No good…or at least not good enough to be branded “noise canceling.” Maybe if the audio was superb and the comfort wasn’t similar to that of an earwig digging into the side of my head, the SHM2500 would be passable.
Philips got my hopes up with the SHN2500 Active Noise Canceling In-Ear Headphones. The name tricked me. The room noise and the cars outside my window didn't magically melt away, as they do with circumaural noise cancellers by Bose or Ableplanet. I know it’s not fair to compare full-size phones with these little in-ears, but truly, we're comparing their common technology here.
The SHN2500 advertises “70% less external noise.” However, during the little amount of time I could bear to wear them, they didn't reduce external noise at all. The noise-canceling unit just smoked out room noise with a combination of its own white noise and a low hum in the range of 123 Hz. Consequently, all your favorite albums now sound fuzzy. There’s nothing like listening to Abbey Road with some nice white noise to fill in those awful gaps.
The other thing the noise replacement feature does is raise the volume. Make sure you have your device’s volume set down low before engaging the noise replacement.
If nothing else about the SHN2500 had turned me off, it feels as though someone just punched me in the ears. To be fair, I’m often told I have oddly-shaped ear canals, and in-ears never really rest comfortably in them. However, I don’t recall throbbing pain after using other in-ears. I’d like to think I’m old enough to follow directions, so I have no explanation other than poor design for these painful things.
