3xclu5ive
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2016
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I bought these after checking out this review: http://www.head-fi.org/t/801140/philips-shl-3060-review#post_12563976
I knew what I was getting into. A cool sounding, bright and sparkly headphone for £18, but I thought the bass would have more quantity. I was in need of a portable headphone that was great for commute and didn't look ugly. I also wanted good sound quality for a good price. After reading this review, I was confident to buy the Philips SHL3060. I typically don't like on ears but these were no exception.
Specifications (From Philips website):
Acoustic System: Closed
Frequency Response: 10-22,000 Hz
Impedance: 24 Ohms
Magnet type: Neodymium
Max Power Input: 1000mW
Speaker Sensitivity: 106 dB
Speaker Diaphram: PET
Type: Dynamic
Cable Length: 1.2 m
Cable connection: 2 sided
Cable connector: 3.5 mm Jack
Build quality:
Only one word. Plastic. Of course almost every cheap headphones are made of plastic. My Philips SHP2000 is made of plastic, my House of Marley Roars is made of plastic and my Sony MDR-v150 is made of plastic. The overall weight is light, which is good for a portable. The headband is thin but quite durable. I was able to twist it with moderate force without snapping it. The amount of extension is very big, which for massive heads, is really good. The clamp force is not too heavy, just a little bit lighter then I am normally used to. They fold up like most of the Sony MDR-ZX headphones, which is neat and I can fit these in my pocket. They are marked with left and right at each side in big letters, which looks nice. The cable is thin, and terminates with a 3.5mm gold plated jack, which is right angled. There is some strain relief on the jack as well, to protect it from breaking when bending. The wire comes out of both driver housing, which I don't mind because I actually prefer this as this makes repairing my headphones easier. Where the wire enters in to the ear housing, there is a rubber tube which helps strain relief and also reduce the chance of damage if the wire is yanked near that area. The outside of the driver housing has the same look as the cheap on ear Sony headphones but the brand name is in the middle. This part tends to get scratched up but you won't notice it until you look closely. The ear pads are
this cheap plastic material, but the foam is softer than the other headphones I tried, and they were comfortable.
These are a DJ styled headphones, you have the earcups that can swivel up, down, left and right. This was great for me, even though I'm not a DJ, because I could listen to music with one ear, and have the other ear allow to hear others. the other driver housing was just behing my head with the padding touching it. I could barely hear the other driver housing, which means was able to hear other properly. Of course, some people don't like the DJ design, but it is not bad for £18, which most headphones can't do. The ear housing can be flipped the other side 165 degrees. The ear housing fold outwards, which I hate! Rain could get into the driver and mangle with everything!
The clamp force has to be a little bit higher. I will talk about why when I talk about the sound quality. The headband also has to be just thick enough so it doesn't bend out in a weird shape, making it difficult to put my hood over it. The way the clamp force could be high is by making the headband just a bit thicker.
Comfort:
The headband, when on your head, doesn't form to your head properly, and barely has grip. Only 1/5 of the headband touches your head and I find that uncomfortable. The ear pads are not too bad, even though it is a cheaply made. They rest on ear, which cause ear fatigue but due to the clamping force being light, I can wear then for hours. Doing one ear monitoring is doesn't apply much more force to your monitoring ear. I think the only thing that is quite uncomfortable is the ear pad material. It doesn't feel quite good when it sits on your ear but it gives it good grip but shaking your head when it's on your head can cause it to fall off, which I'm sure for a DJ can be a bit annoying. There's not much to day about comfort, but it's okay.
Sound Quality:
I have tested the sound quality with 192Kbps MP3, 320 Kbps MP3, 24 Bit FLAC, 32 bit WAV from my Bush Spira e2x mobile phone and my laptop as sources. This headphone as been through a 5 hour burn-in period with my music on my laptop.
The bass is thin sounding, even though they advertise the "powerful bass" it says on the packaging. There is bass and it does go low down into the sub bass notes but it doesn't have the loudness and impact that my SHP2000 has. EQ won't solve the lack of bass due to the clamping force and the ear pads. When I press the headphones on my ears, the bass and impact does appear louder but the lower midrange becomes congested and quite shouty but the highs lose their nice sparkly and crisp sound. The bass is tight and never suffer from being sluggish when music has fast bass like in EH!DE x Deflo - Hide the Flow. The sub bass is present on this headphones but it is almost inaudible if there is a other frequencies in the mids and highs playing at the same time. It's surprising how they advertise it having "powerful bass", yet the bass is thin but tight. It has 32mm driver so, that could be a factor of the thin sounding bass.
The mids are forward, which is unlike the relaxed mids that the Philips Signature mainly has at this price range. This makes male and female vocals full of life and enjoyable to listen to, more enjoyable than the Sony MDR-V150 which was a mid-centric headphone. The mids are quite precise as well and never gets shouty, even at hard times which the track has very fast paced mids. I know there are other headphones which are great for vocals but this has to be one. The lower mids are a tad bit recessed but that's due to the clamping force. From distorted guitars to vocals, these sound great, but just a bit dry, but not too dry to very noticeable.
The highs makes the clarity of vocals amazing. I have never heard a headphone costing lower than £20 having such amazing highs. My right ear is sensitive to 8kHz, which was a bit annoying but I was used to be because Philips headphones mainly have elevated highs. The highs are quite detailed and crisp. I found it to be just a bit revealing with 192Kbps MP3 as the loss of detail is present but other than that, it has some forgiveness to lower quality music, down to 128Kbps MP3, tested by rendering a WAV into different MP3 bitrates. These have more detail than my Philips SHP2000, which is my favourite headphone from my collection I have at this point of time, but the different is not that much. Some of my tracks have grainy treble like "Habstrakt - My People", and it sure didn't smooth or muffled that out, unlike other headphones at this price range. If you love detail and clarity of highs and on a budget, there could be better options but this could be one of the options.
The soundstage is not big, but it's audible. I can hear sound which sould like it's outside of the headphone. I have tested this with the door knock soundstage test, and it did a pretty good job, due to the highs quantity. I wouldn't say it's good for gaming but it's okay for first person shooters. There are better options for getting spatial audio like the Somic MH463 or Audio Technica ATH-TAD300.
The imaging is on par with the SHP2000. I can hear certain sound just a bit to the left or to the right. I can't say much about it, as it's not the most accurate, but it does a better job than the headphones at this price range.
Conclusion:
Well. I have to say I like this headphone due to it's unique sound signature, but it's not really my kind of headphone for portability. It's has more highs than bass and I love to have more of a "v" shape sound when I am listening to music on the go. But if you listen to music which is not bass driven and have more going on in the mids and highs, I think might be a good choice for you if you are looking for portable, on ear headphone which doesn't leave your wallet unhappy. If you are 8kHz sensitive, you might want to look for something else. Anyone who listens to vocals, you have to try them. They sound amazing with both male and female voices.
I knew what I was getting into. A cool sounding, bright and sparkly headphone for £18, but I thought the bass would have more quantity. I was in need of a portable headphone that was great for commute and didn't look ugly. I also wanted good sound quality for a good price. After reading this review, I was confident to buy the Philips SHL3060. I typically don't like on ears but these were no exception.
Specifications (From Philips website):
Acoustic System: Closed
Frequency Response: 10-22,000 Hz
Impedance: 24 Ohms
Magnet type: Neodymium
Max Power Input: 1000mW
Speaker Sensitivity: 106 dB
Speaker Diaphram: PET
Type: Dynamic
Cable Length: 1.2 m
Cable connection: 2 sided
Cable connector: 3.5 mm Jack
Build quality:
Only one word. Plastic. Of course almost every cheap headphones are made of plastic. My Philips SHP2000 is made of plastic, my House of Marley Roars is made of plastic and my Sony MDR-v150 is made of plastic. The overall weight is light, which is good for a portable. The headband is thin but quite durable. I was able to twist it with moderate force without snapping it. The amount of extension is very big, which for massive heads, is really good. The clamp force is not too heavy, just a little bit lighter then I am normally used to. They fold up like most of the Sony MDR-ZX headphones, which is neat and I can fit these in my pocket. They are marked with left and right at each side in big letters, which looks nice. The cable is thin, and terminates with a 3.5mm gold plated jack, which is right angled. There is some strain relief on the jack as well, to protect it from breaking when bending. The wire comes out of both driver housing, which I don't mind because I actually prefer this as this makes repairing my headphones easier. Where the wire enters in to the ear housing, there is a rubber tube which helps strain relief and also reduce the chance of damage if the wire is yanked near that area. The outside of the driver housing has the same look as the cheap on ear Sony headphones but the brand name is in the middle. This part tends to get scratched up but you won't notice it until you look closely. The ear pads are
this cheap plastic material, but the foam is softer than the other headphones I tried, and they were comfortable.
These are a DJ styled headphones, you have the earcups that can swivel up, down, left and right. This was great for me, even though I'm not a DJ, because I could listen to music with one ear, and have the other ear allow to hear others. the other driver housing was just behing my head with the padding touching it. I could barely hear the other driver housing, which means was able to hear other properly. Of course, some people don't like the DJ design, but it is not bad for £18, which most headphones can't do. The ear housing can be flipped the other side 165 degrees. The ear housing fold outwards, which I hate! Rain could get into the driver and mangle with everything!
The clamp force has to be a little bit higher. I will talk about why when I talk about the sound quality. The headband also has to be just thick enough so it doesn't bend out in a weird shape, making it difficult to put my hood over it. The way the clamp force could be high is by making the headband just a bit thicker.
Comfort:
The headband, when on your head, doesn't form to your head properly, and barely has grip. Only 1/5 of the headband touches your head and I find that uncomfortable. The ear pads are not too bad, even though it is a cheaply made. They rest on ear, which cause ear fatigue but due to the clamping force being light, I can wear then for hours. Doing one ear monitoring is doesn't apply much more force to your monitoring ear. I think the only thing that is quite uncomfortable is the ear pad material. It doesn't feel quite good when it sits on your ear but it gives it good grip but shaking your head when it's on your head can cause it to fall off, which I'm sure for a DJ can be a bit annoying. There's not much to day about comfort, but it's okay.
Sound Quality:
I have tested the sound quality with 192Kbps MP3, 320 Kbps MP3, 24 Bit FLAC, 32 bit WAV from my Bush Spira e2x mobile phone and my laptop as sources. This headphone as been through a 5 hour burn-in period with my music on my laptop.
The bass is thin sounding, even though they advertise the "powerful bass" it says on the packaging. There is bass and it does go low down into the sub bass notes but it doesn't have the loudness and impact that my SHP2000 has. EQ won't solve the lack of bass due to the clamping force and the ear pads. When I press the headphones on my ears, the bass and impact does appear louder but the lower midrange becomes congested and quite shouty but the highs lose their nice sparkly and crisp sound. The bass is tight and never suffer from being sluggish when music has fast bass like in EH!DE x Deflo - Hide the Flow. The sub bass is present on this headphones but it is almost inaudible if there is a other frequencies in the mids and highs playing at the same time. It's surprising how they advertise it having "powerful bass", yet the bass is thin but tight. It has 32mm driver so, that could be a factor of the thin sounding bass.
The mids are forward, which is unlike the relaxed mids that the Philips Signature mainly has at this price range. This makes male and female vocals full of life and enjoyable to listen to, more enjoyable than the Sony MDR-V150 which was a mid-centric headphone. The mids are quite precise as well and never gets shouty, even at hard times which the track has very fast paced mids. I know there are other headphones which are great for vocals but this has to be one. The lower mids are a tad bit recessed but that's due to the clamping force. From distorted guitars to vocals, these sound great, but just a bit dry, but not too dry to very noticeable.
The highs makes the clarity of vocals amazing. I have never heard a headphone costing lower than £20 having such amazing highs. My right ear is sensitive to 8kHz, which was a bit annoying but I was used to be because Philips headphones mainly have elevated highs. The highs are quite detailed and crisp. I found it to be just a bit revealing with 192Kbps MP3 as the loss of detail is present but other than that, it has some forgiveness to lower quality music, down to 128Kbps MP3, tested by rendering a WAV into different MP3 bitrates. These have more detail than my Philips SHP2000, which is my favourite headphone from my collection I have at this point of time, but the different is not that much. Some of my tracks have grainy treble like "Habstrakt - My People", and it sure didn't smooth or muffled that out, unlike other headphones at this price range. If you love detail and clarity of highs and on a budget, there could be better options but this could be one of the options.
The soundstage is not big, but it's audible. I can hear sound which sould like it's outside of the headphone. I have tested this with the door knock soundstage test, and it did a pretty good job, due to the highs quantity. I wouldn't say it's good for gaming but it's okay for first person shooters. There are better options for getting spatial audio like the Somic MH463 or Audio Technica ATH-TAD300.
The imaging is on par with the SHP2000. I can hear certain sound just a bit to the left or to the right. I can't say much about it, as it's not the most accurate, but it does a better job than the headphones at this price range.
Conclusion:
Well. I have to say I like this headphone due to it's unique sound signature, but it's not really my kind of headphone for portability. It's has more highs than bass and I love to have more of a "v" shape sound when I am listening to music on the go. But if you listen to music which is not bass driven and have more going on in the mids and highs, I think might be a good choice for you if you are looking for portable, on ear headphone which doesn't leave your wallet unhappy. If you are 8kHz sensitive, you might want to look for something else. Anyone who listens to vocals, you have to try them. They sound amazing with both male and female voices.
