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- Verified Buyer
The Philips SHP9500 have somewhat of a notorious reputation in the online audio community, particularly due to the hype reviews of a particular reviewer. Having said that, overall, I think that these are an great set of headphones for the price you pay for them (sub-$100 CAD). Keep in mind, this review is written having bought the headphones as a gift for my father and not after an extended period of time. I took some time to test to see if they were actually good before handing them off to my dad. So what follows isn't really in-depth or after hours of use, but more of a short first impressions and comparison to the other headphones I own.First off, what you get in the box is fairly simple and straightforward: Headphones (in a fabric bag) and a cable (with a quarter inch adapter for those who may need that). It should be noted that the cable you connect the headphones to are 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male, which means that should the cables included ever fail, you can replace them really easily. Moreover, you can replace the stock cable with something like the V-moda boom pro mic, turning these into a great set of cans for gaming.The material quality is good, but not mind blowing (appropriate for the price-point I would argue). The mechanism for adjusting the size of the headband feels fairly solid. I'm not a huge fan of the material for the ear cups themselves, although they feel comfortable enough. There is very little clamp force on these meaning that when using them, they always feel a little bit like they could fall off with a head shake that's a little too vigorous. Another issue that has been noted before is that the ear cups are quite shallow and I did notice that my ears did touch the foam on the inside. This may not be an issue for all, but your mileage may vary.The most important part is obviously how they sound. I own two other pairs of entry level audiophile headphones (I have yet to ascend the ranks of true audiophile) that I can compare these headphones too: Audio Technica M40X and Sennheiser HD58X Jubilees (made in collaboration with Massdrop).My first impressions of the sound were that I really liked them. Overall, the clarity is definitely a strong point and the soundstage was very good. Vocals sounded clear and while there's a little bit of sibilance, it's really tolerable (unlike the M40Xs which I can find almost untolerably sibilant at times). I would say these cans probably tend a little bit more towards the clinical side rather than warm and laid-back. I listen mostly to Jpop/rock, which tends to be a little more instrumentally driven and most of the tracks I listened to sound quite good and balanced. I also very much enjoyed listening to other genres (classical, jazz, rock) as well.There is one glaring weakness of these headphones, however, and that is their almost complete lack of bass extension. It's quite noticeable when you look at the frequency response curves, as the curve drops off quite severely in the lower range. And it shows in how it presents tracks. This was particularly noticeable when listening to more electronically driven pop or EDM. The lack of bass extension really lead to these tracks lacking a lot of the punch they have with headphones with better bass. In general, the lack of bass extension can lead to the headphones having a somewhat less full sound than they could otherwise have. But it should be pointed out that this can somewhat be remedied by equalizers (the bass switch on my FiiO E10Ks does a decent job at mitigating this as well).While the lack of bass extension is a definite minus, in the end I don't think it's a complete deal breaker. If you're listening predominantly to more instrumentally driven music, they still sound great due to their clarity and open soundstage.The M40Xs are a pair of headphones in a similar price range to the SHP9500 and are often recommended as a budget pair of audiophile headphones. I rate the M40Xs very highly because at their price point, I think they sound very good. But if I was now given the choice of only keeping the Philips or the M40Xs, I would say I probably prefer the sound of the SHP9500 over the M40Xs for a couple of reasons. First, the sound-stage (as open cans) is much better and feels far less congested and narrow compared to the M40Xs. Second, I find that these, while still a little bright on the highs, are far less sibilant. However, compared to my HD58X open headphones, I would say that these fall off because of the lack of bass extension and me preferring the slightly warmer sound of the HD58Xs. Having said that, the HD58Xs also cost substantially more (about double).So should you buy these? If you are looking for a good-sounding pair of open headphones (you don't mind that you can hear other through them and that others can hear you!), are not a bass-head, and maybe tend to listen to more instrumentally driven music, I would definitely recommend them. They aren't all that the hype can sometimes have you believe they are because they do have serious drawbacks, but they are great value for the money
