Philips SBC-HC8410 Cordless

So you're looking for a pair of wireless headphones and thinking about the Philips SBC HC 8410 ha? Well luckily for you, someone has been there, done that, and probably won?t be doing it again!

What you get? A set of wireless headphones; a wireless transmitter which doubles as a docking station for the headphones, an audio connector cable (split left and right channels on one end, miniplug on the other), a two-channel to miniplug converter, and one of those small mini-plug to jack converters. The last two are just an attempt at making the device compatible with different types of audio equipment. They don?t really bare much explanation and are the sort of things you could easily find at Maplins anyway.

The Headphones...are rather bulky due mostly to their domed shaped ear-pieces. The ear cushions are made of material (not leather). I found this made them feel rather hot after 15 minutes or so of use, and I found the material itself to be rather uncomfortable. Although I think it just makes the headphones heavier to wear, some people may like the ?bulky? styling.

The transmitter/docking station...is rather large compared to some of the competition. It is dome shaped again, and made out of a metallic grey plastic. It houses the transmitter unit and the charger. When the headphones are placed on the docking station they charge automatically. In practice, it takes a little fiddling to match the left headphone with the little power prong. At the back of the docking station there is a three way switch, which enables you to set the device to transmit on three different wavelengths. You will need to use this switch if you are experiencing interference from another radio device or if your neighbour has bought another one of these babies and you?re hearing their music instead! At the back of the station you will also find left and right signal sockets, and a miniplug socket; these are the audio-in sockets and you can use either the left and righ

t signal sockets OR the miniplug socket, but not both.

The performance...was well, rather miserable really. I like my music clear and crisp, and on my set of headphones it certainly wasn?t, whether at close distance or far away. Three things degraded the listening experience. Firstly there was a constant hissing sound (what audiophiles would call ?noise?). This hissing would remain constant as I increased the volume on the headphones then rise sharply as I approach full volume. The hissing was not enough to drown out all sound, but was certainly very noticeable. The second thing I noticed was that low base and high treble sounds where not reproduced. If I had never heard a particular song before I might not notice, but I knew how that song should have sounded and the reproduction of it via the wireless headphones was far from accurate! Finally, I tried the device on several outputs (Stereo, PC and TV), setting each of the outputs to full volume, but I felt the Headphones were under-powered. I tried re-charging the Headphones but this did not have any effect on the sound quality.

Verdict...I have a two Philips stereos and have always been happy with their quality of sound, build and features, so I find it hard to believe that the headphones I just reviewed are made by the same people! I do not want to deter people from trying them out (maybe my pair was defective!) so it might be worth popping down to Comet/Dixons and picking up a pair, and if you don?t like them you can always get your money back (buy them on credit card and refund will go back to card at Comet, but always ask sales assistant what returns policy is before you buy!). I am also unsure if the noise I am hearing is endemic to the wireless UHF technology, and I will only be able to comment on this once I have tried out a different pair of wireless headphones

*updated*: Refund came in and I bought a new pair of wireless headphones ? see my PANASONIC RP-WF910 review co

ming shortly!

Just bought me 2 pair of the Philips SBC HC8412, boxes been sitting on a shelf for ages so the price were a bargin, the few downsides of the SBC HC8410 is gone in this model, the SBC HC8412 comes with both a docking station as well as digital tuning.

The batteries are one(1)rechargeable AAA in each speaker(total of 4 AAA) which gives excellet operating time, the headphones are both comfortable to wear and are easy to use.

The tested range of the FM headphones is currently two solid 20 cm concrete walls, 3 stairs down and 60 meters down the street, yeah I prolly looked like Tinky Winky in Teletubies!

Comfortable, well made, light

Decent enough price

First pair of cordless headphones, using on a tv to send sound from DVDs I watch, even after wearing for a quite a while they don't make your ears very hot like some might and they are light, comfy and easy enough to use. A very nice product.

Well recommend Philips SBC-HC8410 Cordless.

The Philips SBC-HC8410 are excellent headphones for the hearing impaired.

Good background noise suppression

Good fitting on ears

Automatic tuning

Upon buying the Philips SBC-HC8410 Cordless Headphones, I have to admit, I wasn't too sure I had bought the right set of headphones as I tested them for the first time. However, the more I've used them the better the experience has become.

A bit of tweaking and I have sorted out a few issues I wasn't too happy with.

I use the HC8410 on my PC, and I found that if the volume control on the headphones is high then hissing can become an issue, however, by turning it down on the headphones and turning it up on the PC media player/General Volume Control I can listen to loud, quality music without hiss.

The power saver which switches off when there is no sound source can be a little annoying, if there is no sound source that is loud and long enough for the Base station to kick back into action then pc beeps won't sound.

Also, same issue, the base station takes a couple of seconds to kick back into action, so I usually don't hear the first two seconds of the first song I play- which I can get around if I talk into my mic.

Of course the quality isn't going to be as good as corded headphones... but its close enough for me!

Definitely a good buy, you just have to make a few minor adjustments to suite your needs.

The Philips SBC-HC8410 is my first pair of cordless headphones and I am extremely impressed. The headphones are high quality and comfortable and the sound performace is excellent. There is little or no interference even when walking around the house a lot. This is without even using the 3 available channels.

I have tested them on numerous devices - TV, DVD, HiFi, PS2, Laptop and each one gives very good quality sound.

Having read the other reviews, I would have to disagree about the background hissing. Even on silent parts of tracks there is no background noise. I would suggest that the reviewer had a suspect pair of the headphones.

Also, whilst the charging time of 16 hours is long, Philips have been smart with regard to the use of 2xAAA NiMH rechargeable batteries. Since I already own a recharger and a couple of sets of NiMH batteries, I can simply remove the foam from the headphones and change the discharged batteries for another set of fully charged ones. As the battery life is significant, I only need to do this for prolonged headphone use.

All in all, if you are thinking about getting a pair of cordless headphones, I would definitely recommend these, especially at the price!