While I am happy listening to my Sennheiser 58X headphones, they are not perfect. The clarity and punch is incredible but bass is not very prominent and I am a self confessed basshead (fight me!). Comfort is just ok for me too. They are light but I have a big head and the clamp force is too high for me, even after stretching out the headband. I decided to try to address these two shortcomings with my next headphone purchase: the Philips Fidelio X2HR.
I ordered a pair for sale through Amazon Warehouse. I have ordered quite a few products this way and have always been very happy with the results. Basically Amazon Warehouse sells items on Amazon at a discount because either the item or the packaging is damaged. The discount amount is related to the condition and the condition is always described in the listing. For these headphones only the packaging was damaged.
Unfortunately when they arrived I realized that part of the damage to the packaging was that something had pierced the dehydrator bag, causing the silica (basically sand) to get everywhere. I removed the ear pads and inspected the earcups. There didn’t appear to be any silica in the drivers or even a way for the silica to get past the dust covers, so I figured I might as well give them a listen even if I ultimately returned them.
The first thing that I noticed was the fit. These headphones use a padded head strap and bigger, softer ear pads than the 58X. The clamp force is noticeably lower, but the headband still needed some stretching for me. I’d describe the difference in fit by saying that the 58X feel like they are exactly what is required to avoid discomfort — nothing less, nothing more. They are a thin oval of firm cushion around your ears, exactly as you might expect a German engineer to design an apparatus that is required to circumscribe your ears. Although Philips is Dutch, the Fidelio feel like a French femme gently caressing your ears and head with soft, velvety hands while she whispers sweet nothings in your ears.
At first anyway. Things change a bit after listening to a few songs. Much like the real thing might make me hot under the collar, the femme Fidelio is making me a bit hot under the ear cups. And the gentle caressing has turned into insistent pressing. Baby please! I’m trying to listen to my music!
And the music does sound great, but never really incredible. The Philips have a bit of a V shape to their frequency response curve. Audiophiles describe this as a “fun” sound (as opposed to a “neutral” sound). That’s ok as I usually prefer more bass and a bit more treble anyway. However they never really seem to grab me like the 58X. The bass is there, but the punch isn’t.
Something else I was hoping for was a more speaker-like soundstage. Some reviews indicate this and the drivers are angled slightly from the front. However I never really noticed a difference. Both headphones sound like the center of the soundstage is either in the middle of my head or just above my head. I’ve still not heard a pair of headphones where the center was in front of me, and I don’t really expect to without a lot of very sophisticated digital signal processing (DSP).
Don’t get me wrong, the Fidelio sound very good — great even for $140. But I think it just proves what a bargain the 58X are at $170. If I was listening to them both with no equalization then I would reluctantly give the nod to the Fidelio for having a sound signature I prefer for rock music. But with equalization, that advantage is gone and the 58X come into their own with a more precise, harder hitting drum strikes and smoother treble.
For comfort I do prefer the Fidelio, but not as much as I wanted to. They still have too much clamp for me to wear for long periods. Since the head band is made of two steel bands I think I can stretch them more than the 58X. I won’t be able to test that theory though, because I decided to return them.
There are two reasons for this. For one, I started to notice an uncomfortable amount of sibilance on certain songs. This isn’t something I’ve seen reviewers mention about these headphones. However I am particularly sensitive to sibilance and I don’t like it. While it’s probably the fault of the source material, it is definitely not as prominent when listening to the same song through the 58X. I suppose this could be caused by some of that silica getting in the drivers, but I think it is more likely the way the shape of my ears interact with the design causing certain high frequencies to be unpleasantly emphasized.
I was considering keeping the Philips Fidelio X2HR anyway for listening through my phone where I don’t have access to equalization, but after about a week I noticed a second problem: the cable has a short in it. Sometimes when I move the cable the sound cuts out.
These two things combined with the condition they were in when they arrived convinced me that I should return them and move on. If you’re looking for headphones that play a bit bassy in this price range, I do still recommend you check them out. (For only $75 their cousin, the Philips SHP9500, are reportedly the best open back over ear headphones under $100.) However if you are willing to use some equalization, whether the one built in to your player software or just tone controls on your playback device, I think the Sennheiser 58X are still the way to go for just a bit more money.
In fact Drop also sells the Sennheiser 6XX for $220 that is even better if you have a headphone amplifier to drive them. However I do not plan to buy a pair, at least not yet. I was thinking of trying the 1More Triple Driver because it is bassy and has separate tweeters near the front of the ear cup. In theory that design might yield a more speaker-like soundstage, but probably not since the angled drivers of the Fidelio don’t seem to. And since 1More’s ear cups are small which would likely annoy me, I decided instead of lingering around $100-$200 to jump up into the $300-$400 price range instead.
More to come.
