Philips SBCHC8650 Full Size Rechargeable Headphones
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £35.00Average Customer Rating
(3.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Definitely better than i hoped for!
I’ve had wireless headphones before and the last pair I had kept cutting out so I decided to get some more. I was weary about spending a lot of money on them since for all I knew, my new pair could just do the same thing and have bad reception too. I decided to go for the first thing I saw which was the 8410 model but there were mixed reviews for that so when it came to buying them, I went for the model up. When I got them home they took 16 hours to recharge but I was happy with that as I was made aware of this by the manual (very good manual) and I’d never need to leave it that long to recharge again since they automatically charge every time you put them on the base. The only thing with the charging on the base is that the green charging light goes on but doesn’t go out when the batteries are full which concerns me a bit because I don’t know that much about batteries and I am not sure whether I would overload them if they were charging for too long. The batteries can be a bit fiddly to get in since you need to take the ear pads off. They don’t take more than 5 minutes to get back on but it could be easier.
When I came to start to use them, I thought that they weren’t working but it just required me to turn up the volume on my stereo. The volume needs to be about 45 on my stereo which worries me a bit since medium to loud listening volume is about 20. This means that if you forget how loud you’ve set it, take the headphones out and start it going, you’re in for a fright. Headphones-wise, the volume on the headset can be adjusted to compensate for it.
The sound quality is great. Every time you use them, you need to re-tune them but due to auto-tune, it’s just a case of holding the button on the side of the headset for 1 second. I thought I might need manual tuning for perfecting the sound which you can’t do on these (except choose 1 of 3 channels) but the auto-tune really does it well.
They’re comfortable with velvety ear pads which I thought sounded a bit tacky when I read it but they blend well into the headphones.
All-in-all, the pros make up for the cons and I don’t think I’ll be replacing these in a hurry.
(4 out of 5)Excellent sound but....
These headphones produce an excellent range of sounds giving a deep , rich tonal quality.
However, the volume is (sensibly!) restricted so no ear-drum blowing sounds, but if you are used to turning up the decibals you may initially feel they're a little quiet.
I use these headphones on a treadmill and I can safely say they're a very comfortable fit at all times (possibly a little heavy for some but so comfortable I never notice!).
However, there are a few quibbles I have, mostly minor.
The connector on the base unit is in my opinion not very well designed. Even though there is a green light that comes on when re-charging, it is quite easy to place the headphones back onto the base unit 'not quite right' so that they don't recharge. If you're a little heavy handed or in a rush this could cause a problem.
You have to press a 'tuning' button for reception to be achieved and this does take a few seconds which can seem a little slow at first.
Worst of all is the first unit I had. The battery in the headphones slowly leaked causing the connector to corrode (literally turned into rust) over a period of a few weeks. Eventually the unit stopped working altogether and I had to return it to get a new set.
However, the fact I swapped them for the same headphones should give an indication of how much I like the 8650's.
On a final note, reception is mostly excellent and I've managed to achieve reception all around the house and garden!
(2 out of 5)Further sets still malfunctioning....
I thought I'd follow on from my previous review. I still enjoy the sound quality but the corroding of the pins is still occurring and I'm on my third pair. As I'm under warranty I can get a replacement - not sure how much longer I'll keep these though.
So if you buy a pair, enjoy the sound but keep an eye on the front of the two silver recharge pins!