......Frog'oFidelity Fell For Fiio ......

http://www.qwickiedeals.biz/cub...ewProd&productId=177

You have a broken cord, or it is not plugged in fully.

Mine are very nice when supplied with a mild bass boost and enough amplifer power.
The noise cancelling switch puts the internal amplifer inline, with it's own EQ curve, Its gain setting, and the noise cancelling correction.
The gain of the internal amp is worth 2 clicks of mp3 player volume increase.
The EQ of the internal amp is a Rock EQ, with mediun-high boost in the kick drum and top 2 strings of bass guitar, with the high boost being moderate, and in the area of voice, strings and flute. The overall sound of the internal amp is warm and lush, rich.
Having a nice volume boost, and taking some load off the mp3 players amp, lets you drive the volume. The lower two strings of bass guitar lack the power to keep up, in this usage.

Using the jazz EQ setting in my 10 milliwatt mp3 player {low power} provides the right bass EQ to gently bring up the low end, without the boom factor of too much upper bass.
Sounds just right, and balanced like that, but no power. Turning on the noise cancelling switch puts the headphone amp inline, to provide the above gain, EQ enhancement.

The best sound is with the Fiio amp inbetween the headphones and mp3 player. The 70 milliwatts of the Fiio provide ample power to make these plenty loud, and the bass goes all the way down, nice and accurate. Users that have a high power i-pod or zune, will not have these low power blues. The 10 mw per channel class requires tweeking to make it rock.

WHY do you assume it's a failure?? Perhaps that's intentional.

Too bad mine aren't broken too. I would love to send them back for a refund. They are beautiful, nice size, good fit. The angled speaker baffle with the front closer to your head and the back further away to leave room for your ear flaps is a genius move. The problem is the volume. 102 db/w is a poor efficancy. any good phones have 115 db/w rating. At 3db = double volume, the following phones are 4x louder. Sennheiser HD 202 Headphones, Sennheiser HD 280 pro, Sennheiser PX 30 Mini Headphones, Behringer HPS5000 High Performance Studio Headphones [113 db/w], Sennheiser PX 200 Collapsible Closed Headphones Black, Sennheiser eH 150 Dynamic Closed Circumaural Headphones, Sennheiser PMX 200.

These are not the phones that I wanted. The noise cancelling is irrelevant, because you couldn't get me on an airplane with a free ticket and gentle jabbing with an electric cattle prod. I've been wanting the Sennheiser HD 280 pro for a year or two. The passive noise isolation is an excellant 35 db, and 115 db/w efficancy makes them loud. Too bad I didn't get them instead, for $60 more than I spent on these. Oh well, better luck next time. Still, these sound nice at normal volume, but that's not what I'm looking for.
I can't drive 55.... I wanted loud as you can stand, floor shaking bass headphones.
These ain't it.

Zune the tune! Don't let my earlier comments dissuade you from buying these. All that testing was done using low power mp3 players, Ultra Hydra, Lexar with sd card, PNY Vibe.

I dug out my 30 gig first gen Zune, and the power differance is more than I expected. They are plenty loud, and the bass is where it should be. I can crank the zune to 20/20 with no distortion on straight input. The internal N/C amp is at least as powerfull. Lowering the volume to 17/20 and switching on the amp is the same volume, with the addition of the described EQ boost. I can now bring the volume back up to 20/20 with no problem from the internal amp, and the overall volume is 3 clicks louder now than with the N/C amp off. So if you have a high power mp3 player, these will be just fine for you. I don't know what the power output of other mp3 players, like the sansa e200 series is,or the I-pods, but that is another project. They are probably in the same neighborhood as the zune.

Yes, I got mine the other day, and used them imediately. Turns out, Philips makes the worlds's CRAPPIEST noise-cancelling headphones. They almost cancelled all of the noise coming out of my (read: NEW, fairly quiet) refrigerator. I have a pair of Jabra c820s from Woot!, and not only can I not even percieve low, rumbling noises, I can't hear myself snapping to the music or the phone ringing, for that matter. Needless to say, I submitted a return request. Poor quality. Kinda comfy, not even close to my Jabras, in sound quality, noise cancellation, or comfort. PHILIPS IS DEAD TO ME NOW.

Pictures were of the actual product and THEY ARE AWESOME! Wishing so much that I had gotten about 5 pair. Oh well, I'll think next time.