I have odd-shaped ear canals. The round pancake-type ear buds and their lame foam covers constantly fall out of my ears and it makes the music experience really annoying.
Enter the Philips 9501 (white) and the 9500 (black) ear buds and their in-ear design. Paired with one of three sizes of rubber inserts, these puppies stay put in your ear and create a seal so most of the outside noise is masked. For those of you who need a noise canceling earbud style headphone, Philips makes one for a few bucks more. The only drawback is that it has a battery compartment that has to be carried around or clipped to something.
In the box: The 3.5 mm earbuds, three sets of different sizes of rubber inserts, an extension cable, a plastic earbud case and a small drawstring felt pouch.
I'm not sure why Philips decided to include an extension cable in lieu of one long cable. Maybe they decided to make one section for those times that you use an arm band and the cable doesn't need to be so long. Adding the 26" extension section for those times when you use it on your waste. They incorporated a silver crimp at the junction of where the cables split for added strength against splitting. Note: One earbud is long than the other.
I purchased two of these at Target for $29.99 each and it was money well-spent. I bought the black ones for me and the white ones for my wife. I still have my
Sennheiser PXC-250 on-ear headphones for serious traveling with noise canceling, but when I purchased my new Sansa MP3 player, the earbuds they came with are a joke.
One thing that jumped out at me was the frequency response numbers. When you purchase headphones or earbuds, the first thing you should look at is the frequency response. This is the low and high range that the headphone will produce. This particular earbud set is 6 - 23,500 Hz. The lower the first number, the deeper bass it can handle. I am here to tell you that these bad boys thump. Not as well as a larger over-the-ear style with a 4 rating, but for a replacement MP3 player earbud set these are a great find.
Mo' Specs:
Sensitivity - 102 dB
Impedance - 16 Ohm
Max Power Input - 50 mW
I have listened to the over-priced Shure earbuds - I can tell you that the Philips earbuds sound just as good and produce deeper bass - for much less money. Are they better than the Bose? Certainly NOT. But the Bose are far more expensive.
My final thoughts: For 30 dollars you can't go wrong with these unless you need the noise canceling feature. The longest I have worn them (at one time) is about three hours and they are not only very lightweight, but I haven't experienced any discomfort. Yet, you may have to push them back into your ear canal on occasion.
I find that wearing the cable behind my neck and wrapping the wire over my ear before inserting the earbud works best.
Get a pair of these and have yourself some multiple eargasms!
