Philips T8506 review: Uncovering the secrets of high-fidelity sound

In two weeks of use, the overall performance of the Philips T8506 satisfied me. As a noise cancelling earbuds that focus on sound quality, it has become the best companion for my daily commute. It very competitive in the same price range.

Philips T8506 specs and features:

• Bluetooth 5.2 with LDAC codec
• 8 hours playback of earbuds
• 32 hours comprehensive battery life
• ANC hybrid noise cancelling
• Support QI wireless charging
• IPX4 waterproof rating
• $83 – Check latest price on: Amazon US, Amazon Germany or other Amazon countries

Appearance Design and Comfortable

At first glance, the Philips T8506 looks like a scaled-down version of the Fidelio T1. The shape of the charging case is the same as the Philips Fidelio T1, which is an oval cube shape, but it is much smaller in size than the Fidelio T1. Due to the different positioning of the crowd, the Philips T8506 does not have the heavy feeling of the Fidelio T1. The surface of the charging case is frosted for a more understated and elegant appearance. Moreover, the frosted surface will not leave fingerprints, and it will not be stained with hand sweat for a long time, and the surface will not feel greasy.

Since the popularity of true wireless earphones, people wear and use headphones for longer and longer, and comfort has become one of the key factors in determining whether a headphone is good or bad. The Philips T8506 earbuds are round in appearance, and the weight of a single earbud is 6.8g. The weight is not light, but the weight distribution of the Philips T8506 is reasonable. The earbud mainly relies on the ear to support and fix the tragus and ear canal, and it will not feel uncomfortable when worn for a long time.

Six pairs of silicone eartips of different size and a pair of Comply memory foam eartips are also presented with the earbuds. The memory foam eartips have better sealing performance, and the sound quality is significantly improved. However, memory foam has a stronger sense of foreign body in the ear canal than silicone material, but I think it is worth sacrificing some comfort in exchange for improved sound quality.

Noise Cancelling Ability to Quiet the World

Noise cancelling is already one of the most inseparable functions in my daily life. I believe that more and more people need the quietness brought by noise cancelling. In daily scenes, Philips T8506 can basically meet my noise cancelling needs. It adopts the mainstream dual-mic hybrid noise cancelling technology, which picks up the external ambient noise and the internal noise of the ear canal respectively through the feed-forward + feed-back two microphones on the earbud. Then, the picked-up noise is filtered and canceled in real time through the noise cancelling chip of the earbud. When wearing, earbuds will turn on the noise cancelling function by default, and you can switch between adaptive mode and ambient sound mode through gesture operation or APP.

Using the Philips T8506 on my daily commute helped me block out the roar of the subway. When working in the company, wearing Philips T8506 can block out the voice of colleagues talking, allowing me to work more efficiently in a quiet environment. Especially for someone like me who likes to take the computer to the coffee shop to write something on weekends, the T8506 can help me block the music playing in the coffee shop. While enjoying the comfort of the coffee shop, you will not be disturbed by the music.

Clear Calls in the Wind

Wind noise during calls has always been a nightmare for headphone manufacturers. The requirements for the headphone design and the noise cancelling algorithm are very high and very challenging. Especially the position of the microphone on the headphones, if the avoidance is not good, it will form a larger secondary noise in the ear. The ENC anti-wind noise call noise cancelling function of the Philips T8506 adopts a 3-mic noise cancelling scheme, in which the feed-forward microphone is designed with an upward 45-degree angle, which physically avoids the windward noise in a windy environment. Combined with the anti-wind noise physical structure on the outside of the earbud and the wind noise reduction function in the APP, the wind noise in the environment is effectively reduced.

Uncover the Secrets of Surging Sound Quality

Sound quality performance is the top priority of the Philips T8506BK. Like the Philips Fidelio T1, the T8506 has Hi-Res Audio Wireless‘s “small gold label” printed on the box. This requires that the device applying for certification must support 96kHz/24bit or more in decoding performance and bluetooth encoding format at the same time, and support LDAC or LDHC bluetooth encoding format in order to obtain the “small gold label”.

In terms of other hardware, the Philips T8506 uses a 13mm neodymium sound unit that supports AAC and SBC audio encoding. In addition, this earbuds also support LDAC high-resolution encoding. Compared with the first two audio coding formats, LDAC can transmit audio files with a maximum bit rate of 990Kbps, which is about 3 times that of the SBC format. However, to experience the high-quality audio of LDAC, the playback device must also support this encoding. Fortunately, many Android phones already support LDAC encoding, but if you are an iPhone user, you can only listen to music in AAC encoding format.

In terms of hearing, the Philips T8506 gives me a high degree of restoration of vocals. When I was listening to Charlotte Lawrence’s “Slow Motion,” the empty inspiration of the vocals was truly reproduced on the Philips T8506 earbuds. The sound field of earbuds is very wide, and the line of sound is also very clear. The three-frequency of this earphone is more balanced, especially the bass part extends down enough, not loose, and has more power in performance.

APP Support and Dual Device Connection

More earbuds experience can be unlocked through the Philips Headphones APP. In addition to checking the power of earbuds, you can also switch between different noise cancelling modes, and fine-tune the three functions of noise cancelling control, ambient sound and adaptive. In the APP, Philips also built 4 different sound effects options for this earphone, you can choose one of bass, clear, strong or treble according to your preference. Personally, I prefer the high-pitched sound effect mode, and the effect of enhancing the vocal part in pop music is obvious.

Philips TAT8506BK adopts the Bluetooth 5.2 connection standard, on which earbuds realizes the seamless switching function between dual devices. For example, after the phone and tablet are paired with T8506 respectively, and watching a video on the tablet, if a call comes in on the phone, the earbuds will automatically switch to the phone at the moment of answering. That is to say, earbuds will automatically jump between two paired devices according to the usage priority.

Battery Life and Controls

Philips T8506 continues Philips’ consistent excellent battery life. When the noise cancelling mode is turned on, the usage time of a single earbud is 6 hours. After turning off the noise cancelling mode, you can listen to music for 8 hours. The comprehensive battery life with the charging case can reach up to 32 hours. Based on 4.5 hours of daily use, earbuds can be charged once a week. In addition, the Philips T8506 also supports wireless charging. If you have a wireless charging pad at home, you only need to put the T8506 on it to charge.

Philips T8506 control operation:

• Triple tap R earbud to next song.
• Long press R earbud 1s to play/pause music
• Double tap R earbud to ANC ON/ANC OFF/Ambient Mode
• Double tap R earbud to answer the call
• Tap once R earbud to end the call
• Long press L earbud 2s to wake the voice assistant
• Tap once L earbud to turn off the voice assistant

Check the Philips T8506 price:

• Check price on Amazon US
• Check latest price on Amazon Germany
• Check price on other Amazon countries