Customer Reviews
Rapidly disappointing 
2008-05-15
I bought a pair of these in Dec. 07. I was very pleased with them at first: the small caps fit my ears well, and the noise canceling worked well enough that I could hear my player when walking down the street--not true with the earbuds that came with my iPod--while still letting me hear enough outside sound for safety.
BUT--one cap fell off twice within a month, and the third time it fell off, it was lost. I called the company to ask about getting a replacement, and was told they don't do that. The earbud will not stay in my ear with any other size. (The caps keep falling off, but so far, I haven't lost another.) By the second month, I was getting sound out of only the left earbud; the right one was dead. So, I won't buy anything like this from Philips again, at least until their product quality improves. Pity. I was really happy with them at first.
Susan
Unreliable earbuds 
2008-05-14
I purchased these ear buds as a christmas present and for myself. One of the earbuds fell of within a week. The person that I brought it for said that the same happened within a month. The sound quality was great while it held together.
Poor quality, so-so performance 2008-05-11
I purchased these headphones with high hopes as I've had pretty good Philips headphones in the past. What a mistake!! The in-ear seal is terrible (keeps losing seal which renders the bass and noise-cancelling useless), the noise reduction itself seems to be dependent on just raising the volume and the unit is awkward to carry around. To add, the sound in one of the earbuds started to dim after a few weeks of (modest!) use before the unit stopped working altogether.
A waste of $30. Move along, nothing of worth to see here...
Great value, comfortable, OK noise reduction 
2008-04-20
This headset comes with three sizes of plugs, which is great since I apparently have tiny ears and most in-ear headphones are very uncomfortable. I have used these on several flights, including a deafening turboprop flight and they work quite well for the small size. A lot of the noise reduction is passive in that they are earplugs, but there is a good amount of active canceling. I didn't want the size of over-the-ear headphones, and while those will always deliver a quieter environment, given the size and price of this set, it fits my needs very well.
Noise cancelling was negligible if any 2008-03-28
This is the second noise cancelling headphone/earbud I've purchased. The design is nice and compact, however, I took this on to a plane and it didn't cancel ANY of the ambient noise (the earbuds did block out some noise but any set of earbuds would do that). I thought it was the battery but once I took it out to replace it, all sound stopped, so you can't even use them as a standard earbud set, if the battery dies they are completely useless. I own a pair of Kensington noise canceling headphones and they did a fantastic job for $30, albeit not as good as the Bose noise cancelling headphones but for the money they did a pretty good job. I would recommend you skip this product.
It's just Ok 
2008-07-04
I don't have enough noise canceling experience, but for me the rubber earbuds "cancel" more noise than the actual heavy device.
The sound is really good. I'll give it a try on my next flight. But on normal noise background, I'm not really satisfied.
Don't get confused by the picture, the rounded piece on the right is out of proportion, since it's around 2 inches tall.
Buy these! 
2008-07-01
These are the best headphones I have ever had. They sound great, deep bass and clear vocals. The noice cancelling feature works great. They come with three different earbud caps for all ear sizes. I would definitely recomend these for anyone who likes listening to music in noisy environment.
Noise Canceling Headphones work fairly well. 2008-06-27
I have used these phones while mowing the lawn and I can hear the music better than with just plain earbuds. Whether the effect is due to an increase in volume or from some "filtering effect" is unknown to me. Maybe it is both. The buds fit comfortably in the ear and produce decent fidelity. I wish there was some sort of volume control on these phones since you have to carry around the hefty battery pack and control module which is distorted (smaller) in size comparative to the earbud size in the promotional photos.
Decent bang for the buck 2008-06-20
I bought these for work so that I didn't have to listen to the woman in the next work area's rather flat taste in music. I work in a big hall where everyone is allowed to play their own music pretty much as loud as they want to on top of the normal noise of pallet jacks, junking of equipment (we're a computer and electronics recycler) and random computer peripheral noises. I'd always been jealous of one of my fellow tech's pair of 350$ noise canceling ear-buds but could never justify the expense for myself. Well, I was already in the market for some cheap ear-buds at Wally-World and saw these. With a price tag of a paltry 20 Dollars I snatched them up instantly. Heck, a competing brand of ear-bud without any kind of noise canceling whatsoever were right next to these on the rack at the same price. I call that added value for my money.
I got them home and did some testing in my computer room and was pleasantly surprised at the sound quality and, yes, the noise canceling abilities. I sat next to an obnoxious fan that circulates the air in the room, switching the active circuit on and off and even without music playing could hear a major difference. It didn't kill the noise entirely, but then the package only claims "70% less external noise" anyway, not total isolation. Again, with this price tag that's good enough for me. With music going there might as well not have been any sound at all on the other side of the buds. Blissful, responsive music with little to no outside influence was all I could hear. Yes, the sound quality is just a touch on the "tin-ey" side at first, but a little equalization adjustment on my MP3 player took care of that with no trouble at all. That's exactly what equalization is there for, after all.
The only thing I don't really care for is the placement of the amplification/noise canceling "black box" where it's at on the cable. Given a foot more of cable on the headphone side, one could stick it easily in a pants pocket or with the addition of a clip one could clip it to one's belt or waist-band. It's a bit clunky but -=+IF YOU WEAR THE UNIT CORRECTLY+=- there is no weight put on the buds themselves. The correct way to wear the unit is shown in a handy little picture on the back of the package that it comes in. Here's a clue, negative reviewers: when all else fails, READ THE DIRECTIONS!!
The ever-so-slight hissing one hears when the active noise cancellation is engaged is normal in any kind of amplification circuit and explained on the Philips website quite well. A little research would also do some of these reviewers good, in my opinion. It's not obnoxious by any stretch of the imagination and once you play music you can't hear it at all. As for the person who couldn't find the noise canceling microphone on the black box - and on those grounds alone panned the product - I can only shake my head in consternation. The microphones for noise canceling are built into the back of each of the ear-buds themselves, you nitwit. Leave it to the technically challenged to write a scathing review for a piece of equipment they don't posses the where-with-all to understand in the first place.
All in all, a great product for the price. Not perfect, but what more can you expect for a mere 20 Dollars? I would have given it 5 stars if not for the placement of the circuit box on the cable where it's at. A bit more cable would have been preferred so as to be able to hide that part of the unit altogether. I agree with the reviewer that suggested wearing it under a shirt or jacket. As s/he said, It aint pretty, but for the price I refuse to complain so vehemently as some, here. At such a price, even if they do go bad in a few months/years they're easily and affordably replaced. Too many people want far too much for nothing, these days.
I would recommend these for anyone on a budget that wants better quality from their replacement headphone listening experience.
what do you expect? 2008-05-17
These work just fine for being outside or walking in the city and cutting down some noise. I really wonder about some of these reviewers...what exactly do you expect to get for $15? Give me a break.
