Hi MSians ! I’m here to review my recently purchased Philips headphone SHP 2700. Headphone - My Necessity and Purchase .The advantage in using a High End Headphone is not just the Hi-Fi Sound but also the privacy. With a headphone, I can enjoy the Hi-Fi sounds in Games, Movies and Music privately without disturbing others home. Since my brother’s PHILIPS SHP 8500 headphone is great, I wanted one for myself too as my old Frontech headphone started getting older. SHP 8500 Headphone revu can be read @:
https://mouthshut.com/review/Philips_SHP_8500-197478-1.html
A few weeks back I saw the Philips SHP 2700 model on display in Big Bazaar. I did some research on that model on India Philips website. I was impressed by its specifications and finalized to buy this model.
Specs ....Frequency response: 18 - 28 000 Hz ( ’X’ Hz means the speaker vibrates ’X’ times in 1 second : human ear can hear sounds between 20 Hz & 20, 000 Hz)
Maximum power input: 1500 mW (good enough for boom boom bass)
Speaker: 40 mm diaphragm made or Mylar material with a Neodymium Magnet .
Cable Type: OFC Cable (Oxygen free) .
Color : Gray.
Acoustic system: Open ( With Bass Vents ).
Impedance: 32 Ohms.
Sensitivity: 104 dB.
Cable Connection: One-sided on the left.
Cable length: 3 m ( Without Volume Control)
Construction and Features ....
SHP 2700 is Made in China and comes with a 6 month warranty. This is the model launched before SHP 8500. Interestingly, the human eardrum is horizontally slanting and not straight. So Philips has done something intelligent : it’s placed the headphone’s speaker horizontally slanted. So if other headphones and our ears are like this...... I /, Philips headphones and our ears are like this...... / /. So, sound flows directly into our ears creating a stronger impact !
The circular headband has PHILIPS logo on top in white. The gray finishing of the huge ear-cups is beautiful. SHP 2700 has 3-way adjustability: the ear-cups swivel 360 degrees around the headphone vertchandru021y and about 30 degrees horizontally. These headphones also have cloth padding on the cups : they are soft to wear and never heat up much. Just as in a Bass Reflex speaker, it has ’bass vents’ that allow air to flow inside the speaker and vice versa. It also comes with a Chrome Plated 6.3 mm Jack ( to connect it to guitar amplifier ).
Useful links for SHP 2700 ....
To see how the headphone looks, visit...
Official PDF Leaflet : https://p4c.philips.com/files/s/shp2700_00/shp2700_00_pss_eng.pdf &
Youtube Video : https://youtube.com/watch?v=XgQrWfeb3XY
Performance ....
Right after opening from the box, I played a Thriller MP3 track to test the headphone’s sound quality : it gave good bass, but it’s overall sound was not good. So I started to Burn-In the headphones.’Burn-in’ is the process of ’loosening the diaphragm’ of a new headphone and ’stressing’ the headphone driver to enable it reproduce all sound frequencies. So I played pink noise for around 1 week. This increased the sound quality a LOT.
MUSIC ....
I played a Michael Jackson song Speed Demon from album Bad ( on Acer 5738 laptop with Dolby Sound). In the beginning of the song, a car sound starts on the left channel and traverses to the right : the sound is so natural & beautiful on my Philips. Smooth Criminal’s beginning heartbeat music is clear as crystal. In the AQUA songs We Belong To The Sea and Goodbye to Circus I can hear minute sounds so clearly ..... just amazing !
Music lovers who prefer heavy bass will never be disappointed : the Bass is rich, thanks to the 40 mm diaphragm. Since I haven’t listened to Sennheiser or Koss headphones, I cannot compare this with them. But for this price it’s a great buy.
MOVIES ....
For a great audio experience, I crafted a Bass Booster (a hardware using ICs not Software)that boosts the lowest frequency sounds i.e. below 50 Hz. For ultimate bass, its circuitry ’s designed to get a gain of 28 dB @ thunderous 10 Hz sound ! The audio setup is like this :
DVD Player -> Hardware Bass Booster -> TV -> Headphone.
After burning in the headphone I watched movies on my Bass Booster. From the amount of bass the SHP2700 gives, I feel I am in a theater. There are times when the bass is so full and stands out. For example, in the movie LOTR : Two Towers (which has bass-full Dolby sound recording) during the scene when the Black Gate being is opened by two huge beasts, the bass is spectacular. : one can feel the diaphragm vibrating at the lowest frequency. Now a days, I really enjoy watching movies in perfect Dolby sound WITHOUT disturbing others @ nights when they are sleeping. Thanks to Philips.
TV ....
I also listen to the sound of my DTH on headphones ....
DTH -> TV (AV Out) -> Hardware Bass Booster -> Headphone.
Bass is awesome @ a Volume of just 1/16 on Sun Direct DTH. For the German channel DW-Asia, the surround effect just stands out, thanks to German transmission quality.
Cons ....
As there’s a lot of bass, the sound distorts @ high volumes. So we need to reduce the bass manually on Equalizer.
The headphone’s plastic is thin near the ear-cups. Sometimes while moving the head, the plastic produces a sound.
The headband design is circum-aural so the ear cups press my ears a little.
Conclusion ....
Considering its performance, cost and looks my opinion is that SHP2700 is a GREAT entry level headphone.