Sennheiser CX 685 Adidas Sports In-Ear Headphones Review

Our Verdict

The $40 Sennheiser CX 685 Adidas Sports In-Ear headphones are great workout headphones for the price, delivering awesome, balanced sound in a sporty blueprint.

For

Balanced sound
Comfortable, secure design
Affordable

Against

Cords tangle easily
No inline remote

Tom's Guide Verdict

The $40 Sennheiser CX 685 Adidas Sports In-Ear headphones are great workout headphones for the price, delivering awesome, balanced sound in a sporty design.

Pros

+
Balanced audio
+
Comfortable, secure design
+
Affordable

Cons

-
Cords tangle easily
-
No inline remote

Sennheiser's CX 685 Adidas Sports In-Ear headphones work just as difficult as you exercise when y'all're working out. Their solid and balanced sound quality will proceed you focused during preparation sessions, and their adjustable, sliding wing design brand them comfortable to kicking. At but $forty, these earbuds will be a favorite both in and out of the gym.

Blueprint

The Sennheiser CX 685 Adidas Sports In-Ear headphones have an elongated design. Each earbud connects to a long, thin piece of plastic that curves at both ends. The top curves are the ear wings, which have a unique "slide-to-fit" construction, and the lesser bend attaches to the cord.

The ear inserts are typical domelike pieces of silicon, and the ones for my review units were dark blue. The superthin cord was the same color, with the rest of the buds accented in black and silvery.

While I appreciate the CX 685 Sports' simple design, I wish these earbuds had an inline remote similar the $79 SMS Sound STREET by 50 Wired Sport earbuds and Sennheiser'due south own new $69 CX 686G Sports earbuds. The remote fabricated it easier to skip through songs and adjust the volume without pulling my smartphone out of my pocket.

These CX 685 Sports are as well prone to tangling, which is a hassle. After angling them out of my gym purse, I had to spend a infinitesimal or ii detangling the cord earlier I could plug in and zone out.

MORE: Best Headphones

Comfort and Fit

The Sennheiser CX 685 Adidas Sports In-Ear headphones come up with iii sizes of ear inserts. I chose the medium inserts, which sealed off my ears completely without existence constrictive or uncomfortable. When I jogged on the treadmill or lifted weights, these earbuds stayed put and required little to no readjustment.

You can motion the buds' slide-to-fit ear wings up and down to adapt them to your ears. I put the buds in my ears by sliding the wings all the way up, securing the ear inserts and the sliding the wings down until they fit in the outer part of my ears.

These earbuds don't accept interchangeable ear wings like the SMS Audio earbuds do. While SMS Audio's wings are fabricated of more than flexible silicon, I liked being able to adjust the CX 685 Sports' wings on the wing.

Audio Quality

The Sennheiser CX 685 Adidas Sports have the most counterbalanced audio of any sports earbuds I've yet tried. The earbuds took Eminem's biting vocals and Charmagne Tripp's melodious tones and married them well in "We Made You lot," making the entire track sound punchy.

In P!nk's "Endeavor," I could hear the vocals, pianos, strings and tambourines much better on these buds than on the SMS Audio STREET by l Wired Sport earbuds, which overpowered the same rail with heavy bass.

Imagine Dragons' "I Bet My Life" had the aforementioned counterbalanced audio. While I enjoy the superpowerful bass that shook my core when I listened to this rails on the SMS Audio earbuds, the background vocals that came through on the CX 685 Sports were completely lost on the SMS buds.

I also didn't hear equally much distortion at loftier volumes on the CX 685 Sports every bit I did on the SMS Sound earbuds. I could heighten the volume to at least 80 pct before tracks became harsh.

The Sennheiser CX 686G Sports earbuds are very similar to the CX 685 Sports. The CX 686Gs offering similarly balanced audio with slightly more pronounced lows, which deepens the bass and drums, giving each rail fuller sound.

MORE: Best Bluetooth Speakers

Bottom Line

While they're made for the about active parts of your day, the $41 Sennheiser CX 685 Adidas Sports In-Ear headphones are solid earbuds for any situation. They're a steal at $41, providing well-rounded sound in a comfortable design that will proceed your caput in the game at the gym or wherever your workout takes yous. But keep in listen that yous don't go an in-line remote and that the cords are decumbent to tangling.

If you have more to spend, Sennheiser's $69 CX 686G Sports earbuds are more well-rounded because they offering full, balanced sound; a convenient inline remote; and a sporty design. Bass enthusiasts will desire to opt for the $79 SMS Audio STREET past l Wired Sport earbuds. Overall, though, the CX 685s deliver a lot for a little.

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Follow Valentina Palladino at @valentinalucia. Follow Tom'southward Guide at @tomsguide and on Facebook.

Valentina is Commerce Editor at Engadget and has covered consumer electronics for a number of publications including Tom'south Guide, Wired, Laptop Mag and Ars Technica, with a particular focus on wearables, PCs and other mobile tech.