The SH9700 earphones use a design that fits inside the user's ear canal, with three soft silicon ear caps provided, to fit the buds to various ear sizes.

Testing the earphones on an iPod, we found a definite improvement over the standard Apple earphones in terms of sound quality.

Philips says the SHE9700s' 'turbo bass vents' provide extra bass response, and this did come through in our tests, with good, crackle-free sound even at high volumes and with deep bass. At medium volume levels the reduction in outside sound was fairly effective.

As first-time users of such in-ear phones, we found the design quite uncomfortable to begin with, but with perseverance the headphones did get much more comfortable. The SHE9700s' quality does live up to the claim of near-audiophile sound, and despite slight exaggeration on the noise isolation claims, we would recommend them as excellent mid-price replacement earphones.

Vista compatible: n/a