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.
Alright so, it’s been around… 50+ hours of burn in time on the X3 going back and forth around the bend here on sound and multiple tracks in my library. Just songs I personally feel comfortable with in the highest quality possible where I can notice differences using Tidal and Amazon Music I try to use FLAC / Lossless as much as possible.
Games used: Escape from tarkov, Counter strike, Valorant, Planetside
Build Quality: So the build quality is actually very nice here. It’s surprisingly lightweight yet feels rather sturdy with it’s frame and leather padwork. The pads are decently soft Memory Foam Velour that after a bit of use seem to hold their shape quite well after a bit of break in though initially this can feel a bit uncomfortable and the headclamp can be slightly harsh depending on head size. They used this special fabric called Kvadrat to supposedly reduce the air pressure however, it is still fabric which makes me concerned about potential rips and tears and the longevity. Regardless the build quality is quite something and I think provided someone handles it well it will last a while. Though due to the materials used it seems that both the fabric and pads love to grab any form of dirt, grime, pet hair, dust, etc and there is no carrying case… I would definitely recommend a specific spot to put these in or getting a case of some sort for them so you don’t feel the need to clean them up if you like to keep your stuff clean and orderly. Rating of Build quality I suppose it could be sturdier but I feel it inspires confidence and looks good I will give that rating a solid 8 out of 10.
Cables: Nothing really in particularly being special here. They included a cable clamp for what I assume is to tighten up the split a bit further. Cable termination is duel sided 3.5mm to single ended 3.5mm and the additional cable is balanced to 2.5mm 3 pole. The cables are a good length of a respectably good length and I don’t find a complaint less you just like shorter cables. They do not feel cheap and seem to settle down pretty easy once stretched out. No real ratings needed here but I suppose you could improve them though I feel they would raise the price more for that so I see this is just fine. However, I do not see a reason for going balanced cabling as you now lose the ability to use v moda and bluetooth dongles. At 30 ohms it really isn’t demanding to begin with so balanced isn’t particularly necessary here.
Comfort: This is a hit or miss. So, the pads feel a bit smaller than the x2hr and the headphone offers quite a bit a headclamp causing them to be snug. For me personally, the clamp and fit of the ear cups was quite close to perfect for me and isolated my ears very well. The pads are a good thickness and hold their shape well I think they did right by the memory foam velour. My only concern is that if someone had even slightly larger or elongated ears than me then these pads probably wouldn’t work as well as my ears are touching the rim of the inside pad. While normally I would write this off as fixable the pads are held on by practically a perfect sized fitting adapter that you would have to fight with to remove to make use of and potentially run the risk of destroying the stock pads as well as the adapter itself. For pretty much $400 even I would expect the ability to be able to actually change our pads at our leisure to be a requirement as the pads don’t always suit a persons preference and it offers more sound variety. Granted other companies do this with the adapters but their are actually alternatives to those pads from companies like Dekoni who work around that. While I don’t find the pads as comfortable as my dekoni or beyers they are still quite nice in terms of quality and I don’t feel they will tear easily they are quite firm and feel like strong fabric was used on them. While this could definitely be improved I will give this a 6 out of 10 but this could be a huge deal breaker for some people.
Soundstage: So, this particular headphone surprised me out of the box in this regard. The soundstaging here sounds just massive and it’s done incredibly well. Like an open concert feel or speaker presentation but it’s on a level beyond my T1 or Tygr potentially going toe to toe with HD800’s soundstage width. This is a huge plus from me and surprised me as I don’t actually think there’s another headphone with such a large stage in this price bracket. Kudos to this and it sounds done right. 10/10 rating from me for making this a rather unique feature in this price point.
Imaging: This took some time. Out of the box this is quite average which was disappointing. It has taken some burn in and a switch of amps to realize this headphone is a little more particular. Upon switching to my asgard + E30 combination it seems that my original idea of just using a ifi xdsd portable amp wasn’t going to cut it. After switching the imaged tightened further and after burning in more it became even better which surprised me. As of current it’s borderline at the same level as my T1 and very respectable. Upon plugging it into my Liquid Platinum + Bifrost 2 while it definitely doesn’t need anywhere near that much power the platinum allowed that sound signature to open up more and I feel the image may have improved ever so slightly further so setup may be more important with this headphone despite the low ohm you want something that can be more accurate capable of keeping the sound tight without brightening things up.
Separation: no real complaints here. I could pick out the difference in my drum strikes and strings. Quite nice honestly
Sound Signature: This is quite different and I will have to seperate this one into sections of frequency. Comparing this to the original x2hr
Lows: As long as you have this properly powered the lows extend very deep with great extension and sub bass the impact could potentially be better but I found it works even better here when attached to tubes and becomes very satisfying. Overall the lows feel rather natural, outside of the impact, and expansive. They have a good fullness to them and don’t sound hollow however I do feel there is some improvement here to be had as it doesn’t sound very warm if anything it sounds closer to neutral compared to it’s predecessor potentially slightly above the flat line. I didn’t encounter any bleeding into the mids, boomyness, or muddyness and the bass sounds rather tight and controlled whereas the x2hr sounds rather loose and sloppy. I think they did quite right in this regard. Unlike the x2hr where the bass appears quite a bit more forward and tends to get in the way the bass here seems to stay in it’s own lane out of the way of the other frequencies like it needs to
Mids: so one of the issues I encountered was in my setup actually. The mids sound closer to neutral but sound close to being actually forward on my asgard. Center stage so to speak. There is a lot of clarity and clean sound in the vocals which shocked me a bit and sounds rather close to my Sennheisers in terms of vocal quality. Very enjoyable but I do wish there was a touch more warmth to be had here. Tube amps(I tested dark voice with stock tubes) seem to remedy the issue I had with the warmth and impact for both lows and mids and really makes this headphone sound quite nice so could be another case like the DT 880 where tubes can really bring this one to life. Liquid platinum just makes the vocals sound gorgeous for me.
Highs: This could be your biggest deal breaker. This headphone is bright and quite so. If you have a treble intolerance this headphone I have to say isn’t for you. The treble doesn’t sound very peaky but there does seem to be a peak in there somewhere( I don’t have the hardware needed for a frequency chart so that will have to wait till someone gets one) it’s smooth but can spike a bit and cause some harshness. The highs make this headphone sparkle by quite a bit and add a lot of detail across the board the detail retrieval is very nice due to the sound signature. This headphone’s brightness sounds close to equal to my T1 if I want to get a bit more specific. It’s nice but can be very harsh. This is a major hit or miss for me. For me personally, even though I use bright headphones all the time I tried to use this as a more daily driver. I unfortunately grew tired of it after a few hours and picked up one of my other headphones for a break as the brightness can be quite fatiguing.
Sound signature: Unlike the warm presentation of the x2hr this sounds like a major upgrade to the original x2 which was just a bright headphone. This sounds like an absolute massive upgrade to that headphone so if you appreciated the original x2’s you may love this headphone
Competitive Gaming: After the burn in for some time(of course it could be burned in longer) and correction to my setup this headphone is quite superb in this regard. The sound signature is damn near perfect for competitive gaming. I have no issues pinpointing my targets. Granted the brightness caused some discomfort during gunfights in hallways and the like as the more shrieking gunfire sounds reverberate a bit more in games like Tarkov. While this can be rectified through some equalization and I notice my Liquid Platinum can subset this a bit further it’s still something to take note of. The imaging isn’t as sharp as my 1990 or tygr but it can still hold it’s own just fine here.
Casual Gaming: this is alright. I would highly recommend something else for more casual use unless you are okay with brightness and play a few hours at a time. This headphone can be a bit unforgiving like a Beyer so just a forewarning. It will work but not something I recommend here.
Price Point: Considering the pricepoint this is a gamble. After the adjustments this is going quite literally toe to toe with my T1 2nd gen(which prices on that are $600+) which is no easy feat. Of course I expect this headphone to drop in price a bit but I think I can feasibly say it is worth it’s price point though the lacking case, bluetooth / vmoda compatabilities, and pad swap capabilities hurts this headphone alongside the ever sharp brightness it supports. I would probably recommend the DT 880 before I say go to this headphone. Though if your on a tighter budget and still want to experience a headphone thats close to the likes of the 2nd generation of the Beyer T1 I think I can feasibly say this is a good option to do so granted I definitely feel the T1 has a better smoother quality of sound and responds a lot heavier to different setups and scaling sound wise
Will I be keeping this headphone? No, I feel while the soundstage is nice and all and the quality of the sound and sound signature is pretty good for $400 I already own my T1 2nd gen which I bought for essentially close to the same price tag. The biggest difference between the two was definitely the imaging in terms of sound but I like the fact I can swap around my pads on my T1 and the T1 responds much better to amps.
Do I feel it’s worth it? Only if you like bright headphones. The headphone isn’t very aggressive if anything it’s quite laid back with that expansive sound. It’s definitely something I can say is worth a try if you have the money and a return policy. I feel the bass may be the weakest point here as it is just a bright sounding headphone not a V signature or Warm signature so to some this headphone can appear quite boring.
How did it respond to equalization? Decently well, boosting too much of the bass led to some distortion and imbalance. Wouldn’t recommend messing with this on a low powered amplifier though.
But what about the shp9600? Getting to that probably tomorrow. That one is probably a keeper for me.
Do you think either of these two headphones are better for me as a gamer using the Tygr 300 R? Depends, if you are a extremely serious competitive gamer I would even say the DT 880 would be better(it’s cheaper after all with more flexibility and not as bright) but the X3 and 880 can be a hit or miss or quite boring they just aren’t very fun to listen to where the tygr is the better daily driver. You don’t -have- to use a bright headphone it just helps just like you dont -have- to use neutral or recessed bass it just helps stay out of the way for some better placements… as long as your soundstage and imaging are up to par your fine best not to over think it as you may just grab a headphone you don’t like.
Well, that’s no good at all… the shp9600 cable I got is apparently defective… was listening and about an hour ago started having some weird buzzing through the headphone. Replaced the cable with the V-moda cable and it is no longer an issue.
I guess just a headsup, since it is after all a new product, keep an eye out for defects. Going to contact philips on that one let them know about the cable.
So Falenkor, I think Im going to return the 9600s. They just dont feel right to me.
Maybe Ill try the 9500s but Im worried about making too many returns.
Stepping outside Philips for a second, do you think the DT 770 Pro 32 Ohms or the AD500x are worthier? I feel like AD500x looks fragile but I hear its the best at its price for imaging.
And I hear good things about Beyer, but that’s mostly for their 990s.
Im eager to hear your thoughts on the gaming side for 9600 though.
hmm, I wouldn’t worry too much in this regard. Trying audio equipment is pretty common to my knowledge though returns to a large degree can be rather frowned upon depends on the company. Perhaps look into some sort of audio store if one exists nearby to test some audio equipment out. Granted they are hard to come by these days. Granted 9500 are the same power demand as the 9600
Sounds good, in the end regardless what myself or anybody says you have your own tastes in sound and setup so perhaps it’s just not the best fit for you.
AD500x is decent it’s price tag tends to be very low as well as the ad700x. I have had a lot of people disagree with me on my thoughts about the ad series but personally I find the build quality insufferably bad made of cheap rickety plastic it doesn’t inspire confidence for me and the 3d headband wing system is by far the most uncomfortable design I think I have messed with though I do know others that feel the opposite that it’s fine as a good budget option and comfortable for them personally. The sound signature gets brighter the further you travel through the ad series. However, the signature can be very boring if you like your bass. The bass of the ad series is very recessed with mids and highs pushed forward while this is technically very -ideal- the lack of bass can be a huge deal breaker for a gamer. However, best in price for imaging? It’s around $80 and the shp9500 can be bought around $49 so no but still both are respectable enough for use case scenario in competitives.
DT 770 32 ohm sounds pretty bad in my opinion. You also will probably have issues driving it since you sound like you had issues with the philips which are in the same power demand category. You can give this a shot if you feel like it it’s alternative is the mmx300 which is essentialy the same headphone but gamer based easier to use and has a mic but much more pricey. DT 770’s are quite bright and can be quite sibilant at the same time they are very bassy and rumble loaded the bass is nice but it definitely impedes sound placements of competitive. Fun to use not the most ideal.
Surprised it’s mostly for the 990 of all things. 990 is the sharpest of the 3 and a big hit or miss… similar in signature to the 770s but to a higher degree of brightness. All 3 of those beyers tend to sound pretty bad in their low ohm variations… 770 is a bit of a special case as it sounds decent enough at 80 ohms but the other two sound pretty bad less in 250 ohm or 600 ohm.
In the long run it depends on the person however, like I said lacking bass can be deemed boring but it helps in competitive much like brightness can cause fatigue or discomfort even some rare cases pain yet it does help with the placements for competitive gaming though this creates conflict for other use case scenarios outside of strictly competition.
DT 880 is probably the best of the 3 for regular daily driver use as it has the least brightness and most neutrality though similar in signature to that of the SHP9500 just to a much higher quality degree. The beyers are not only amp dependent but the bass itself can sound rather hollow on them.
Since you liked the bass of the x2hr but still want competitive the Tygr 300R may be more up your alley instead. It’s not a bright headphone instead it’s warm yet not very demanding of power with laser imaging and very large soundstaging.
I am getting around to it. Take a bit of a listen and compiling my thoughts as I compare it also to the 9500