Before I started testing and comparing these in-ear phones, I've prepared several mp3, ogg, flac and wav files to listen to, music ranging from the classical era, to the modern pop and rnb. Media player used was my pc laptop (equalizer/dolby settings disabled), PSP, and an iPod touch. Why purchase earphones when one is usually included in your DAP/PMP? For listening pleasure, for audio enthusiast and audiophiles, earphones/headphones makes a big difference. If you've spent several Pesos on your gadget, why not at least maximize and enhance the quality of sounds pumped out from those devices by investing on a pair of good earphones, certainly it will make a difference when you hear the clarity of music you listen to. By the way, first time users will find it irritating or sometimes uncomfortable when you first insert these phones in your ear. Takes time getting used to these type of phones.
First on the table, the Philips SHE8500, this earpiece is really comfortable, noise isolation from surrounding ambiant noise is almost closed off from the listener, and it's wire is flexible but not that reliable. As with all in-ear canal phones, it's like wearing a stethoscope, friction/rubbing/moving of cables produces sound and can be heard in the phones due to microphonics. There a 3 silicon earpieces to suit different ear canal sizes, this plugs in your ear to seal off reflected sounds and preventing from cancelling itself off and also these are resonant to low frequencies, further enhancing the low range sounds. Also I could say that this model looks really cool, and doesn't look like cheap earphones. After several hours of listening, testing the Philips SHE8500 is so comfortable, you'll sometimes forget you're still wearing it. As for quality of sounds pumped out from these tiny earphones, it's a bit flat on the mid range, human voices sounded like muffled, a bit short on high notes but almost un-noticeable unless listening to classical music on high sampled ones. But the bass is really good for rnb, rock and pop style music. Though on some musical pieces with very low notes and percussive instruments, I notice some very muddy sounds produced by this phones, it's like unexplainable chaos of notes and musical pieces. As for gaming, I tried using this on the PSP and NDS, and it performs pretty well, I feel liked I'm immersed in the game, specially when playing FPS (First person shooters) games. The sound of rifles firing, cannons, and explosions, it's like I'm at war in my room. And lastly the price, it's pretty cheap and good enough upgrade/replacement from the standard phones included with DAPs(Digital Audio Players) or PMPs (Portable Media Players). Price in malls around Php1.5k.
Then the Sennheiser CX500. Compared to the Philips SHE8500, this earpiece looks cheap, design is simple and very minimalistic yet on the contrary it's 3x more expensive than the latter. Same with all in-ear canal phones, this too suffers from microphonics noise due to rubbing, and movement. To minimize the microphonic effect, the wires should not be left dangling, as much as possible, use the clip included and the higher or closer to the Y split the better. Wires seems reliable and strong, has a rubbery texture and its very flexible also, in the middle, there's a volume control (attenuator). Cable winder is included and seems to compliment the insulator material used on the wires for flexibility. Although it includes 6 pieces of silicon earpiece plugs 3 of them are double flange types, it's not as comfortable as the one from SHE8500, I find the smallest one still a bit large and too firm, yet, I still got used to it, but only after 30 minutes or more, unlike from the SHE8500 which felt like almost nothing is penetrating your ear canal. But after several minutes, I didn't feel or notice the tight fit of the phones in my ear anymore, may be because of the sounds produced by these small earpiece, everything was very very clear, from the low sounding instruments, percussions, to the crisp voice of human singers like Sarah Brightman, and up to the sounds of triangles. Bass wasn't exagerated unlike on the SHE8500. CX500's bass frequency production are very clean, tried using different equalization settings from off, flat to loudness settings, still very satisfactory. It's like having full size 3 way stereo speakers directed to your head. Never have I heard such clarity from such small drivers. For gaming, this also sounds great, but I think, this Senny really excels the music department, and you'll notice the big difference when you use this earphones. Really worth investing on this brand and model if you're an audio purist. Note that you could only hear the difference if you listen to audio files that are sampled from 128kbit and above ranges. The higher the sample rate of your encoded audio files, the larger the sizes, the better. Price is around Php4-5K in malls.
Last the SkullCandy Hesh. Just included this in case people want large headphones. Looks really cool, even thieves in Manila will immediately notice you if you wear one. If you're used to using headphones, it's pretty comfortable, but for me, I find it heavy but it's more secured so it won't easily fall off or pulled off (although its an advantage for in-ear phones, prevents damaging the wires), the wires are nylon braided and includes extension cable. Extended use for hours may cause discomfort because it feels like something is clamped on your head. Noise isolation is very good like the Sennheiser, for gaming, this truly immerses you in the virtual world of gaming, you're closed off from your environments noise. For music use, first thing I notice is at middle volume settings, the two in-ear canal phones sounds more louder than this skully, it may be because of it's higher impedance rated at 32 ohms vs 16 ohm on the Sennheiser and Philips. So I adjusted the volume higher than my nominal listening level to compensate. Started testing different types of music, it sounds pretty much like the Philips but with more body and much more fuller, but this also lacks in the mid range. Bass is full bodied, because of the large 50mm drivers. I tend to adjust the equalizer settings to boost the mid range frequencies, also to make the voices of singers more clear on this headphone. Price is around Php1.5-2.5K.
For me, Sennheiser CX500 is the best, but if you're on a tight budget, you could apt for a Skullcandy if you like large headphones. Also, before buying, always try to sample and listen to different brands & models to know which will satisfy your ears. Stay away from shops who don't have any sample units to test to, like Astrovision in Malls in Manila. Last time I asked for unit testing, they said they can't open the seal and allow me to test it, unless I'm buying it because they need to destroy the packaging. So I just left the shop, it's not good doing business with people who don't give importance to their customer's concerns and don't give credit to their valued investment.
First on the table, the Philips SHE8500, this earpiece is really comfortable, noise isolation from surrounding ambiant noise is almost closed off from the listener, and it's wire is flexible but not that reliable. As with all in-ear canal phones, it's like wearing a stethoscope, friction/rubbing/moving of cables produces sound and can be heard in the phones due to microphonics. There a 3 silicon earpieces to suit different ear canal sizes, this plugs in your ear to seal off reflected sounds and preventing from cancelling itself off and also these are resonant to low frequencies, further enhancing the low range sounds. Also I could say that this model looks really cool, and doesn't look like cheap earphones. After several hours of listening, testing the Philips SHE8500 is so comfortable, you'll sometimes forget you're still wearing it. As for quality of sounds pumped out from these tiny earphones, it's a bit flat on the mid range, human voices sounded like muffled, a bit short on high notes but almost un-noticeable unless listening to classical music on high sampled ones. But the bass is really good for rnb, rock and pop style music. Though on some musical pieces with very low notes and percussive instruments, I notice some very muddy sounds produced by this phones, it's like unexplainable chaos of notes and musical pieces. As for gaming, I tried using this on the PSP and NDS, and it performs pretty well, I feel liked I'm immersed in the game, specially when playing FPS (First person shooters) games. The sound of rifles firing, cannons, and explosions, it's like I'm at war in my room. And lastly the price, it's pretty cheap and good enough upgrade/replacement from the standard phones included with DAPs(Digital Audio Players) or PMPs (Portable Media Players). Price in malls around Php1.5k.
Then the Sennheiser CX500. Compared to the Philips SHE8500, this earpiece looks cheap, design is simple and very minimalistic yet on the contrary it's 3x more expensive than the latter. Same with all in-ear canal phones, this too suffers from microphonics noise due to rubbing, and movement. To minimize the microphonic effect, the wires should not be left dangling, as much as possible, use the clip included and the higher or closer to the Y split the better. Wires seems reliable and strong, has a rubbery texture and its very flexible also, in the middle, there's a volume control (attenuator). Cable winder is included and seems to compliment the insulator material used on the wires for flexibility. Although it includes 6 pieces of silicon earpiece plugs 3 of them are double flange types, it's not as comfortable as the one from SHE8500, I find the smallest one still a bit large and too firm, yet, I still got used to it, but only after 30 minutes or more, unlike from the SHE8500 which felt like almost nothing is penetrating your ear canal. But after several minutes, I didn't feel or notice the tight fit of the phones in my ear anymore, may be because of the sounds produced by these small earpiece, everything was very very clear, from the low sounding instruments, percussions, to the crisp voice of human singers like Sarah Brightman, and up to the sounds of triangles. Bass wasn't exagerated unlike on the SHE8500. CX500's bass frequency production are very clean, tried using different equalization settings from off, flat to loudness settings, still very satisfactory. It's like having full size 3 way stereo speakers directed to your head. Never have I heard such clarity from such small drivers. For gaming, this also sounds great, but I think, this Senny really excels the music department, and you'll notice the big difference when you use this earphones. Really worth investing on this brand and model if you're an audio purist. Note that you could only hear the difference if you listen to audio files that are sampled from 128kbit and above ranges. The higher the sample rate of your encoded audio files, the larger the sizes, the better. Price is around Php4-5K in malls.
Last the SkullCandy Hesh. Just included this in case people want large headphones. Looks really cool, even thieves in Manila will immediately notice you if you wear one. If you're used to using headphones, it's pretty comfortable, but for me, I find it heavy but it's more secured so it won't easily fall off or pulled off (although its an advantage for in-ear phones, prevents damaging the wires), the wires are nylon braided and includes extension cable. Extended use for hours may cause discomfort because it feels like something is clamped on your head. Noise isolation is very good like the Sennheiser, for gaming, this truly immerses you in the virtual world of gaming, you're closed off from your environments noise. For music use, first thing I notice is at middle volume settings, the two in-ear canal phones sounds more louder than this skully, it may be because of it's higher impedance rated at 32 ohms vs 16 ohm on the Sennheiser and Philips. So I adjusted the volume higher than my nominal listening level to compensate. Started testing different types of music, it sounds pretty much like the Philips but with more body and much more fuller, but this also lacks in the mid range. Bass is full bodied, because of the large 50mm drivers. I tend to adjust the equalizer settings to boost the mid range frequencies, also to make the voices of singers more clear on this headphone. Price is around Php1.5-2.5K.
For me, Sennheiser CX500 is the best, but if you're on a tight budget, you could apt for a Skullcandy if you like large headphones. Also, before buying, always try to sample and listen to different brands & models to know which will satisfy your ears. Stay away from shops who don't have any sample units to test to, like Astrovision in Malls in Manila. Last time I asked for unit testing, they said they can't open the seal and allow me to test it, unless I'm buying it because they need to destroy the packaging. So I just left the shop, it's not good doing business with people who don't give importance to their customer's concerns and don't give credit to their valued investment.
