still sold them (or incredibly similar) all this time later.I listen to music on average around 5-6 hours a day on a mix of headphones, phone or speaker system and I've never had a problem with these headphones, which is clear from going back to them.I have to say though, a new pair was like breaking in leather shoes. The adjusters are stiffer and they aren't stretched or fitted to my head and the earpieces actually click back into place which is nice.The biggest shock was the 'pads' on the ears. On my old headphones, I'd worn them so often that they'd cracked and the foam had broken up so I replaced them with some spare ones my Dad had off of some expensive broken Sony Volvo headphones. I was so used to these more expensive ones that the little circle ones it comes with felt hard against my ears. But considering for at least 4 years I had the original ones, it couldn't have been that bad, I've just got used to better quality. Needless to say, I transferred my better ones over and now my headphones feel perfect. (It's really easy to switch them over if you want to)I also find the built-in mic works well and I use it when on online calls on my laptop or calling people on my mobile and I've never had an issue.For noise cancellation... I'm not sure? I listen to my music loud enough that I cut out the outside world anyway but they don't actively cancel noise like more expensive models.So, for the price they give good sound and fit and pack up small enough to fit in a small (phone-sized) handbag. I'd definitely recommend it for those looking for headphones without all the bells and whistles or on a budget.Hopefully, in another 5 years, they still make them and I can get another pair...