Philips SHP5400

Build quality
 
Well built for the price, the cloth ear covers can get a bit worn in places. 
 
Sound quality
 
Tight and defined bass that extends quite deep, clear, defined mids, slightly prominent lower treble, treble well extended and very clear.  Overall quite neutral in sound signature.  Soundstage is wide and airy.  These are better than the Grado sr60 beating them in soundstage and clarity, except for very slightly less bass.  Not too different to the bigger Philips hp890s, but again, not quite as much bass.  Value for money is really really good!  Paid £13 for them on ebay uk.

This is very cheap headphone so I didn't expect much from it and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The design is great, its extremely light, super comfortable on the ears, you literally don't feel it.For $40 dollars Philips couldn't afford to spent a lot on the material, so the headphone is all plastic with thin cable which is obviously a weak spot. The cable is 2 meters long and comes with adapter (not gold plated)
 
Sound:
 
Bass: even compared to very expensive headphones I would rank it very high, the bass is soft, very well balanced, very well defined and doesn't seem to distort mids and highs. Exceptional bass handling. Big surprise. Philips claims to use some kind of special technology to produce this type of bass.
Mids: this is the typical weak spot of any cheap audio gear. I would rate the mids 4 out of 5 but this is only because I compare it to some expensive headphones, overall mids are balanced and quite present.
Highs: from the highs perspective the headphone is a little bit on the bright side but by no means it makes you tired like with Grado. 
 
Overall I have to say that the sound is very balanced, soft and pleasant, you can listen to them for long time without feeling tired. What surprises me the most is that this headphone is equally good for all types of music. Believe it or not but for Rock/Heavy Metal I prefer it over my other 5-6 times more expensive headphones. I rank it very high in cheap headphone category It has just right amount of everything for casual listening in the office.
 
Burn in: at least 60-70 hours of burn in required,  otherwise you would hear distortion across frequency range. But after the burn in you will fall in love with it.