Hello to everyone.

I'm new here and I greet everyone. I hope we can have a fruitful exchange.

Now, let me get to my issue. I've bought the Philips SBC HD1500U because of all the praises I had read here.

I must say I'm quite disappointed. The "back" sound really sounds like it comes from behind me but the front sound sounds like it comes from sideways or even slightly backwards.

Is this normal, am I being picky or did I get a defect unit (this option seems highly unlikely), or do I put the headphones in a wrong way (I try to center my ears in them)?

By the way, I have small ears. Could this be an issue

For the rest, I have to admit the sound is amazing with great bass and treeble.

But this is not enough for me and I'm thinking of giving the unit back to the shop.

I'd be very grateful for your comments on this.

Thanks.

Xavier

[socrates1]

I have the exact same sensation and I also have small ears, but I don't think that is the issue! I don't believe the dolby headphone technology can project the sound in front of you as well as it can do the side and rears. While this bothered me at first when I was analysing everything, after a while I adapted. I found that the immersiveness of the DH, imperfect though it was, still really drew me into a movie even more than my old 5.1 HT did, particlularly at moderate and louder levels. The front soundstage became less of an issue when I stopped focusing on the sound and started concentrating on the movie as a whole. I subconsciously projected the sound forward to match what I was seeing on the screen particlulary speaking voices, if you know what I mean.
When it comes to music I only use the DH with prologic II for surround sound. Two channel DH is not as good as normal two channel headphone.

If you do return it, there is supposedly a major improvment coming down the line from Yamaha next year at a cost of $500. Read through this thread for details, I can't wait.

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...=109001&page=4

Thanks for your insightful answer.

I thnk I'm gonna keep it for now, given that, despite its flaws, it still is one of the best system of its kind around at the moment.

I have another issue though, it's that the sound very briefly skips skips and/or is distorted from time to time. It's qui acceptbale when watching a movie, but when I listen to music, it's really disturbing.

In your opinion (or in the opinion of any other reader), is it because the wirelss transmission is imperfect, because my coax link between dvd player and the base unit is imperfect, or any other reason ?

Thank you

[socrates1]

I'm afraid I can't help you there as I have the wired version and therefore don't have the wireless 'phones. Your machine can accept wired 'phones as well so you may want to try that for listening to music, unless there are distance problems or if you are listening while you are moving around.

[socrates1]

Also, if you don't have the skipping while listening to the wired 'phones ,that means the problem is down to the wireless transmission and is nothing to do with cabling, etc.

[TameRacingDriver]

This is somewhat a limitation with headphones rather than those particular headphones. They can do most things, but projecting sound to the front is extremely difficult to achieve. Best you normally get is it sounds centered somewhat inside the head.