The xxâs mean they were a massdrop Collab right? Itâs unfortunate, but I highly doubt itâs worth trying to get them over to UK with a hiked up price.
Look, the Phoenixâs are worth it for being easy to drive and everything. They are a nice headphone where you can enjoy the music.
I personally still love my Sennheiser HD598âs and have been using them for years. They arenât particularly heavy in the treble area, but are definitely light in the bass area.
You also have one of the best headphone called the Phonon SMB-02, and they are just now releasing the SMB-01L. There is a whole thread on Head-Fi about this headphone - itâs a Japanese company, so you can imagine it has the highest quality:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/phonon-smb-02-holy-grail.627930/
Now, I personally didnât hear the SMB-02âs, so I cannot give you my personal opinion. You have a lot of options in the 300-400 USD market.
They have been on Amazon here, but not sure about uk, if uk amazon has as good a return policy that us Amazon has, itâs worth it to check out some other options too
To be quite honest this really means nothing imo, the country of origin and doesnât really determine quality, the manufacturer itself does. Iâve had both excellent and shit products come from japan (as with most really any country), it really is dependent on the manufacturer itself. Not saying the phonons are poor quality, just saying that basing quality off country of what country the brand is located in is not a reliable way to assess quality imo
Iâve only heard the smb-02 from a demo awhile ago, and they did sound decent but to me nothing really stood out, kinda sounded like a sony studio headphone with a bit of different fr. But itâs been so long I canât really give too much info, I do wonder how they would hold up today
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I had this in mind before writing that sentence. From personal experience Japanese stuff seems to be higher quality - but this is just generally.
I completely agree with you, country of origin does not determine the quality.
In terms of the Phonons, I think that the guy who hyped them up over at Head-Fi really found his fit. We all have personal preference, and Phonons seem to have really satisfied his ears.
Overall, the SMB-01L is much more exciting, it features new earpads too⊠which is a massive improvement from the SMB-02âs
Yes I get that, for me all the wide range of stuff I have ended up trying from japan it really tends to even out to reliably decent imo (where if I had to generalize for china while there are some excellent chinese companies it tends to average out to really hit or miss imo), itâs just that âhighest qualityâ is something that most products from any country rarely meet lol (but again thatâs subjective anyways)
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Interestingly enough, everything was much better quality back in the day, it used to be much better value too. Now you need to be paying thousands of dollars to see some true craftsmanship, whereas it did appear that back in the day it used to be like a competition of who can make a better product at a lower price.
Now craftsmanship is a luxury that very few people can affordâŠ
Itâs the same as German quality stuff. Sennheiser used to be making much higher end gear (funnily enough my HD598âs blow the HD6XX out of the water when it comes to build quality⊠like the difference in quality is day and night).
Times have changed, what can ya do 
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I could potentially see that depending on the specific type of product at hand
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Iâm interested why you think this, the 598âs have a marginally more premium choice of plastic, but outside of that I donât think thereâs a significant difference.
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The plastic IMO is much better quality on the HD598. âmarginallyâ feels like accepting the worse quality (IMO) - the plastic used on the 6XX is cheap and crappy. I am not one of those people who easily accepts worse build quality than older product from the same company. The ugly line that shows where the two parts of the plastic were joined is one thing (maybe itâs because of the plastic mold/injection method that was used) - but the bad quality of the plastic is a whole different thing. The headband plastic material is horrible, I mean just look at the shine from that thing. Yikes. But⊠the cable. Makes me sick every time I touch it - luckily the HD6XXâs arenât mine, but that stock cable is just a shame compared to the quality of HD598âs cable⊠HD6XX doesnât feel premium in any way (except sound quality ofc)
Overall, it is just a badly build product from Sennheiser - itâs not the German quality that I am used from them. Now, I do have to say that I have never held the HD600 or the HD650 in my hands - so canât comment on those.
So, why is the HD 598 so much better in terms of build quality to me? Because of everything.
- One of the best plastics that I have seen on headphones - especially at this price point.
- The best cable that I have seen on a headphone. That thing is robust and withstood some crazy torture - still works like new. The quality of the rubber is top-notch, I have yet to see another one =)
- Attention to detail -
- High-gloss accents - very premium looking, and the shine adds a character to the headphone
- Printing quality - the labels that were printed on the headphone were painted with high quality technique and paint.
- Attractive Sennheiser logo on the inside of the cup - nothing major, understandable why the HD6 series doesnât have it
Thatâs a lot of things that a budget model gets right. From one point of view, for me it is unacceptable for a new product like the HD6XX to have such bad quality to it, but then I remember that the sound performance is quite good - I think thatâs the compromise that had to be made.
At this point it feels like we are trashing this thread, so it would be appreciated if a mod could clean up the past few replies that have nothing related to the Sivga Phoenix
I guarantee two things from this:
- It doesnât fit his head
- He doesnât like the sound signature
Not like thatâs surprising anyone.
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Agreed. Still be interesting to watch the vid, but, agreed.
Is this a worthy upgrade over the SHP9500? I like my SHP9500, but Iâm wanting a quality step up
The bass of the SHP9500 is enough (if there is more, I wonât complain) but I really would like more clarity in the mid and high end, my other headphone is a M40x and I would love that kind of sound in a open back
Short answer: Yes and it will be quite the massive upgrade.
Long answer: The sound is a massive departure from those. Iâve demoed both the SHP9500 and the M40X and they were fine cans for their price. The SHP9500 were admittedly grainy but had great imaging and were ideal for gaming. The M40X were a bit lacking in dynamics (and soundstage but itâs a closed-back so thatâs expected) but that can be partially mitigated with a pad swap.
The Phoenix sound clarity (among other things) will be unlike anything youâve heard so far. Especially the elevated bass and subbass. Meanwhile Iâd say the treble is perfectly sparkling. The mids donât really stand out as much admittedly. The âofficialâ frequency response graph Sivga sent is here:
Weâve already outlined the stuff about the beautiful build.
If the issues regarding comfort we talked about bothers you then either avoid/return this headphone or wait for the new pads.
P.S. If you have an amazon prime account you can return items up until the end of January next year 
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Bass + sub-bass on the Phoenix are something else. The bass is extremely clean, it has both the quantity and quality. They radiate and shake/rumble just like a sub-woofer, but never are boomy or anything of that sort
Mids are clean, they benefit from the lower-frequency extension, and thus you will hear more detail in the lower-range of any instrument or vocal. But since they also have great clarity and detail in the treble region, you will benefit from hearing sparkle at the peaks.
Sivga really nailed it with this one tbh. They are still working on the pads, so hopefully it al pays off - and hopefully we see the pads soon
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Would you say the bass is fast? I listen to a lot of extreme metal and lesser headphones can kinda fall apart when the double bass is flying. I love me some beefy low end and these are sounding super tempting but I gotta know if they can keep up.
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Very fast and tight. Clear and clean bass that isnât boomy. Thatâs why I said itâs quality bass - itâs truly fascinating how much quantity there is while keeping the quality.
I donât listen to metal, but I can say that they are fast and clean
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Thanks!
Yes, my m40x have the brainwavz angled pads, giving it better bass and soundstage
Yeah, the thing is that I will import it to South America, so returning is not an option, thatâs why I want to be sure about it
cheers
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Any chance you can ask Sivga for an estimate on those new pads? 
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Ah yeah thatâs tricky. The fit and comfort will be your biggest obstacle here. If you donât want to take that risk you might want to look elsewhere though. Like a sennheiser or beyerdynamic headphone.
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