Philips TAH8000E review

Picture this, you’re walking in the park on a beautiful summer’s day, fully focused on your favourite song as it plays through your wireless headphones. But just as you're about to reach the best part, the battery dies and you’re left feeling disappointed and unfulfilled.

If you’re not keen on such an experience, it’s worth checking out the Philips TAH8000E over-ear wireless headphones. Provided the Dutch manufacturer’s claims of a 70-hour battery life (50 with ANC turned on) ring true, scenarios like the one described above shouldn’t happen too often.

But then who wants long-lasting headphones if they’re not fun to listen to? Let's find out if they are…

Price

If you’re in the UK, you can buy the Philips TAH8000E at Amazon for around £140 at the time of writing, although we have seen the price dip as low as £122, depending on the finish.

US customers can pick them up for $149 once they launch there later this month. Australians will have to wait until the second half of the year to get their hands on these Philips, when they will cost an estimated AU$246 based on current exchange rates.

This means the TAH-8000E currently sit in the mid-priced range of wireless headphones, a slightly underserved category that includes the Award-winning Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT (currently £129 / $199 / $289) – we fish this benchmark pair out of our stockroom for sound quality comparisons, although note that they don’t feature noise cancelling.

Sony’s WH-CH720N (£75 / $100 / $AU259) technically fall into the price category below the Philips, but are the nearest-priced Award-winning headphones with active noise cancellation, so we dig them out for our comparison tests, too.

Features

Philips’ claims of long battery life appear to ring true during our testing period. After giving the TAH8000E a full charge, seven hours of use with ANC turned off leaves us with 90 per cent juice, according to the Philips Headphones app. This suggests that they should comfortably beat the Sony (50 hours with ANC turned off) and Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT (30 hours) rivals.

Once the TAH8000E’s battery does eventually die, you can use the supplied 3.5mm cable (1m long) to continue pumping out your favourite tunes using a wired connection to your source device. Philips claims a 10-minute charge with the supplied USB-C cable will provide an extra eight hours of playtime, too.

While it’s handy to know how much listening time you have left (probably a while), Philips’ app lets you do much more. Not only does it allow you to fine-tune the active noise cancellation, but there are also custom EQ settings for music and voice calls, which make a noticeable difference to what you’re hearing. We would advise against using the ‘Dynamic Bass’ setting as more low-end isn’t needed here, but we find that enhancing the higher frequencies during calls makes voices clearer.

The spatial audio setting also widens the soundfield and, as a side effect, softens the impact of some of the bassier tones coming through when watching movies. Plus, there’s an ‘Explore’ section that provides access to a selection of tones and soundscapes – such as water droplets reverberating off the floor of a cave – for background listening, some of which are quite immersive and calming.

The TAH8000E are equipped with Bluetooth 5.4, and support Auracast sharing technology and multipoint connection. Additionally, they support the higher-quality LDAC codec alongside the standard SBC and AAC alternatives.

Sound

The first thing we notice about the Philips’s presentation is just how overblown the bass sounds. While bassline junkies may appreciate that, certainly if listening to tracks such as Trouble by Scorpio, the mid and higher frequencies feel overpowered in comparison. So, we dial down the low end using the app’s EQ settings. This helps to a fair degree, and restores a sense of balance.

Once that is done, we’re able to pick out the individual tom and hi-hat hits on The Trammps’ Disco Inferno with ease, while the drums collectively sound reasonably tight and crisp. These Philips headphones also do a good job conveying the song’s funky rhythm and we find ourselves nodding along to the beat.

The nodding continues as we explore some poppier tracks. These may not be the liveliest headphones, but the Philips' relatively calm presentation is mostly enjoyable nonetheless.

They wouldn’t be our first choice for more aggressive music, though. We play some hard-rocking Thin Lizzy, and while the Philips propel us through the songs adequately, things are not quite as gritty as we’d like them to be.

Dynamic handling is competitive. Beethoven’s Symphony No 7 builds slowly until you’re met by a nice wallop from the horns. This classic Beethoven piece also provides an opportunity to examine the level of detail on offer, and we find the strings have a decent amount of texture to them. There are so many elements that go into making a piece of music like this, and everything from the horns to the flutes comes through clearly.

Despite the complexity of the music, the Philips over-ears stay pleasingly composed, conveying a grand sense of scale, while neatly organising the different instruments so we can appreciate them individually and how they interact with the wider orchestra. The higher notes also sound crisp, but the Philips’ smooth tonal balance means they enter our eardrums without a hint of harshness.

While the class-leading Austrian Audio headphones have a more dynamic, detailed and energetic presentation overall, the TAH8000E still satisfy on their own terms. Comparisons with the cheaper Sony headphones prove interesting, with the Sonys sounding a little more cohesive and expressive overall, though not as detailed or refined through the midrange and treble.

As is the case with many wireless headphones, the Philips sound their best when hard-wired to an audio source. Clarity, detail levels and dynamic handling all receive a noticeable boost when connected to our laptop. This lets the vocals and higher frequencies shine brighter, so even though the low end still needs some taming, things sound more balanced overall.

Build & comfort

Whichever way you choose to make use of the Philips’ silk-coated 40mm drivers and their resulting performance, though, you can do so comfortably. Their soft, plush earcups are well-padded and cut you off from your surroundings well without letting your ears get overly hot. Philips also offers replacement ear cushions if they get worn out. A good layer of padding in the headband keeps the top of your head free from discomfort, too.

The clamping force isn’t overly tight and we’re able to move our glasses back and forth without too much resistance. They isolate you nicely from your surroundings even with ANC turned off. At 260g aren’t overly heavy, either.

Build quality is generally good, but ideally, some of the physical controls, all of which feature on the right earcup, could feel more precise. Pressing the button/lever to stop or start playback feels a little vague, for example.

While these controls feel pretty intuitive to use for the most part, you also have to rapidly flick the button/lever to make dramatic volume adjustments unless you resort to using the app.

The TAH8000E’s earcups can be rotated 90 degrees and tilted inwards, allowing them to fit neatly into a rucksack or the smooth but sturdy oval-shaped carrying case they are supplied with.

Another key element to these Philips headphones is the replaceable lithium-ion battery, which can be swapped out when it reaches end of life – in a bid to be more sustainable overall.

ANC & call quality

Of course, there’s not much point in having portable wireless over-ears if it means you're startled every time a car whizzes by or your music won’t drown out the conversation from the world’s most annoying train passengers. If you’re wearing the Philips, however, neither should give you too much grief thanks to capable active noise cancellation.

The headphones use five microphones and a ‘noise-reduction algorithm’ that the Dutch manufacturer says is optimised to block out a wide range of sounds. When we take these features for a test drive, we find the closed-back design is naturally isolating, meaning noise from passing cars is somewhat muffled even with ANC turned off, more so than when wearing the Sony CH720N.

Turning noise cancellation on, however, allows most car and wind noise to be ignored via the Philips cans.

Call quality is generally good. While voices lack some richness and warmth, conversations come through clearly and we can’t detect any background noise from passing cars during our test run. In comparison, the rival Sonys block out less noise from the road and are unable to match the Philips for clarity.

Verdict

Philips’ latest wireless headphones certainly have a strong battery life. Considering they’re also comfortable and efficient at isolating outside noise, the TAH8000E will likely have their suitors.

But to bring you back to our earlier question, are they worth listening to for as long as they last? Given their refinement and midrange clarity at this price level, we think so.

Review published: 27th February 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT

Also consider the Sony WH-CH720N

Best wireless headphones: reviewed and rated by our in-house experts