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Philips HE592 Surround Sound Ear Buds (White) | 
 enlarge | Brand: Philips
Category: CE
List Price: $24.99
Buy Used: $8.97
You Save: $16.02 (64%)
New (2) from $12.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  149 reviews
Color: white
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Fragile: No
Number Of Items: 1
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 6 x 4.5 x 1.5
MPN: HE592
Model: HE592
UPC: 026616738335
EAN: 0026616738335
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | White ear bud headphones with patented virtual surround sound technology | | • | 15 mm speaker elements enhance sound quality | | • | Flexi-grip connection protects cable from damage | | • | Includes molded rubber carrying case for protection | | • | 24k gold-plated plug and 3.9-foot cable length |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Whether in homes, factories, offices, airports, or on the street, it's hard to imagine a place where Philips is absent. What Philips wants is to make your life and work easier - and more fun! And Philips continuously explores new ways to improve products and to offer innovative products to its consumers. Philips. "Let's Make Things Better".
Amazon.com Product Description
An ideal complement to portable DVD players and laptops with built-in DVD drives, this pair of ear-bud surround sound headphones simulates the home theater experience whether you're listening privately on a plane, in a hotel room, or even at the park. Each bud features a single 15 mm neodymium speaker driver with a frequency response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. But when combined, the buds incorporate Philips' patented virtual surround technology to create a rich, multichannel-like environment. Though it's not true surround sound, it's as close as a listener will get through a two-channel source, especially one that fits comfortably inside the ear canals. The buds come with a flexible, molded-rubber carrying case, along with a 3.9-foot cord that should be long enough for most applications. The cord's flexi-grip end connection lithely responds to rough handling, while its 24k gold-plated plug ensures the best possible signal transfer for a better overall sound. What's in the Box
HE592 ear buds, 3.9-foot cord, rubber carrying case, user's manual.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 144 more reviews...
 Someone At Phillips Must Have Listened May 17, 2005
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
Based on some of the reviews on this product, and the image above, I think Phillips may have listened to complaints and made some changes to the earbuds. The pair I just bought came with an entirely different set of cups than the ones pictured above, considerably narrower at the end that goes into the ear. The ones pictured here came as a separate pair of cups, unattached to the earbuds. So, it looks like Phillips made some adjustments to help them fit better for most people. I've only been using mine for the last day, but I wore them during my commute to work (which involves a fair amount of walking) and didn't have any trouble with them falling out.
The sound is satisfactory, and a bit better than I expected from a $20 pair of earbuds. I use them with my iPod and noticed that with the Phillips earbuds I had to reduce the volume from the level I used with the original iPod earbuds. As for the virtual-surround, the sound is somewhat richer than with the iPod earbuds, and more external noise is cancelled out.
My only complaint is the chord is designed to be worn around the neck, but works best if you wear your player on your left. I tend to wear mine on the right. A slight adustment, with the chord crossing in front of me took care of that, so I didn't experience any tugging.
 A specialty pair of earbuds for a budget price. September 19, 2006
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Not since the development of the original Sony Walkman has personal music equipment garnered the attention that MP3 players and I-Pods have in the last 5 years.
Increases in technology along with freefalling prices in RAM have made high capacity MP3 players and I-Pods available for the first time to hold an adequate quantity of music at very high quality.
In the past, people had to give up sound quality for quantity, as MP3 players were simply incapable of holding enough memory to make it worth while.
Well, that has changed, and with it, has the quality of headphones available for these little powerhouses of music.
One of the most suprising on the block are the Philips HE592 Surround Sound Ear Buds.
Sitting at a price point of approx 15 to 16 dollars next to the other entry level earbuds at your local Wal-Mart or Amazon, these earbuds deliver a performance that far outstrips their dimunitive price.
The Surround Sound, technology is developed by creating a chamber within the earbud in which sound is fired out the back of the earbud, and then ducted back through small chambers on the side of the bud.
Don't ask me how this is supposed to work because it is beyond me, but the proof is in the difference in sound quality when this outward facing port is blocked by your finger, compared to when it is unblocked. The difference is astounding!!!! It's almost worth $20 bucks alone to sit with your fingers and block and unblock the outward firing ports to hear the "difference".
Because these earbuds rely heavily on placement within the ear canal to function at full performance, two sets of silicon sleeves (a small set, on by default, and an extra "wider" sleve for larger ear canals) are provided to help ensure proper fit.
When properly fitted, these earbuds deliver incredibly high fidelity reproduction. Although a bit light on the bass response (which is to be expected from "buds"), the mid range of these phones is phenomenal.
Due to the design of these buds, the drivers are smaller and thus require less power to provide the same volume level, thus can go "louder" than competitors phones at the same power level. This allows the phones to be operated at a lower volume level during listening, thus saving on your battery life. The smaller drivers must also help contribute to their lower price point.
When properly EQ'ed, these phones bring out subtlties in your music that you never knew was there.
One must mention however that these phones are specialty phones and not adequate for every listening condition.
1. For maximum benefit, these phones should be enjoyed in a quiet environment so that the "redirected" sound can properly be reflected back in to your ear. Outside noise such as lawnmowers, aircraft noise and other background noise will adversely affect sound quality. This is due to the fact that outside noise will interfere with the reflected sound indirectly entering the ear through the open ducts in the side. Use of these phones in environments with high background noise is therefore not recommended.
2. Since a proper fit is mandatory for maximum enjoyment, these phones are not adequate for any heavy workouts as movement may jar the phones within the ear canal and disrupt the acoustics.
One should keep these points in mind when considering your purchase. However at $20.00 or less it is a small investment for a pair of phones that will be broken out when the music is the most important thing going on at the time.
Others have complained on their poor fit, and this reviewer nearly returned them for a refund due to his initial impressions on the fit. However, patience and experimentation should equate to an adequate fit and your ears should adapt. By experimenting in placement and trying out both sets of sleeves, I was able to find a placement that was much more comfortable than standard ear buds and provided maximum enjoyment. After two weeks I must say it was well worth the wait. I therefore urge any purchasers of these phones to actually overcome your initial perceived problems with fit, and patiently experiment. It is well worth the effort.
Some other shortcomings of the phones are the asymetric design which leads to the left earbud wire being much shorter than the right. The idea in asymetric wires is that the right wire is redirected around the back of the neck. While in theory this may be a good idea, in execution it leads to the left bud bearing the full weight of the earphone wire, which tends to pull the left bud out of position. This also helps contribute to the earbud's inadequacy in conditions where there is a lot of physical movement of the head. The asymetric wire design is one of the few real shortcomings of this pair, and I would like to see another model released with more traditional symetric wiring.
The silicon and plastic case that holds the phones is also needlessly complex, and much harder to use than it should be. I have relegated myself to using the case simply to hold the spare sleeves, and use a plastic bag to hold the phones, or simply wrap the phones around my Sansa MP3 player when not in use.
While these shortcomings are valid, for less than $20.00 this should not cause the listener to pass up on these phones.
When the right conditions exist, the sound from these phones will actually encourage you to find a nice quiet spot to relax and enjoy your music in ways that you never thought possible.
If you are working out, or mowing the lawn, choose another product. However, if you are sitting or lying down in a nice quiet environment, be prepared for a musical experience that you never thought possible for a sub $20 dollar pair of earbuds.
At $20 bucks a pop, you can easily afford a general use set of buds, while reserving these for those "special times".
Kudos to Phillips for developing a product that when used in it's intended environment delivers an experience unmatched to anything else in it's price point.
 These really, really suck. October 7, 2006
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
I am not one of those snobby audiophile people. I don't use all those silly terms and pretend I can hear some decreased audio quality at sound frequencies only my cat hears. But I do know crap when I hear it. So let's start off with the most basic function of these ear buds - to deliver decent quality sound to your ears. They fail at that. My crappy $[...] Sony earbuds and the ones that came with my iPod both sound a lot better. (Unfortunately for me, the dog chewed up both pairs, which is why I bought the Philips buds to begin with.) And as for the "surround sound", well come on, you really didn't expect that for $15, did you?
In fact my expectations for ear buds are pretty low. The only criteria they have to meet is A.) Delivering sound to my ears that's decent and B.) Staying comfortably in my ears. That's it. So how does Philips screw something so simple up?
Besides the sub-par sound quality, let's look at the other shortfalls:
-Ear piece is horribly designed, PERIOD. This alone made these earbuds completely non-functional for me. They won't stay in your ears. I get the concept of "in-ear" headphones, but Philips doesn't. The headphones fall out while you are standing perfectly still. The only time they somewhat stay in is when you spend about five minutes pulling your ear into various configurations to shove them farther in the ear canal - which makes them uncomfortable to wear. Even then, a quick turn of the head in any direction and they are coming out. They were completely unusable for jogging, biking or pretty much anything. The biggest issue is that the earpiece is just way, WAY to big to accommodate a normal adult ear. (I'm female, but still, I don't have particularly small or delicate ears, just averaged-sized ones.) I got all excited when I saw a second set of earpieces in the case, and then I realized those were even BIGGER. Doh. To give you an idea of how bad these are at staying in, I tried to wear them while riding my Vespa - yeah I know, a bad idea to wear any kind of earphones while on a motorbike, but I digress. Even wearing these with my *very snug* helmet over them, they still fell out!
Next: Stupid features - wish they had spent more time worrying about function than form. Philips spent too much time trying to design features to "wow" us, instead of actually making a simple product that functions well. We are talking budget earbuds here, we don't want bells and whistles, we want something that just works.
-The cord for one ear is longer than the other. The idea behind this is that you can put the long one around the back of your head and somehow this is better than the typical Y-style headphone. I found it annoying and the entire length of cord felt too short . The only good thing I can see about this design is that it allows you to differentiate the right and left earbud by touch alone - which is nice when it's dark. But I mostly just found it annoying.
-Stupid case. I don't get the point of this case. Unlike other ones, where there is a molded area to hold the earbuds, and then you wind the cord around the outside, this is just a stupid floppy piece of rubber over a plastic core. The holes you see in pictures are to hold the alternate earpieces, not the earbuds. You are supposed to wind the earbuds around the core too, so they get all tangled up. Also, the packaging sucks. They knot the crap out of the cord. It seriously took me a good 15 minutes just to unknot the cord and get the stupid things off the spool. What purpose does that serve other than to annoy the crap out of people?
I was all set to return these, and of course, the dog destroyed them. You'd think I'd learn after three pairs? I am most likely going to replace these with the standard iPod earphones. The long cord on those seems a bit odd at first, but I've come to really like the extra length. And those actually stay in your ears.
Great earbuds for the price April 6, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I give these earbuds 5 stars compared to other brands in the same price range. I'm sure you could spend more money and get better sound, but for this price you won't find any better. The "surround sound" feature lives up to its billing. I've tried other earbuds and none can match the sound.
The earbuds I purchased came with two sets of inserts - one straight and one tapered - to achieve the level of comfort you're looking for. The tapered insert works great with my ears. They are comfortable and *never* fall out no matter how vigourous the motion. Even an incidental light tug on the cord doesn't dislodge the earbud.
So if you're looking for an inexpensive pair of earbuds that are comfortable and stay in your ear - this is what you should buy.
Philips motto - we don't care! We just want your money! December 29, 2005
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I own a few pairs of these earbuds. I have either purchased or recommended them for many members of my family and friends. I like them a lot.
There's just one problem: you know the silicone ring that fits over the earbud and goes in your ear? Yeah. No one sells replacements for these. And only two replacements (of a different, larger size) come with the earbuds.
Why do I (and others) need replacements?
- They fall off and disappear into the universe where lost keys, socks, and other such items end up
- The elasticity wears out and they no longer stay on the earbud
- They get dirty and icky from, you know, being in an ear
I used to wear earbuds that used foam covers. I replaced those about every three months due to wear and tear, dirt, avoiding ear infections, etc. The foam covers for those are available at Radio Shack, four for $2.99. Radio Shack also has silicone rings available, 4 for $3.99. But I tried these, and they do not work with my Philips earbuds.
I sent several e-mails to Philips, and heard nothing back. Today I called them, and they referred me to one of their affiliate companies, Gemini. I sat on hold for twenty minutes, was then placed on hold limbo for thirty-five minutes, called back, sat on hold for ten Gemini (Philips) has no process in place for replacement silicone rings for the earbuds. Basically, if I want to replace the silicone rings, I have to buy a whole new set of earbuds. This is sort of like needing a replacement for a flat tire, and buying an entirely new car.
This is ridiculous. Buyer beware; buy a set of earbuds that you can actually buy replacement parts for, if need be.
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