Overall and Final Verdict

Well, the fact that I’m here talking about Philips's new noise canceling headphones does mean that I survived the trip to the dealership, in fact, I had set up camp for a good portion of the day and the TAPH805BKs helped a lot with that. My initial testing in my office which is mostly quiet had me concerned with how much noise the active noise canceling would take out. But they did a good job in the noisier environment. Along with that, I found the headphones to be comfortable for that entire time as well, which to me is the most important aspect for any pair of headphones if I can’t keep them on or get pain the rest of the performance doesn’t matter at all. Philips did a good job with the touch volume controls, but I did have concerns with the Google Assistant integration that without any touch or visual indication on the side of the earcup I didn’t know where to touch. The regular control also had some trouble as well. After some use it seemed to loosen up slightly and when you press it in to power it on or off or turn the ANC on and off it sometimes catches.

I think the battery life might be the best part of the TAPH805BKs. They have a 30-hour life when listening to music or talk time. Standby can last up to 200 hours as well and they are rechargeable as well. I do wish they had gone with USB Type-C for the charging connection though to better match what most people would have on hand now that most phones use Type-C.

Now I do need to address the naming that Philips went with. This isn’t really a con so to speak, but it does make shopping or suggesting these headphones a little harder. Not to mention when writing about them. The packaging has these labeled at Philips Over ear 8000 series and then down at the bottom they have the Active Noise Canceling as well which is what sets them apart from the normal PH805 headphones that only have passive noise cancellation. The model is TAPH805BK but remember if you are shopping you will have to look for the ANC branding because the model number on the back of the box is the PH805 which is the same as the non-ANC model. 

As for pricing, these headphones have an MSRP of $199.99 and that is what you can find them for right now on Amazon as well. If you haven’t shopped for Active Noise Canceling headphones before that may seem a little high. Same with if your last pair of ANC headphones was one of the many cheap models you can get on Amazon in the $50-$70 price range. But once you look beyond the cheap models and start looking at brands you would know you will see most of the prices jump up to the $350 to $400 range. Philips isn’t looking to compete with Sony and Bose in that top end, the TAPH805BK ends up being more of a mid range option for those who can’t afford the Bose and Sony ANC options.

fv5

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Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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