Breaks Easily, but once glued they are simply excellent.

It is true that these headphones break easily, but if you take the trouble to glue them together (you will do this 2 or 3 times) they offer a simply amazing sound. People have praised their bass, which I beleive is quite unfair as the real strength of these headphones is that they give a crystal clear sound for every frequency. From the largest drums to the smallest flutes and violins. It has a good bass alright, but contrary to what you would expect from this, it is not boosted on the expense of something else. My father who is 50+ use them to listen on classical tunes and I quote"I have not heard this symphony until now!" So whether you are an H&H fan or prefer Vivaldi these headphones will reproduce the sound just the way the artist wanted it to sound. Btw, if you think the Guitar string in hotel California sounds like a slack shoelase, these headphones is a gift from above! I wanted to give it 5 stars but since it breaks so easily I figured I could not give it more than 4. If Phillips would just add in 5 pounds per set to make it not break it would have been the perfect set of headphones. WHY PHILLIPS? WHY? This was such a good set of headphones could you not just have made the plastic 2 mm thicker?

Nice and flexible

I bought these because the necklace/lanyard-style headphones that came with my mp3 player (a mobiBLU Cube) were of poor quality and don't work any more. Because it's a very small gadget, it's a bit annoying to have to fumble around in a bag or a pocket to manipulate it. So I wanted to get another pair of necklace headphones, but the Sony ones are really expensive. The price of these is very decent and the sound quality seems good (I'm no great audiophile).

So, the previous reviewer clearly didn't understand the purpose of these: they're meant for mp3 players that are small enough to be worn around the neck, not to listen to your computer or stereo!

However, if you don't have another pair around and want to plug them into a desktop device, you can unsnap the plastic bit at the back of the neck by pulling, so the /0 shape becomes a /U (imagine the earbuds are at the lower ends of those slashes), which effectively doubles the length from plug to earbuds.

Heady about headphones

My husbands's SBCHN110 Philips noise cancelling headphones may not be state-of-the-art but for the price, they do the job admirably. He (and I) use them at home (indoors and out), on aeroplanes and boats and whilst power walking. Externally, they're not designer-led but don't worry ... you will not look nerdy. People keep mistaking him for Leonardo DiCaprio thinking he's re-enacting his airline captaincy role in"Catch me if you can".