Your motherboard audio probably has a high output impedance which is messing with the sound.
As far as the longevity of the build, my pair of 9500 are almost 3 years old and is still in great condition. I imagine the 9600 will last just as long if not longer.
Could be it as well…
I can agree but I also agree that I do think they could have used some stronger materials for this. Doesn’t particularly inspire confidence when the thing feels so light and appears to be made of thin plastic.
Thanks, I’m not sure how to fix the issue then?
So the weird thing is that my X2’s sound clearer, while my 9600 sounds more muffled. Why is that? For example, in Overwatch, when I use my guy’s voicelines, he sounds much more muffled or bass-heavy, whereas on the x2hr, he sounds far clearer. This is with me plugging into the front panel of the PC. As I said earlier, the back/motherboard doesnt sound good for either headphones. How do I fix this exactly? It flat out sounds like an issue with my PC and not the headphones, but why is my X2 fine but my 9600 so muffled?
One other thing I notice with the pads:
The 9600s dont seem to be fully enclosing my ear? There’s a space on the bottom between my jawline and ear lobe. Is this a problem?
You’ll need a separate dac/amp combo like the fiio e10k is a good budget one. Kinda weird that it’s that bad. Have you tried listening on different devices? If its just your pc that sounds muffled then I would buy a dac/amp
haha yes, this will be my purchase one day, but not anytime soon for the price. Maybe ill get lucky and find one used, but being in canada limits my options as even used prices would probably be high
I listened on my phone and ps4 and they really sound fine there.
Geez I sure am torn right now haha
Still need to test this extensively in games but I get the feeling it wont be noticeable for me (footstep audio in competitive games). Hard to do a proper sound test on PC with things feeling off, but sound aside, I am more impressed with the X2HR.
Just from a build standpoint, everything feels more premium.
Also, the VModa mic seems to be loose on the SHP while it will sit firmly on the X2.
And, the headphones pass the shake test. The SHP feels looser and slips.
Im gonna play some games on console and report back.
I have the same audio chip as you and my front panel sounds better too and some headphones sounded weird until I did this:
on your desktop bottom left there is realtek icon, right click choose audio devices, then scroll down and find the working realtek right click and choose properties, go to enhancement and disable all enhancements and go to spacial and turn that off.
If those were off already then you might have some problem with your audio jacks or something.
@mjx Those are all turned off, I doubt it’s the jack, but I am using the V Moda mic and not the factory jacks. I doubt that’d make a difference but Ill give it a try
So after gaming for a bit here is what I found:
-Despite the low impedance, I had to turn my Dualshock controller to pretty high to get it to sound loud enough
-The bass/lows seem most apparent on the SHP 9600. I was surprised at this.
I am judging based on firing a gun in Call of Duty Black Ops:
SHP sounded the most “boomiest”. It sounded mute almost, as the boom of the gun firing overpowered the higher sounds of the gun.
The X2HR also sounded boomy, but had more higher sounds
The HyperX sounded like it had no boom, but sounded much “clearer” or higher.
Not sure what the right terminology is for all this but I hope it makes sense. I am honestly not sure if the SHP 9600 is supposed to sound this boomy? It felt as if it was unnaturally boomy because compared to the HyperX, you couldn’t really here other sounds.
I wonder if the 9500 is more like the Hyper X then?
Since Im so used to HyperX’s “clearer” sounds, I am really unsure if Ill get used to the Philips headphones. Is this something that takes time to get used to?
hmm, I own all of those headphones and I definitely don’t have the same results here. Hyperx Cloud Core is a V signature out the gate, provided your not using the velour extra pads the clouds come with, as such it’s bassier than the original shp9500 as the 9500 is fairly neutral for it’s bass and is a Bright signature(or rather neutral outside of the fact the treble is raised up). Cloud core over there has a pretty heavy dip in it’s highs from the low and mid treble and isn’t as smooth as the others listed. At the same time it has much more rumble and sub bass than both the shp9500 and 9600.
X2HR should be potentially the bassiest though. While smoothed out the bass is raised higher than the other frequencies and has a pretty deep sub bass causing quite a lot of rumble but without all the impact
Definitely wouldn’t describe 9600 as boomy if anything it’s the weight and impact of it which threw me off. While it sounds natural it has actual heft to it though it definitely stays out of the way like it needs to for me which is very enjoyable causing me to contend on whether to keep it as the sound is incredibly enjoyable.
Headphones can have mental burn in based on the person but also regular burn in where the sound changes with some time of use and can become better. While normally I think this is a bit of a crazy statement there have been a couple headphones I have had where the sound did change for the better… 9600 definitely seems to be one of them albeit more subtle than what I had when I first picked up my Aeons.
I am wondering if the X3 (or SHP9600) would be a good compliment to my HD 58X. Can anyone here with either of them give some comparisons?
Well, they are definitely different signatures but I think it’s too soon for me to give any full thought out remarks in that regard other than initial thoughts which I have posted above. I do think they will compliment each other well enough though considering just how different the two are to the 58x jubilee.
Hm, maybe it isn’t the base, but its something to do with the gun sounds. “Punchier” might be a better word here, but the punchiness seems to overpower the …crispiness? Lol.
Ok so here’s a song: https://youtu.be/kFoZjhJEQbI?t=118
At 2:00 to 2:10, I’ve been going back and forth with 9600 and X2
There’s 2 clear instruments that seem to be heard in the first 5 seconds and the next 5 seconds
How would you describe how it sounds between X2 and 9600?
To myself, a totally uninformed person, the X2 sounds like it’s “fuller” in the first 5 seconds, or clearer?
Whereas the 9600 sounds less clear or more …punchier? warmer? its just different… In the last 5 seconds, does the instrument sound more pronounced on the 9600?
Just curious what your thoughts are. I have to decide which headphones to keep and which to return and Im driving myself crazy. I think Im just going to enjoy 1 for a solid day, then the other the next day, and then just give myself time to listen to them.
Still, when it comes to gaming, I just feel a bit lost. I felt as if the 9600 sounded worse on console, but tbh I already forgot my impressions from earlier and will test them more extensively tomorrow.
Hmm, you may have a preference for warmer presentation headphones. Few things, Youtube has a lot of bad quality videos it’s not particularly what I would use as a testing ground for sound qualities… all to many times have I used youtube only to get distortion, compression, or alterations and low bit rates. Higher sample rates and lossless music is the better testing ground.
That would be like asking me my opinion on sound demos from youtube like I have seen zeos have… while yes, you can get a somewhat general idea of their sound it definitely isn’t reliable nor fully accurate.
However, I can hear the neutrality and brightness more from the shp9600 while the x2hr I hear the warmth to the lows and mids as well as it’s larger soundstage. The brightness can add in some cases a thinner sound to some songs to the point of sounding potentially hollow which can also effect bad recordings so hard to say. However, I do hear that slightly less full sound from the 9600 as well as using my own T1 out of that in comparison to my x2hr, x3, audeze, and aeons which have the more full representation of sound. It really boils down to the sound signature and actual recording quality though a lot of cases this really isn’t such an issue but it also depends on if you like the brighter sound.
Warmer and darker headphones tend to have a full or rather “rich” sound to them very lush and full bodied and audeze is a good representation of that.
It has more impact causing it to punch a bit harder and the bass isn’t full rounded off so it has a bit of a Planar like slam much like the DT 1990’s have despite being dynamic headphones. However, it’s that sound doesn’t extend very deep unlike the x2hr which can extend deeper into it’s lows and sub bass extensions going from lows to mids top that off with 9600 is brighter while x2hr is warmer so x2hr can appear to be more well bodied and full. I love the x2hr I just wish the bass wasn’t screwed up would be a hell of a lot better.
hmm, It’s hard to say in this case as you don’t have an amp yet. if you are able to hear the differences in sound signature go with the one you feel most comfortable with overall as my opinion in that regard doesn’t particularly matter. However, In terms of placement and bass of competitive gaming the x2hr does lose to the 9600 I can confirm that rather easily though granted the x2hr is the more “fun” headphone with much more padding to it.
I never really use any onboard audio anymore. It always sounds terrible to me… Especially with the ps4 over there having one of the worst sound cards I have seen in a while as it can’t even really properly power around 40 ohms and is weaker than my old laptops motherboard. Also the fact that plugging a headphone into the controller using a wireless signal is going to screw with the sound qualities as anything wireless loses quite a bit especially in terms of clarity.
Personally, I think the shp9600 is a dramatic upgrade in sound qualities over the X2HR the more I have listened to it. If I was really nitpicking with the two the shp9600 could have better extensions on the low to drive deeper though this could give it much more rumble, this I just recently tested though and can become better by using Tubes as when I use my Liquid Platinum the low end improves by quite a good margin, but the issues I have with the x2hr’s weight, heat build up, and low end screwing with the mids and just being muddy is a problem for me… some people are okay with it I am definitely not
Hmm, looking like I will send back x3( I will have reasons posted and my thoughts later when I finish sitting down with it and burning it in ) but keeping the 9600.
Edit: I just sent out an email to Modhouse inquiring about the adapters to see if they could potentially create an adapter for the 9600
Thanks Falenkor 
Instead of going back and forth between the two, Im going to listen to them both extensively and see how I feel. Im gonna trust your judgement with the gaming, which is what I wanted anyway. I will miss the X2’s fit and pads, but it seems pointless to micro-compare the two when both ultimately sound just fine to me.
Still waiting for the reviews from other places to pour in. Im curious to see what others say
In that regard I would just go with whats more comfortable for you then. X2 still does a good job and is well rounded enough to play competitive it’s just bassy.
Nice, I was actually thinking about doing that too
Could potentially help having someone else asking about it. I don’t see it as unfeasible since it’s just some 3d print alterations
So the 9600 really sounds bad on PC. Playing Siege, and everything is very muffled. I cant hear the drone for example, I cant hear the sound pinging makes. Sounds like the announcer voiceover sound quiet.
The thing is, I cant afford the $100 CAD DAC/AMP so I guess I’ll have to make a decision one way or the other. Im try to use EQs but Im unsure what presets to use (using the one provided by Windows). I dont think I can get used to how muffled this sounds.
I want to assume this isn’t just how the audio is and its just my PC being lame, but it seems difficult to figure out the real issue.
I used this setting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymnbd6Lg7CM
And it actually sounds better! Can anyone recommend me something like this to test out? Sorry for all the questions guys!
There is nothing more I can say outside of what I have already mentioned. Your not going to get the appropriate sound from a headphone that you don’t have enough power to drive and there is no way around that. No form of equalization or software is going to remedy this. If anything an equalizer is going to cause additional issues and equalization generally requires some preamplification to keep the sound balanced out more preventing muffling and distorting. PEACE APO is potentially your best bet as a free to use equalizer
If x2hr is working fine for you suggest you go that route for the time being.
To hear someone misinform people that those are the “mids” and not the treble I feel an immediate need to correct that video. What he raised was 1k and up which 1k is your upper mids yes but beyond this is your treble at 2k+ frequencies. This is why I always say that brighter headphones are better for footstep placement as it’s proven granted equalization needs more power to sound correct in all cases and it can completely destroy the sound by causing massive amounts of distortion if you don’t know what your doing with it though in gaming headsets cases they take an extremely low amount of power to drive making equalization more feasible without an amplifier. Well, I suppose less you count audeze mobius / hyperx orbit where they installed 2 amplifiers actually in the headphone cups
Lastly, 7.1 is universally generally garbage for just about any application. It creates an artificial sound environment and while it may help in some cases it can screw with imaging so much that it actually ruins your imaging and causes sound placement errors big time. However, marketing purposes always claim it does such a great job when really… 95% of the time it doesn’t it just sounds cool and the 7.1 sound is actually an easy to implement free software that you can get if you really feel you need it from programs such as Hesuvi or if you want a better quality 7.1 looking into Dolby atmos which is a 1 time purchase for very cheap. Surround sound gaming headphones are generally complete bs and are a way to jack up the price by simply adding this software in some cases the price can be drastic of over $80 even when you can just get a dongle with this software build in for like $20 in a lot of cases for consoles.