The Best Pair of Headphones I've Ever Owned
Pros:
Very effective noise-cancelling, comfortable, convenient neck strap.
Cons:
slightly expensive, bulky design.
The Bottom Line:
Quite possibly the last headphones you'll ever need to buy. And if not, they're darned good anyway.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I'm no headphone gourmet. I don't necessarily need surround sound, or some new technology that massages your ears or any of that. All I ever really look for is a pair that won't break after three weeks. As I've mentioned in past reviews: I am an electronic's worst nightmare. I can just break something by looking at it. And so after breaking what felt like my 97th pair of earbuds, I purchased this particular pair, just because they looked sturdier than any pair I'd had before.
As it says in the title, this is the best pair of headphones I've ever owned. The nylon-braided neck strap was extremely comfortable, and the cord for the earbud itself is contained within this neck strap, which reduces tangle and breakage of those delicate wires. The traditional rubber coating on the cords of the earbuds themselves has also been replaced by this lovely braided nylon, keeping wear and breakage to a minimum.
The buds are made of soft rubber and are extremely comfortable with nothing going around the top or back of them to chafe the area around your ear, no hard piece forcing your tragus (little flap of ear in front of the earhole) painfully outward. It's rippled and tapered downward in a cone shape, so that it just fits nicely into your ear.
The noise cancelling is no joke. When you flip the on-switch for the headphones (powered by a slightly bulky battery-compartment near the bottom of the unit), ALL outside noise is eliminated by some very delightful technology that I could not begin to explain, but I think has something to do with white noise (light static sound), and you've just got your music in your head. There is a volume dial also on the battery compartment, so you can very effectively adjust the volume without touching your CD or MP3 player, which is convenient if you have your music unit in a case or something of the sort. The battery for the noise-cancelling lasts quite a while. I don't know an exact amount of time, but I know that in the few months that I had my set, I didn't change the battery more than four times, and I am a heavy headphone user (roughly eight hours a day, if not more)
The headphones, when purchased, come with a single AAA battery (for the noise cancelling feature. The headphones still work without the battery, but you won't be able to use noise cancelling), a handy drawstring pouch to store your headphones in when you're not using them, a couple of adapters for the headphone jack and an instruction manual.
As I said earlier, the compartment where the battery is housed and the volume dial is located is noticeably large. It's about the same size as the Samsung mp3 player I was using it for. Other than that, it was about the only issue I had with the headphones. Unfortunately, mine broke after four months of use (I don't blame Philips, though. I'm just an above average user and I'm sure I did something to them), and having purchased my pair on sale for $19.99 at Target, if I had $50 to burn on another pair (because another sale like that doesn't seem like it will be coming anytime soon), I most certainly would, and take better care of them this time.
They are well worth it if you don't want to have to buy another pair for a good while..
