Are A $20 Pair Of Headphones Any Good? Sort of.

To me, there's only one reason to own a pair of bulky headphones that completely cover the ears --- to filter out the sounds of the surrounding environment.

So that's why a buddy bought me a pair of ear muff headphones as a gift several years ago. I always complained of coworkers who yacked their heads off all day long, making it hard to concentrate. The set of Koss headphones took care of that problem. I plugged them directly into my work computers speakers which allowed me to listen to internet radio without having to hear a coworker talk in baby talk about the new costume she bought for her pet pug over the weekend. I broke the Koss headphones when I forgot they were on my head and I walked away from the computer, ripping them out of the speakers and ruining the connection.

I bought the Philips HP170 headphones because they were cheap --- I didn't want to get an expensive pair because I leave them at work where they could get pilfered. Besides, the sound quality is only so good when listening to music over the internet.

Function: The Philips comes with two volume wheel controls on both ear muffs. This is sort of impractical and senseless. Unless you have hearing difficulties, why would you want one ear muff to be louder than the other? I keep both of the ear muffs at full volume at all times and adjust the sound by using the knob on my computer speakers. The left ear muff also has a toggle switch that allows you to change from mono to stereo sound. I guess the mono option is good if you need to play back a voice recorder and want to hear out of both ears. But sometimes I find myself accidently hitting the switch and changing from stereo to mono because I constantly take the headphones on and off all day long.

Fit: The best feature of the Philips HP170 headphones are that they are extremely comfortable. I have average size ears and the black vinyl padded muffs easily cover my ears and do not come into contact with anything inside of the ear muffs. The headphone strap easily adjusts to my Frankenstein sized head and stays put once it's adjusted. I can wear these headphones during an 8 hour work shift with no discomfort whatsoever.

Sound: The sound produced by these headphones are very acceptable. I noticed a bit of a slip from the higher priced Koss headphones that preceded this set, mostly in high treble and low, low bass. However the sound is clear, static free and quite suitable for listening to music on the computer. My biggest complaint about these headphones is that because the ear muffs are not mounted on swivels, the muffs do not fit snuggly near the top of my ears. Because of that, outside noise is allowed in. For example, when one of my co-workers is shreeking about some nonsense, I can hear it, whereas with the Koss headphones, I was always in my own cone of silence.

Overall: These are fine inexpensive headphones to use for listening to music on the computer, playing videogames or as a traveling set for an MP3 player. If you lose them or they get stolen, you're only out 20 bucks. I've had this pair for over a year and the sound is still good. But because they let it so much outside noise, I'm going to try my luck with a more expensive pair fairly soon.