After a year of use my Shure SE250’s cable as well as the rubber seal around the headphones have given up. I still got a year of warranty on it so would be sending them in for repairs. In the meantime however I needed a cheap but quality headphones to sooth my music cravings. I didn’t want to go in for pricey pair (anything above €50..yeah..that’s kinda pricey for a student!) so went shopping for the cheapest in-ear canalphones that I can get away with. I’ve used the Sennheiser CX300 before and have recommended it to my friends as well, but I was in a mood to try something different (or even cheaper than the €27 that the CX300s cost). The Philips 9550 retails on Amazon for €20 (there’s the Creative EP630 coming in cheaper at €15! but that’s kinda scarily cheap!) and seemed appealing.

On the outside the headphones are well designed (and they come in black only!) the package comes with a standard 3 set fit kit of rubber seals and a cable winder thrown in for free. The cable of the Philips 9550 comes in at 1.2m which is about right for a 6ft guy carrying the ipod or any other music player in the jeans pocket – but i still feel its stingy! and the cable winder is just sarcastic! Anyway that’s about the only gripe with the Philips 9550 that I had. I’ve a full review up on Blogcritics and would definitely like to underline the verdict..this thing is a mean bass machine! remember to wear the headphones over the ear (like the shure models) and the angled audiotunnel gives you a comfortable and effective fit canceling out background noise as well as pumping bass into your earcanals. The Philips 9550 is a fantastic buy for the money, and will definitely satisfy bassheads and casual listeners alike. If you’re looking for anything better than good…then this isn’t the pricepoint you should be looking in.