The Philips HP 200 Headphone review (Philips SBC HP 200)

Member Name: tech.keeda

Product:	Philips SBC HP 200
Date:	05/05/06 (1762 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Low cost, Good Bass Response, Sturdy, Comfortable, Good Quality plastics and cable

Disadvantages: Flat sounding mids, throbbing bass beats sets air vibrating inside the chambers

I searched for Philips HP 200 review everywhere on the web, but found none, so I thought that I'd write one. I bought a piece recently and here's my take on them.

Entirely made from plastic with single side slider headband and huge speaker cups, the Philips HP 200 headphones make a good first impression with their looks. Along with this, there comes very good cable with chrome plated standard 1/8 inch plug and an 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch adapter plug provided with the package.

The acoustic system is closed, meaning that the headphone chambers do not allow sound to leak in or out of the headphones, providing a certain degree of isolation from ambient noise.

The speaker cups are circumaural and completely encircle the ears in an airtight clasp. The pads are of a bowl-type design with nice cushions covered with skin friendly material.

Pretty much plug and play, there isn't much to talk about the interfacing. These cans are satisfactorily driven by almost any electronic items ranging from portable players and computers to hi-fi stereo systems.

The headphones do not seem to perform well at very low or very high volumes. They sound their best at medium volumes. Also, somtimes, the air seems to vibrate inside the cups for loud thumping or intensely throbbing fast beats, making it uncomfortable for a long duration listening of such music. This may be a plus point with certain high bass techno freaks, though!

Since the ear cups are closed with cushioning, they will make your ears sweat if you live in a hot country. In this area, though, the cloth cusion covers of HP 200 are a lot better than leather or rexine covering which some headphones use.

The headphones are designed specifically for indoor use and sit quite firmly on the head without irritating you by falling off when your head moves. They can be very comfortably worn during relaxing or working at your desk or computer. The HP 200 are not portable at all, with fixed non-rotary cups. The huge cups also make them unconducive for use in puublic places or while walking, unless you don't mind the gazes, of course.

With ferrite magnet and copper coil driving a mylar dome, there is nothing high tech about these cans. Technical specs are,
Speaker diameter: 40 mm, Frequency response: 15Hz - 22Khz, Impedance: 32 ohms, Max. Power Input: 500 mW, Sensitivity: 100 dB.

Summary: Pretty good with bass and highs, not very impressive mids, comfortable, not bad for the price.

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