Philips SBC HC8410 FM Cordless Headphones

The hiss some users have described is apparent; however I did not find this a real issue. If the volume control on the headphone-set was ladled 1-10, turning down to around 8 reduces hiss significantly.

Plugged into a laptop or ipod, the volume in these headphones is very low. I had to plug my laptop (where most of my music is) first into a hi-fi, then use the hi-fi headphone socket to get an acceptable volume in the headphones. Volume is still low.

Bass response is very poor. The bass is woolly at best and distorts even at very low volume levels. It's hard to get really absorbed in any music through these headphones.

I have been testing these headphones on all kinds of music for the last two evenings. When my mind is not solely on the sound quality, I have forgotten bass response is poor and the sound weak and been happy to have some music to bop to along in the kitchen, or writing this review. The wireless freedom is great. Even sitting close to the music source, having no wire trailing from my head is great. However, the sound quality really suffers. Wireless ness is a big compromise.

My conclusion, if you throw on a cheap radio and happily listen away (as I do) you may enjoy these headphones. If you want good sound quality, don't buy these headphones, they do not compare to their wired counterparts. I think £50 will buy a great sounding pair of wired headphones. After the wireless components in these headphones, there is not much left for the quality of the headphones themselves.

Hope this helps. I am planning to return my headphones for a wired set.

After charging them for 16 hours, I put them on and found them to be very lighweight and very comfortable. After only a few minutes you can quite easily forget you're wearing them (hence I gave them 2 stars).

They work over a good distance, and with the base unit in my living room they get as good a signal upstairs as they do downstairs. The sound quality is a little tinny and airy, with very little bass respone. If you're used to a surround sound system with subwoofer on your tv, then these will sound fairly feeble.

BUT... and this is a BIG "but", there is a totally unacceptable level of noise in the headphones. A constant high pitched hissing, that sounds like a poor signal strength. This occurs on all 3 channels and I was unable to tune out this noise. This white noise is audible to someone else in the room whist I am wearing the phones! Having moved the base unit away from any electrical equipment, and any metal objects I still got this interference even when the base unit has its own dedicated plug socket.

The interconnect (headphone jack to twin phono) is just about the cheapest, poorest quality available. Having swapped this for a very high quality cable the interference remained.

Am am about to pack these up and send them back in return for a refund.

I would not recommend these to anyone looking for a good, clean, crisp sound, and I will continue to use my old (not cordless) headphones.

My advice.... buy some Sony MDR-V700 headphones. I use these for DJing and the quality and bass response are amazing. They come with a long cable anyway, but buy an extension if you want to move around and listen to superb perfect sound.

The headphones are quite heavy, but not uncomfortable for extended periods of use.