If you own an iPod but don't like the look (or sound) of the bland white ear buds then there are several manufacturers who cater to your need to stand out. Unfortunately, most of them look funkier than they sound.
The Philips SHL8800 are a "youth-oriented" set of phones which feature replaceable covers (with four in the box) and even let you make your own. But there's no template included — basically you just need to make your own based on a diameter of approximately 5cm. We even attempted to make our own punk-oriented ones (Bad Religion, in fact).
The SHL8800s are closed headphones with 40mm drivers which offer a small degree of sound isolation and are quite snug. In fact, they could be considered too snug and give you the ear sweats and head clampiness after a while. Construction quality is good though, and while they're made of light plastic they feel they could take a minor amount of abuse. For added portability, the headphones fold flat. Finally, the 1.2m long cable is terminated with a gold-plated 3.5mm plug.
It may seem weird for a headphone to make you want to dance but that's what the 8800s do. Perfect for silent discos perhaps. We tried a couple of different sources — a 32GB iPod Touch, a Zen X-Fi2 and the headphone jack on a desktop PC.
We found that the Philips were most comfortable with bass-heavy tracks and there was a reason for this — they have the thickest, frothiest bass response we've heard in some time. It shouldn't make sense, but somehow it does.
First, we threw them some of Nick Cave's Red Right Hand, and surprisingly we found the bass was controlled — there was just a lot of it. Vocal detail and high-end response weren't stiletto sharp, but the bass "funk" didn't completely drown everything out. On further listening, we found the forward bass did rob some tracks of their attack, as with Will Oldham's haunting O Let It Be.
Next we lined up a lossless copy of Battles' Atlas and thought Let's see what kind of hash it makes of this. But, it wasn't the confused mess we were expecting. The sound was propulsive, undulating and truly bewildering — just like it should be. It seems that this is the sort of track the Philips were made for. Similarly, dance hits such as Pendulum's Slam or Prodigy's Breathe also hummed along, though we did find the headphones physically vibrated at maximum volume.
We liked the Philips SHL8800 and the fact that you can customise them to suit your own "look". But sound-wise, they're a one-trick pony — essentially they're good for dance music aficionados only due to the mid-bass fug that settles over everything. Some users may find that the headphone's "grip" on their ears may be a little too great as well.
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