Thought I'd put up some pictures I took earlier.
*snip*
If anyone with some experience of these headphones could help, I'd appreciate it.
Hi Foster.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but I strongly suspect the above phones are, alas, fakes. If it's any consolation, I've just been done by an Amazon seller flogging precisely the above.
Thoroughly annoyed with myself for being so foolish but in my defence the seller was part of the "Fulfilled by Amazon" service (stock kept and dispatched by Amazon must be legit, right? No, apparently) and had a 100% feedback score, even receiving acknowledgements of the receipt of "genuine Sennheisers" from fellow dupes.
The only plus is that the FbA scheme should mean a painless refund, if the Amazon customer rep I contacted today is proved right.
Fortunately, I retained my previous, genuine CX400 II's (the right earphone is damaged, hence the intended replacements) to make a side-by-side comparison, which revealed several inaccuracies. Hopefully the following will help others:
So let's start with the carry pouch. Several discrepancies here, first of all the exterior. The fake's pouch is noticeably smaller, the "S" is shinier and vertically stretched and the square that surrounds the logo's cut-off points are strangely rounded; by contrast, the original's are perfectly squared off.
Exterior
Inside, the difference is even more obvious if you know what you're looking for. Once again, fake on the left, real on the right:
Interior
Moving onto the earphones themselves, probably the biggest give away is the "CX400 II" name plate:
Fake
Genuine
Sadly, yours (as mine) appears to match to the former rather than the latter.
Also, if you look closely, you may notice the connections into the plate look ever so slightly frayed on the fake set;
slight imperfections are the overriding theme.
Less instantly noticeable are tiny differences in the Sennheiser logo on the actual buds:
Fake
Real
Apologies for the photo quality, but you may be able to work out that the real set has little rounded curves on the "S" whereas the fake's is square.
Finally, the speaker grille in the fake set is extremely shiny (you can see your reflection in it!) in comparison to the dull sheen of the genuine set's.
More generally, the fake's cheap and nasty build quality is clear when holding both pairs: the wires feel rough, tacky and lightweight. For the most part though, it's annoyingly accurate and I doubt I'd have cottoned on without the benefit of owning a genuine pair and knowing what to spot in a fake from previous forum posts.
In summary then, *
don't buy from ExpressDelivery50 on Amazon* or anyone other than a licensed seller for that matter.
Hope you can get something sorted.
EDIT: Just to confirm, Amazon has refunded the purchase after receiving the return. *phew*