Philips SHS5200 Reflective Neckband Headphones

Comment: I was tired of my earbuds continuing to break every few months, so I went with this wrap around headset. Sound quality is okay, I like the bungee cord that makes it hard to pull the cord out of the ear piece.

Not terribly comfortable and you can't adjust the headset. I find myself constantly repositioning the headset because it hurts my ears. Not too much cushion. Cool looking design.

Comment: I owned the previous version of this headphone before (same but the color used to be blue, forgot the model number). It lasted me 4 years and I loved how it attaches to my head comfortably and didn't fall off all the time in gym and while cycling. I treat my headphones really bad and rarely they survive more than 6 months. Most of them have their cables cut or connections fail. The other ones get crushed in my bag. The main advantage of this headphone is that it is very solid and sturdy. It would be really hard to break it in normal use. It is great for cycling and I cycled few times under heavy rain and it still survived. I bought 3 of the last version and after killing the last one while pulling the cable while it was stuck then I bought this one.

Amazingly, the new version has not changed much. Let me give you a short list so you can decide better:

Cons:
1) Audio quality (bass specially) is not awesome.
2) The cover on the ear piece is not changeable so if you get grossed out wearing the same headphone for years. Then that would be a bit of a problem.
3) It does not fit smaller heads well and falls backward

Pros:
1) The cables is covered by a cloth cover which does not break easily and it is long enough
2) The ear covers have a hard plastic cover which is reflective and make it harder to break
3) The unchangeable ear piece is comfortable and fits perfectly around my head and ears

Comment: I bought these based on the frequency range specs to replace my aging headphones I use on my MP3 player. I use it when I work out, and the old headphones are starting to succumb to the constant bathing in sweat. Some others have reviewed these as being a bit tight. I found the opposite. They were much looser than I prefer. The band around the back of my neck actually sat way away from my neck. I thought the build and overall finish and quality were superb. The big problem was where it counts most....sound. My old headphones, Koss KSC-55, were the absolute best sounding sport headphones under $30 I've ever heard. In fact, I've read reviews in magazines where they were compared to $300.00 audiophile headphones in sound quality. So, I guess I'm a bit spoiled. Unfortunately, Koss no longer makes these gems. My point being that I had already set the bar extremely high when I purchased the Philips. They just couldn't meet the mark. The highs were too high and "airy". The bass was not clean at all, and had distortion when pushed. At comparable volumes with the Koss headphones, the sound from the Philips was distorted and very trashy. Actually, I couldn't get the Philips to reach a comparable volume. I returned them. Sorry Philips.

Comment: I'm an active jogger and I'd been using the Phillips headphones for the past three years. I came to realize I took this set of headphones for granted. I picked them up at Target randomly just to replace my old beaten Radio Shack headphones. Just recently my Phillips died and I went out to replace them with iLuv brand "sport headphone" only to realize they were the biggest waste of money. I am now looking to get ANOTHER set of Phillips SHS5200 headphones. These headphones are moderately comfortable, durable and have great sound quailty for your sport headphone. I'm definantly an over-the-ear headphone person and these are by far the best over-the-ear headphones I've ever used. I found the cord to be interesting in that it was covered in nylon (rope-like)material, good for water resistance. The behind the neck band was a reflective fabric. Lastly the foam covers for the ear pieces were soft and comfortable and I never had issues with them disintegrating with sweat over time like most other headphones. Over all I was impressed with the design and quality of the Phillips SHS5200.

Comment: I've been on the search for a good pair of headphones for a long time. I own a couple pairs of Skull Candy earbuds, Klipsch earbuds, even tried the Beats by Dre buds (returned, HORRIBLE!) The problem I've been having is for my workouts/jogs, save for an old pair of Skull Candy's, I haven't found a pair of earbuds that stay in place especially when jogging and the cord starts bouncing around. After trying my brothers Sennheiser PMX100's, I was sold on over the ear behind the neck style phones, so I began my search. To cut to it, I picked these, and I'm so happy I did. They're comfortable, sound AMAZING (as good as PMX100), they stay in place! And they look very nice too. All in all, I love these! Who would have thought after all the money I've spent over the years, the phones I'd like best were the cheapest!! Good job Phillips