Overview of wired headphones Strauss & Wagner EM205

Strauss & Wagner EM205 wired earbuds are well-built and comfortable to wear, but their sound leaves a lot to be desired.

The EM205 are supposedly a breath of fresh air to a wired market, delivering high audio quality for under $40. Sadly, that isn’t what I hear.

These have an overall bassy sound with a peak around 6-7kHz and another one at 13kHz. Their presentation feels veiled and lacking details.

Sure, they’re fine for casual listening, but purists should look elsewhere.

On the other hand, the EM205 have lightweight aluminum housing that doesn’t protrude at all. You can even use them under a helmet.

Furthermore, they fit comfortably and don’t cause any pressure or wearing fatigue. Earbuds are easy to drive, even from your smartphone.

However, are these forty-dollar headphones worth it? Or should you skip them entirely? Find all the good and the bad in the review below.

Comfort & Fit

Star Rating 4.0 Great

Thanks to their lightweight construction and tiny build, you quickly forget you’re wearing them. Fit isn’t the best but can improve by wearing them over-the-ear.

Strauss & Wagner EM205 are tiny in size and should fit all ear shapes.

Included 3 pairs of silicone ear tips don’t cause much pressure. Consequently, they don’t hurt your ears, even when you accidentally pull on the cable and launch them out of your ears.

While the fit is good, stability is only okay. They will stay inside your ears for light outdoor walks, whereas running with them isn’t comfortable.

There’s no shirt clip inside the packaging, and the control module on the wire bounces a lot. Here are some solutions to keep your earbuds from falling out.

Cable noise is also quite severe. The best solution is to wear them with the wire behind the ear, which will better distribute the weight and prevent earbuds from bouncing too much.

Also, since earbuds are pretty tiny, they can easily fit under a helmet. They’re ideal biker earbuds.

Just be careful how you tuck in the remote control module under the helmet since it’s pretty long.

Noise Isolation

Star Rating 4.0 Great

Even though earbuds do a great job passively isolating ambient noise, they also produce tons of microphonics.

Passive noise isolation is usually a strong point with in-ear monitors, and Strauss and Wagner EM205 are no different.

Silicone ear tips sufficiently cut out most of the surrounding noise. You can wear them on public transport and not be bothered by people’s speech.

However, the EM205 have a noticeable cable noise that gets much worse when you walk. It can mask a large portion of the music.

Fortunately, you can reduce 90% of the cable noise by wearing earbuds with the wire going behind your ears.

That way, your earlobes dampen vibrations that travel by wires.

Durability

Star Rating 3.5 Almost Great

The metallic housing appears quite sturdy, with the control module sharing the same rigid construction. However, the thin cable and small strain reliefs leave much to be desired.

Touching the cold exterior of the EM205 does give some reassurance of the earbud’s build quality.

The housing is made from half aluminum and half plastic parts, both feeling quite sturdy. They could easily endure some abuse if accidentally dropped on the floor.

The control module is also made from aluminum and plastic buttons. The latter provide very tactile feedback.

One thing that might cause some concern is the cable. It’s non-detachable and pretty thin, which isn’t the best combination. Cables are usually the first thing to break.

Also, the rubberized texture on the cable makes the earbuds prone to tangle. Untangling them takes quite some time. Keep that in mind before you simply throw them in a bag.

Another thing is strain reliefs. They’re relatively tiny, so you have to be careful not to twist cables too much.

There’s also some memory-wire effect (the cable doesn’t want to stay straight). That can be annoying when you wear earbuds outdoors since the cable is constantly twisting.

Features

Star Rating 3.0 Good

The addition of the control module helps you navigate playback without touching your music player. Mic quality is also pretty excellent.

Wired earbuds usually don’t carry many extra features, except the control module. Thankfully, you can control pretty much everything with the one found on the EM205.

The module has 3 buttons: 2 for volume and the main one, from where you activate various commands using gestures.

Strauss & Wagner EM205 controls:

Volume control up – press the button with a “+” sign

Volume control down – press the button with a “-” sign

Play/pause – press the center (main) button

Next track – double-press the center button

Previous track – triple-press the center button

Activate voice commands– press and hold the center button

Accept call – single press on the center button

Reject call – press and hold the center button for 5 seconds

End call – press the main button during a call

Sound

Star Rating 3.0 Good

While vocal performances sound good and the soundstage is above-average, everything else feels veiled and muffled, with little detail and transparency to the audio.

Indeed, all humans hear slightly differently. Strauss and Wagner appear pretty sensitive to how you place them in your ears and what ear tip you use.

When performing frequency response measurements, I’ve noticed that the bass gets flatter if you push the earbuds all the way into the artificial ears.

In contrast, the punchy bass boosts up to 7dB if you only place them in front of the ear canal.

There are also changes in higher frequencies when trying different ear tips. Silicones sound notably different from foam ones.

However, there are always some massive peaks and dips that only shift left and right but never disappear.

The sound signature is generally too V-shaped (overly bassy and recessed/veiled in the midrange).

Bass

The bass extends nicely into the sub-bass and can produce a good rumble. It’s punchy and reasonably controlled, especially when you pair the EM205 with an amp (I used AudioQuest Dragonfly Red).

However, the low-end often bleeds into the midrange, muffling instruments and vocals at the same time.

Midrange

Vocals sound a bit dark but still relatively natural. Earbuds portray male vocals slightly better than females, which are a tad thin sounding.

However, the bass bleed, and the dip in the lower mid-range creates a veil that muffles all the instruments.

The latter lack detail and texture, especially acoustic guitars. Foam ear tips help to smooth out the audio a bit, but the muddiness stays, unfortunately.

Treble

It’s fairly dark, with some sparkle in the upper treble. However, like the mids, it also lacks resolution and texture.

Cymbals can sound a bit splashy at times, missing airiness and sparkle that would make them stand out.

At least the soundstage is above-average for in-ear headphones. You can hear sounds slightly out of your head. There’s more depth than width.

Earbuds have a rather accurate stereo field (imaging), with no major blind spots between the left or right channel.

Upon investigating the EM205’s frequency response, it seems very similar to the stock Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 tuning. So why they don’t have the same good sound quality?

There are 2 problems. Firstly, Sennheiser earbuds require some EQ corrections and a “High-End Tuning” feature to perform at their best.

Secondly, dynamic drivers from Momentum True Wireless 2 are technically superior to the ones from the EM205.

Consequently, the audio feels tighter and more detailed on Sennheiser’s, even though both earbuds share similar tuning.