Philips SHE8000 In-Ear Headphones Review

Looking for a budget in-ear headphones to replace your default iPod earphones? Check out what this new Philips SHE8000 we’ve been using for a few weeks now has to offer.

When you look at the packaging, it says that the SHE8000 is an in-ear headphones that’s made for tunes with lots of bass. Let’s find out if it really works that way.

Design

First let’s look at the hardware of this earphones. The Philips SHE8000 looks as basic as it can get. Nothing fancy with the design really although they’re saying that the Angled Acoustic Design will ensure a natural fit. Almost all earphones of the right size can fit naturally in your ears when adjusted properly. It has a plastic build making it comfortably light.

Anyway, this earphone comes with 2 extra standard-sized pair of soft silicon caps of different sizes. That’s good my ear is kinda picky with sizes and I always buy those earphones with 4 extra pairs to include XS-sized cups. Although the smallest cup on the SHE8000 would fit my ears, I would experience ear-fatigue after a couple of hours.

I like the angled connector tip on the SHE8000 as it would prevent stress on the cable. There’s also the adjustable cinch to join the left and right cables to prevent tangling which is very useful when storing the earphones.

Performance

Decent design but how does this fare really in actual usage?

Well as far as bass is concern, I didn’t hear anything exceptional at all. I’ve played Ester Dean’s Drop It Low and Bass Down Low by The Cataracs but I didn’t feel that thumping on my chest whenever I use premium earphones. The bass is there but it doesn’t stand out. It’s actually good though when it comes to the treble, say for example Stevie Wonder’s Overjoyed. I would say it’s a universal earphone that’s good for any tunes without specializing in just the bass.

Another good thing about the SHE8000 is the noise-isolation it offers. One of my pet peeves is hearing music blaring from another person’s headphones in a small environment like an elevator just because he wants some sort of noise isolation from his cans. The Philips SHE8000 eliminates that by not requiring you to turn up your volume just to tune out noise from the outside. It has a high volume threshold before music will spill out from your ears.

Noise isolation here is not full which some people actually look for. You will tune out office chatter without letting them know what you’re listening. But it won’t really isolate noise from the outside like a jeep’s engine unless you really crank up the volume. Used when running is good. It gives you the right amount of noise isolation without making you oblivious to your surroundings which is dangerous.

There’s also no issue of microphonics (echo sound when the cable rub against your shirt) with this one that I experience in other noise isolating earphones.

Verdict

The bottomline here is, you would get better listening experience than the basic earphones your iPod or other music player comes with. It won’t give you the surround or in-room feel that you would get from more expensive and high-end earphones but you’d get decent isolation whenever you’re commuting or at your office desk without disturbing those around you with your music.

The Philips SHE8000 will be arriving in the country this July and will retail for only Php949. A decent sub-1k in-ear headphones indeed.