Interesting, as typically the rear ports of the card tend to be a bit stronger and in some cases have amplifiers on the motherboard for those headphone ports. I would of course still recommend some form of amp however, if it’s working for you then I guess no harm done.
I definitely appreciate it, just never been a fan of the stock pads lol. Sounds good though. I can run the 9600 off my phone and motherboard so you shouldn’t have issues with it.
I’m going to be bothered as to why it sounds so weird from the Motherboard but oh well
The bass is soooo cool on the x2hr. I never noticed it before.
Also, Im trying to be careful and not blast sound as I have tinnitus. Though my ear doc said it wasnt cause of loud music in my life which is surprising. Still, i want to ensure i keep good care of my ears.
Hopefully bass doesnt damage them, but Im making sure to keep things at a low enough volume.
So you said the bass on the 9600 is in between X2HR and 9500, Falenkor? Im going to hate saying bye to this bass if the 9600 is particularly better at the imaging/clarity in footsteps
Oh, definitely in between. The x2hr has quite the lovely warm presentation to it. I just wish the shp9600 struck a bit deeper if anything. Haven’t sat down and tested it thoroughly enough to see if it’s capable or not. Might need to test some tubes or other pads or something. Still quite nice. I would definitely say the 9600 is better for footstep placement than the x2hr
Very excited to see how these sound. Signed up just to say that. 
The 9600 is my new favorite headphone. This headphone just works for me. The sound sig is similar to the 9500 w/suede pads but with a touch less bass which is my preferred sound sig and it achieves this right out of the box, no need to pad swap them which is blasphemy for me to say. I’m always swapping pads on headphones because I don’t fully like its stock sound sig or its comfort but the 9600 just fit me really well and sound perfect. The more I listen the better it gets.
My only con is that I don’t like this scratchy cloth material. I wish they used something softer like velour or a softer cloth material. It hasn’t irritated my skin so I can live with it. For $130 it should’ve came with a hard shell carrying case and an extra shorter cable. Sound wise they definitely hit above their price bracket. I’d recommend this over any sennheiser headphone any day.
I did notice this… perhaps this is why I enjoy their sound so much out of the box as I exclusively use suedes on my own shp9500? I just compared the two real quick a/b tested on the asgard and this is definitely surprisingly accurate.
I need a bit more head clamp personally, it’s a bit too loose so I will probably just leave some thicker pads on it to help with that… outside of that no real complaints outside of I will probably switch the headband out of personal preference considering it just unsnaps from the headphone.
This was some of my thoughts and has been my thought. I really wish the padding was of a different higher quality material instead of the same from the shp9500 just doesn’t feel right to me. Definitely agreed about the fact it should have came with a carrying case I mentioned that one earlier. I am actually kind of mad about the x3 being that much money and not including a case as well that’s a bit ridiculous to me.
hmm, over sennheiser? Not sure on that though. It’s very natural and clean sounding sure but Sennheisers are fantastic for mid centric neutrality. Granted imaging and soundstage I find more enjoyment out of the shp9600 but the lacking comfort I get out of the current padding used, head clamp, and lack of case makes me a little torn on that comparison as I get a lot more comfort and overall build quality from my old 58x jubilee.
I guess if I do keep the 9600 I can always just buy a case for it. I don’t like storing my headphones on headphone stands typically. Just a personal thing.
I will definitely be switching the padding out of the shp9600 provided I consider keeping it on hand. That’s quite literally the only thing I will change… I love the new design.
Ok so 9600 quick thoughts:
-I was shocked at the plastic! It’s so light but it feels so cheaply made! I’m afraid that these look very fragile. Definitely doesnt feel anywhere as premium as the X2HR
-I see what you guys mean with the padding. Not a big issue for me, but presumably these are swappable
-The sound doesnt feel right, and this mostly seems like an issue with my PC. Sounds really nice on my phone. Im not sure why my PC sucks so much
-I hate how the SHP 9600 seems to be on a single hinge?? These seem vulnerable to breaking with its plastic. I dont even know why they need to swivel the way they do
-Going back to X2HR, and the padding is sooo much better. This is really my biggest take away, but I like that 9600 feels light.
-Soundwise, I genuinely cant tell a big difference. If anything its in the bass, but I honestly cant tell. Are there any good Youtube videos to use to test these differences?
they actually are about the same in terms of being breakable. Then again, I mean less your throwing it around shouldn’t be a huge issue. It’s definitely a large improvement over the shp9500 build quality.
Well, the headband cushion is… However, the pads themselves are the tricky part. Either you have to remove all that glue and adhesive off the snap on rings or find an alternative.
This is true they are on a singular hinge however it’s sturdy enough to withstand use. Less you really abuse it I don’t see it breaking all that easily however, it is still plastic.
Oh, easily the padding from the x2hr and build quality is quite a lot better. However, with that comes quite a lot more weight as well as heat build up. That weight and heat is something they addressed with the X3. I can most definitely agree the build quality could be better on the shp9600.
You would want an amp for starters to really see the bigger difference however, you can find and use lossless or FLAC hi res audio files to see differences. They are actually very different in signatures x2hr is much bassier while 9600 is brighter mids are more clean and present on the 9600 while the x2hr has it’s bass issue that overshadows some of the vocals.
If you use a bad recording or low bit audio it’s harder to tell really on differences… though granted in games I definitely notice a difference between the two by a large margin.
Eh, don’t be so hard on it… It’s mainly just on board audio being the issue. Phones, consoles, and on board audios are by no means good for sound quality… it’s why people use amp / dacs or DAP for phones to begin with as not only does it boost the power it brings out a lot better sound qualities… Especially in the bass from my experience… warm headphones suffer from huge bass losses if you don’t have them properly driven… The x3 over here when I didn’t drive it right had practically no bass at all let alone impact however upon driving it while it still lacks some impact it drives deep and has a sub bass that strikes rather low the x2hr is in the same boat as it loses tremendous amounts of bass if not driven right but it can also sound very off in the upper vocals lower highs from my experience it can appear slightly distorted or just downright sound off.
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.