I finally got a good reason to buy a pair of new phones, and after seeing a couple of reviews pointing them out as a good value choice I decided to try the rather obscure Cresyn brand.

Lets start by trying to work out the price. I paid 245 Swedish Kronor, which is about $35 US or €27* at today’s exchange rate. The reason I mention that first is that these Cresyn phones don’t sound a bit like it – if I hadn’t known the price, I’d probably guessed it to be at least twice as much. They have that quality of… well, having been designed to really play music well, rather than just make it sound good.

One of my main problems with phones is that I listen to a very wide variety of music, ranging from mellow, acoustic stuff to the upper extremes of metal and hardcore, and I have had trouble to find something that can cope with it all. But these phones handle it all admirably well. Acoustic guitars and crisp voices come out clear but still with warmth, and at the harder end the phones keep the definition even during the most extreme blasts of sound, making the experience no more painful than the bands intended. Simply amazing, especially considering the cost I mentioned.

Another thing I’ve noticed with earphones is that they often need to be cranked up to a certain volume before they sound good, but in a silent room these Cresyns provided a good sound with the volume on my player set to 1. I’m pretty sure most eardrums are grateful of the fact that you only need enough volume to cancel out the background sound. Something that also helps in that area is the design. I suppose they are pretty standard as far as in-ear phones come, with three sizes of silicone rubber tips to ensure that they fit most ear canals, but it works well.

The cord is of the asymmetrical kind that hangs over the wearer’s neck, and the length from the short (left) phone is about 0.5 meters, plus a one meter long extension cord. This is for the black/metal version I got (also available with red “stems”) There’s also a white/silver necklace version that is held together by removable clips so it can be used as a regular cord as well. I also think the clean design looks quite nice, the straight stems might look uncomfortable but they are well out of the way thanks to the shape of the driver housings. Besides the ear tips and extension cord the package also includes a pouch made of neoprene-like material. Not really useful, but more useful than the molded plastic cases that often come with earphones since it’s large enough to also hold your average size flash memory-based music player.

To sum this up, I’ll say that Cresyn LMX-E630 delivers excellent sound at a bargain price. With an exception for bass-hungry club music freaks its rich but balanced sound will probably appeal to most kinds of listeners looking for something in a reasonable price range. After only four years since the launch of the brand Cresyn is still quite obscure, but if they keep the quality at this level they might have a bright future.

*Markets are quite different, so for comparison with some popular products the price is about twice that of a pair of Koss The Plug at the webshop where I bought my phones, and a third less than the iPod in-ear phones at Apple’s Swedish online store.