Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips SHE9850 In-Ear Headphones with Advanced Acoustics

I ordered the SHE9850 ear buds based on the positive reviews from Cnet, and the reviews of contented customers here at Amazon.

Pros -
Construction: For me at least, I found the construction of the ear buds themselves as well as the cord to be pretty sturdy. Also headphone jack on the end doesn't look like it will be fraying the wires anytime soon from repeated use.

Sound Quality: Fantastic for ear buds. I would not call myself an audiophile but I do appreciate music and for most people the SHE9850 will not disappoint. Highs are crisp, mids are good, the only mushy sounding part was the bass. I knew this from the cnet review, but to me it is not a big detriment to the ear buds.

Overall, these are the best sounding ear buds I have owned/listened to. For everyone but the audiophile crowd, these will do great.

Cons-

Not many. Mushy bass is about the only complaint I have.

Other stuff-

Packaging: For those who care, the packaging is slightly overwhelming but well organized. Just be careful pulling the ear buds out, the plastic packaging grips the cord rather tightly and you should avoid tugging on it to free the buds.

The ear buds also come with an earwax removal tool, as well as memory foam and several silicone fittings to adapt to different people. A case is included.

Wow!....These sound good, but a little too honest, I've read many pro reviews, and they are all over the map. It's easy to see why. They are a little too honest, they will really show off a recordings weaknesses. It may be too much for some. Others will fall in love. I listen too critically to enjoy these. I will take the trade off of smoothness (slight) over the obvious lack of efort in so many recordings. The bass is there, just not thumpy. I have a hard time finding any negatives for this model, just exposes too many things. For those that say these are too bright, that's subjective, and I find songs sound much different from somg to song, leading me to believe that they are fairly accurate, leaving the large number of lousy recordings exposed. I tend to think of the sound quite like a monitor used in studios. Comfortable, and well built.
Case is not sensible. Build quality seems good. If you like to hear all the details, no matter what these are for you.
I prefer, a slight smoothing (B&W speaker sound) to my ears that is the best of both worlds.

I'm using these earphones right now to listen to an album. :-) The first time I tried them I thought I was at a concert; the sound is very clear and crisp. Some reviewers mentioned using these on their Ipod but these earphones do not have the pause button and the mike that works with an Ipod. So I use these earphones with a Sansa MP3 player.

They do have different sizes of earbud covers and also a set of memory foam covers which are very comfortable. One of my ear canals is very small and unfortunately the earphone will not stay in that ear because it won't go into my ear canal. If I'm sitting or laying in bed they work fine, but not to walk around or exercise. It also has a nice case that slides open to hold the earphones and extra covers.

I'm not a techie kind of person, so don't know all the earphone details. I just know they really sound good!

I've been looking for the perfect headphones since I bought my first iPod in 2004. The iPod's earbuds were too painful, and I've had mixed results with headphones from other vendors. I was (mostly) content with my Philips HN110 noise-cancelling headphones, but they're hardly ideal for working out or walking on the treadmill. I didn't expect much when I was given the chance to try out Philips' SHE9850 in-ear headphones. I certainly didn't expect them to be exactly what I've been looking for.

The first priority for me is comfort. I want earphones that are going to stay in place, while not totally killing my ears. The SHE9850's are amazing in that respect. They fit like a pair of molded foam earplugs, softly fitting the shape of my ear canals, and expanding enough to stay in place. Like earplugs, the SHE9850's block out a tremendous amount of exterior noise, leaving you free to enjoy crystal clear audio with little outside distraction. When your iPod is competing with a treadmill and a noisy toddler, that's a big plus. I also tended to notice a lot more nuances to the music when using these earphones. They deliver such a clear, clean audio quality and screening out any outside noise, you really hear all the subtlety and nuances of the music.

The only downside that I've noticed is that with these earphones in, you hear your own voice differently, almost as if you're under water. If, ahem, you're prone to singing along with your favorite songs, it's going to sound a lot weirder to your own ears. Ah well, my wife doesn't seem to mind that I'm singing less these days!

The SHE9850's come with 3 pair of differently sized foam covers, so you can get the most comfortable fit possible, as well as a cleaning tool and compact carrying case.

Between the sound quality and sheer comfort, I'm completely satisfied with the Philips SHE9850 earphones. I'd highly recommend them to anyone who is fed up with the standard issue iPod earbuds.

Sound = not too bad
Quality of product = awful, the 2nd pair has broken down and need to return them again.

There are better quality headphones than these