I don’t usually look at RTINGS(I just don’t like them and their reviews) but interesting to see their frequency response on it seems quite accurate but that’s about the same as I hear from 9500 with suedes on it.
Just to list the Frequency response of the SHP9600 here is RTINGS sound profile they got from the headphone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyfFOMsKUEw zeos posted his review of the 9600 as a “free share” on his patreon and has allowed it
https://www.patreon.com/Zeos his patreon there. looks like he reviewed x3 as well but its locked currently for now.
Josh Valor had a surprisingly negative (to put it mildly) review on the X3. His biggest complaints were with the bass performance and sibilance. I wonder if he had a bad unit.
It’s possible but at the same time he does have a good issue with brighter headphones. At the same time I didn’t encounter any issues with the bass on it or artifacting. Granted I will say it can be seen extremely boring and flat to some it struck right around neutral for me personally. The headband remark is a bit accurate I did have that when I used mine. As for the brightness? Yeah, completely agreed thats the potential biggest deal breaker there. For me as someone who loves his bright headphones and barely has any reaction to brightness it was borderline just sibilant and uncomfortable it was to the point of putting it down and not wanting to pick it up again when I had both of these headphones in house. It’s alright if you can deal with the brightness though. Granted vs the Sundara? X3 loses hands down.
I really don’t think Phillips paid any attention at all to their consumers outside of the most extreme complaints on the 9500.
I laughed at Josh’s mildly annoyed “Who asked for this?” at the beginning of the review. It’s true - when the X3 was announced people probably expected an improved X2 and not a whole different animal.
By the way, Zeos made an official thread for Philips SHP9600. Would it be a good idea to merge that thread with this one, since we’ve already been discussing both new Philips headphones here for a while now?
I did get a good laugh out of that. I seen it coming as hes quite treble sensitive as it is lol.
I mean, I like it more than the original X2 but definitely not more than the X2hr. If they would’ve made it a proper V signature I would have been okay with that. They pulled a Beyerdynamic on the X3 over there and made it bright as hell.
Seems like it may be some work but, I will go ahead and tag the big moderators if they want to do that. @Ohmboy @WaveTheory @M0N Just incase.
That’s why I’m going to push it on the other two lol, I don’t want to sort through and pick out 9600 from x3, that just doesn’t seem like it would be very readable anymore
I wouldn’t even worry about it at that point its a mixed bunch of crap lol.
Deal? Reduced price? 316.78$ amazon seller.
Still not worth it.
It is not on my wish list. But, maybe someone will grab them. 
Deal? Not really, not even close. 
Just watced DMS + Joshuas tier list… they put the Fidelio X3 on E tier apparently both just think its pretty bad lol shp9600 is on A tier but bad on price… I can agree with that but X3 is just the brightness in my opinion that makes it awful plus the fact its price point is just straight up awful after I re listened to a Sundara
That tier list was purely a value tier list. Knowing what else you could buy for $350 it makes sense it’s in E tier.
Yes but they are also making comments on their opinions of the headphone as well. SHP9600 was put up there in A despite agreeing it would be better if it was 30% less than its current price tag.
Yea they also did not seem to enjoy another headphone that you and I recently bought. Josh downright hated it, and DMS said he wanted to spend more time with the dampening out of the headphone.
I caught onto that one immediately. He had mentioned the mids just weren’t there… I definitely don’t have that problem like at all lol. Granted yes, it’s very very warm. Granted is it worth $1k? Hell if I know honestly. I am not very experienced with that price tier bracket of sound.
Fidelio X3 250$
lol a sale already? That was fast. I won’t touch it till it goes under Sundaras price tag, of which Sundara is $250 open box mint.
