Philips SHP2500 Headphones

After having a pair of Philips SHP 1900 Headphones for a couple of months, I got addicted to the vibrancy of the music I was hearing, basically getting the full 320kbps of music awesomeness pushed through my skull and enjoying the music like it was meant to be enjoyed. So after unfortunately breaking my Philips SHP 1900, I couldn’t stand the bland dumbed down bass of my alternative MP3 headphones, but not being able to find anymore SHP 1900 headphones either online nor in a high street store, my only option was to go for the upgraded version, the SHP 2500’s.

First Impressions

After finally getting the headphones, I was quite surprised at how much they varied for their older siblings, and they are only 2 models up from the SHP 1900, and they seem to have redesigned them quite significantly. Unlike the SHP 1900 headphones, which felt quite solid and well built, the SHP 2500 feel slightly cheaper in design and quality, which I wasn’t expecting. The speakers on the SHP 2500 rotate up and down in a loose fashion and the head cushions which use to be made out of a soft leather like material, have been replaced with a similar fabric material, which I was very disappointed to see as I loved the previous material.

Overall first thoughts were that although these are in the same family of Philips Headphones and are meant to be the better versions of the ones I’ve had, these in fact are more like a pair of headphones I would pick up cheap from a seller in Hong Kong rather than a reputable brand like Philips.

Look and Feel

As I’ve mentioned above, I am quite disappointed at the look and feel of the headphones compared to my previous Philips pair.

The headphones/speakers of the headphones spin/pivot quite a lot, which is quite annoying and all I see moving part which has an excuse to break, although essentially they are meant to provide a better fit around your head, but I’m not convinced as they fit around my head with no difficulty or need to pivot at all, it is a massive nuisance when taking off the headphones as you place your hand on the head which spin around.

The adjustment strap at the top is awkwardly stiff and is impossible to adjust when the headphones are on your head, which is oddly enough when I can sense the best fit.

Apart from the nuisance of the pivoting heads, which make the headphones feel and look cheap and low quality, the plastic feels quite light, which isn’t bad for weight, but if I drop the headphones it feels like they will shatter.

The colouring and design is very plain, the heads are silver and the strap black only stating the Philips name and model number. The heads are quite big and could easily display some kind of design, which would make them looks slightly cooler to say the least.

Overall, the look and feel of these headphones is not at all impressive, I fact, I’ve seen cheap non branded headphones and replica brands make better looking headphones.

Audio Quality

Although the way the headphones look has really disappointed me, actually using the headphones has really changed my initial impression of the SHP 2500’s. Just like the SHP 1900, these headphones offer very great quality audio, allowing you to hear much better detail and the bass is absolutely fantastic. These are significantly better than any ear buds you’d use with iPods and other MP3’s, which I find offer quite flat frequencies, allowing you hear the music, but not properly distinguish the different tracks and not really take advantage of the bass which arguably makes up the quality of Rock and Techno music among the rest of the styles.

The Philips SHP 2500 are made with this following specifications –

Acoustic system - Closed
Magnet type - Ferrite
Frequency response - 15 - 22,000 Hz
Voice coil - Copper
Impedance - 32 Ohm
Maximum power input - 500 mW
Sensitivity - 106 dB
Speaker diameter - 40

These are quite typical of the price and quality of these headphones, however unlike the average headphones of this type, the SHP2500 offer slightly higher specifications. For one, the Frequency Response, which is how high and low the headphones, can go, therefore producing low bass and high trebles, the typical spec being 20 – 20000 Hz, which is beaten by the SHP2500’s.

The sensitivity is also slightly higher than the typical (96db), which doesn’t mean they can go louder, but produce slightly deeper tones and quality.

Overall, the specs for these headphones are quite good, and really makes up for the poor structure quality, and I can easily say, that they do sound fantastic and very vibrant in the bass and you can really tell the difference in the different instruments tracks in the music.

Cable

This is an odd category to place in, but I feel an important one. The Philips SHP2500’s come with a very long 6m cable, which is honestly a ridiculous size, I personally use my headphones at the computer and the 3.5mm jack goes into my computer tower and I am left with 5 metres of spare cable on my floor, which is annoying to say the least. My last headphones which I keep mentioning had a 2 metre cable, which I thought was bad because it kept getting tangled in my Office Chair (a large spinning arm chair) and whenever I would get up, I realise that the cable was under and over it pretty much, and this resulted in me getting up suddenly and the cable got rammed out of the audio socket bending the headphone jack, rendering the headphones pretty much useless. So you see why I feel so strongly on the issue. I don’t quite understand why anyone would need a 6 metre cable unless you plan to run around your house wearing them, and honestly that an accident waiting to happen with the cable everywhere, so I’m stuck with a massive bundle of the cable I have to stick on my desk, which is a nuisance.

The headphones do come with a 5mm adaptor as well the 3.5mm standard. The 5mm is used for devices like keyboards, Amps and some speakers, so that’s a nice addition, but it standard anyway with full size headphones like these.

Conclusion

So to say an overall conclusion, I am not as happy with these as I was with my Philips SHP1900’s. These headphones look and feel quite horrible and cheap and I can guarantee myself that the rotating heads will find a way to break or be broken. A little bit I forgot to mention is that the cable does into both heads unlike conventional headphones where it goes into one and then raps around the strap into the other, so combined with the ridiculous 6 metre cable and the cables from both heads; you literally are surrounded in cable!

But even though they look quite bad and the cable is stupid, the sound quality is something I can’t complain about, once your use to the awkward feel of the headphones, you can enjoy the fantastic audio quality which these headphones produce, with the outstanding deep bass and the distinctive tracks, these headphones are perfect for any music enthusiast or audio producer/editor.

So the final verdict being; if you can’t get your hands on any Philips SHP1900 headphones, these are much worst in look and feel qualities, but slightly superior in audio quality, I don’t recommend them but for the fantastic price of only £15, it is hard to find anything on the high street which would be better.