Philips' retro-styled CitiScape Downtown headphones

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always listen to the Downtowns... Check out our review of these amazing 'phones.

Our Verdict

Some minor niggles, but they offer great sound, sit comfortably and are a reasonable price, too.

For

  • Great sound
  • Amazing value
  • Retro chic

Against

  • No remote volume control
  • Odd flat cable
  • Retro chic

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The Downtowns are old school. It's not just the brown colour - they're also available in purple and white - but the design and build. The overlapping cloth on the headband, the hockey-puck shape of the earpads, the extremely soft leather and cloth mix of the earpad's material, the metal headband… it all combines to make the Downtowns feel like headphones your dad would have sitting next to his turntable - which is likely to feel either comforting or cloying.

Either way, they're easy to adjust and are comfortable (those who find headphones painful that press on your ears rather than sit around them might get a bit sore over time), and aren't heavy.

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The Verdict
8

out of 10

Philips CitiScape Downtown headphones

Some minor niggles, but they offer great sound, sit comfortably and are a reasonable price, too.

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