Catsailor ... Before purchasing a Sennheiser off e-bay (sounds great BTW), I did some shopping around in local music shops ... In one shop, the rep wanted to demo an EV, an AKG and a Sennheiser ... the EV, fresh out of the box did not work!!! ...
I'm no sound tech, but I've learned through years of experience that even the obvious may not be the case...
t.