Sennheiser CX300 Headphones: Counterfeit or Genuine?

Sennheiser CX300 Headphones: Counterfeit or Genuine?

The information provided here serves as an update to previous attempts at identifying counterfit CX300 headphones. Previous guides covering identification procedures on ebay and the internet are considerably outdated as fake headphones are increasingly more difficult tell from genuine ones.

In identifying fake headphones there are the following considerations regarding the specification of the CX300 given on the sennheiserusa specification sheet and deduced from the high resolution images also provided on the sennheiserusa product page. Both links are provided below.

The cord must be 20 inches (right), 7 inches (left) to center and 2.8 ft. to the plug.
The plug/jack must be a silver 1/8 inch angled plug.
The metal grill covering the speaker cavity must be a finely woven wire mesh.
The metal ring surrounding the earphone must have an indentation offset away from the earbud.
The speaker driver must have 16 ohms impedance.

If your headphones fail to have these standard features outlined by the actual Sennheiser product guide your headphones are considered counterfeit. There is no indication by sennheiser that products should vary from specification. Beware if ebay listings are described as "new version". Sennheiser have no wish to continuously redesign such a successful product, "new version" more likely points to a newer generation of accurate copies, which there is clear evidence for.

Other diagnostic features are subtle and identified through comparison to a genuine product:

Cord thickness unusually thin and flexible.
Metal ring is unusually angled with poor quality scratched finish.
Metal ring indentation is uneven and varies with deviation from centre.
Plastic headphone mould has sharp edges.
Plastic has matt finish, not polished.

Though these defects may be present in official sennheiser products, quality control should prevent this. If your headphones have these defects and your headphones are legitimate you can approach sennheiser for a replacement. If you are still unsure of whether your Sennheiser product is counterfeit or genuine after reading this guide consider contacting Sennheiser with photographs of your product.

If you arestillthinking of purchasing CX300,CX400 or CX500 headphones from ebay be aware that99%of the listings are fake, even those with near retail prices sold from shops.Do not be fooled by "retail packaging", this is very accurately copied. Ask the seller whether the packaging has PET and a validation number on the base, all Sennheiser CX should have both; however these have also been seen to be copied perfectly.

Retail Packaging Comparison (MJ)i27.tinypic.com/wslnp5.jpgResources

Sennheiser CX300 Product Page (sennheiserusa.com):sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=500830

High resolution pictures of the CX300 (sennheiserusa.com) :sennheiserusa.com/media/hiresImages/CX300-B_hires.jpgsennheiserusa.com/media/hiresImages/CX300-W_hires.jpg

Sennheiser approach to counterfeiting (sennheiserusa.com):sennheiserusa.com/staticContent/counterfeit.asp?transid=1357

Counterfeit Examples

Poor quality metal ring (curiouswanderer):i27.tinypic.com/r1wphz.jpg
Perforate sheet metal grill (curiouswanderer):i29.tinypic.com/2m4rc4x.jpg
Matt black plastic finish, poor rubber quality (cin___server87):i26.tinypic.com/vhvr68.jpg
Large poor qualitymesh grill (cin___server87):i29.tinypic.com/2hpkoqx.jpg