How to spot a fake Sony MH750 / 755.

I really like the Sony MH750/755 models which were first praised by Crinacle on Head-Fi, so much that I bought from different shops just to find out there are a lot of turds fakes floating around these days. Crinacle wasn’t kidding, so beware of fakes.
It wasn’t a truly altruistic endeavour, I just want to have a lot of them in stock but if I can help someone in the way, I’m more than happy to do it.

The history behind this little earphone is tied to the Sony Xperia line, I won’t go into detail but if you really really want the original MH755 you need to buy the “Sony Stereo Bluetooth Headset SBH24“, the SBH54 or the SBH56 from Sony or a certified Sony dealer. The MH750 was probably bundled with Xperia smarphones.

With that out of the way, let’s start searching and sorting the turds from the real deal.

Aliexpress

Aliexpress is full of great deals, so it should be a great place to find cheap Sony earphones, right? Yes, if you want muffled sounding look-alikes.
If you search for the Sony MH750, the shop with the most purchases is selling fakes. How do I know? Well I bought one black and one white MH750 and they sound like shit and I mean muffled shit. If you have a decent pair of earphones, you’ll notice it right away.

Also, don’t have the illusion that by removing the filters or other bullshit you might improve the sound, these sound bad because of the driver and you just sent 5€ (hopefully) down the toilet, you can’t change that.

eBay

eBay is a headache, the first time I bought a MH750 from a German seller, I got the real deal with black filters, the second time around I got the fake ones with white filters. Then I found a Japanese shop called Kanoya which sells the original MH755 (at least at the time of writing: Jan 2019).
I already bought many earphones from them and never received a fake to this day so I trust the shop.
Right now Kanoya is probably the only safe place to buy Sony MH755 on bulk on the internet. Unless the gods at Sony decide to release a stand alone MH750/755 to the public.

What’s the difference between the MH750 and the 755?

The original MH750 and 755 models differ in cable length, the 750 has a long cable with a microphone and answering button and the 755 has a short cable and no microphone.
Some enthusiasts claim they sound different and I won’t doubt them, but for the most part that’s the main difference, besides driver diferences and probably filters.

What’s the difference between the original MH750/755 and the fakes?

Cable and shell wise, the differences are close to none, except on a MH750 I received from China which had a straight 3.5mm jack instead of a L-Shape one (If you gonna fake, do it right).
In fact, I think most fakes might be of a discarded supply that was refurbished to make easy money.
The fake MH755 I got from Germany looks exactly the same as the one I got from Japan, aside from the tips, the Japanese one had the green ones (the tips can also have other colors) and the German had opaque black ones.

Then we have the inside of the shells, the filters and the drivers. On those it’s easy to spot the fake ones from miles away.
In the next photo you can check an original Sony MH755, I killed this one when trying to recable it (friendly advice, unless you got a good soldering rig and lots of pratice don’t try to recable this model, you have been warned), things of interest are:

• A black filter (earwax guard) on the nozzle.
• circular padding glued inside the shell and white acoustic foam inside the nozzle.
• Circular padding on the driver.
• Green or orange silicone tips. (Earphones bundled with the Sony SBH24 come with transparent black, blue, pink and white tips).

The next photo shows the fake MH750/755 I got next to the original driver on the bottom right. the main differences are:

• Filter on the nozzle is white.
• No padding on the driver or inside the shell.
• No acoustic foam inside the nozzle.
• Drivers are very different from the original one.
• Opaque black silicone tips.

Unlike the original MH755 driver which is stuck inside the front shell, the fake ones are easy to remove and sometimes ratlle inside the shells.

Even if the fakes correct most of these points the sound will always give them away if you are experienced. There’s no treble extension and the mids and bass are awful.

Well, I now have 3 sets of fake Sony’s that I can reuse for my own diy projects, I might buy some drivers and have some fun.

Note: All Sony images used in this post are informative only, I have no connection with Sony and will remove the images if Sony requests it. Given the fact this post helps users find original Sony earphones, I hope such a request isn’t necessary.