Warm, Entertaining And Yet Very Refined And Revealing...
If this is what you looking for, stop reading this review and go out buying one of these!
( The product was tested at 249,99$ )
Because this is simply one of the most enjoyable headphones beneath the 500$ mark. The Philips Fidelio X1 was released by Philips Home Audio department in 2012 and had since then quite the fanbase and many great reviews.
With the Philips X1s, Philips was trying to bring their first true high-end headphone to the market, for critical home listening. Most of their prior products were based on either fashion designs or "mid-fi" headphones, that were mostly meant for mobile use. Not so with this one though... Philips made a big and important first step into the fields of audiophiles and did so with ease. 3 years ago you didnt even really know that Philips made headphones, nor did you ever consider them doing something in that direction. The only ever reoccurring names were Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic and AKG, when it came to european high-end headphones. Now Philips made a name for them selfs and a product that could make it self legend under the enthusiasts, just like The Sennheiser HD6xx line or the AKG K701s did and im going to tell you why.
Build : Like A Tank!
Right out the bat, youll notice that this is truly a premium product. Its made out of many metal parts (Aluminum) and some very high quality plastic, such as in the inner earcup design. The cable has also partial metal parts and seems to be very high quality and quite sturdy overall. Everything looks in place and quite beautiful with this one, the ear pads are very plush and have some medium density memory foam inside, which makes them very comfortable, but more on that later! The top headband is made out of leather and has metal rails inside for extra durability, while the extension itself is more of a self adjusting design ( similar to AKGs ) and is also quite plush and very unique in its material. To put it short, for under 300$ i have never seen a headphone so well put together and of such quality materials.
10/10
Comfort : Like A Feather With Some Tank Issues!
These headphones are amazingly comfortable and that even for longer periods of time. I often found my self forgetting that i had them on sitting at home listening to music for several hours. But not only music, they did also prove themselves to be quite a treat for gaming and movies of all sorts. The Headband is so light on your head, but with just enough tension, to never slip down on your ears. Same goes for the earpads, they are so amazingly comfortable and plush, that sometime i just wanted to put them on to have that feel again. The headphones also do keep you ears quite cool allowing air to flow in and out of the headphone. This makes them of course unsuitable for mobile use out and about, or for listening in loud enviroments. But Philips didnt advertise to be that, they advertise these headphones as home listening headphones and they are exactly that! The only slight criticism id state on the comfort is, that these headphones are somewhat heavy, because of their many metal parts. Not to the point of really annoying me, but i could see why some people may think them to be uncomfortable for that. With 336g they are not the lightes headphones in the world and compared to my Sony MA900s, they are a tank... But as stated above, this may only apply to some persons, mostly young folk with tiny necks 
Still this takes some of the score.
9/10
Sound : Impactful And Revealing. Smooth Yet Entertaining!
This headphone is Gold! It does something that most other high-end headphones cant... Sheer musical pleasure! The Bass hits hard and tight when asked to and the Mids stay really neutral and present in the mix while the Treble does have sparkle, but knows how to behave himself. The Soundstage doesnt fall short either. Sound to good to be true? Well it definitely is!
The sound of the Fidelio X1 is just amazing, everyone who listens to a wide variety of genres will be quite happy with this headphone. It delivers a pretty flat response, with a warm and also quite open retrieval. Bass is slightly emphasized, yet never to much. Its tight and very well defined, during testing the bass could impress acoustically and with synths without a problem, its simply a very impactful and refined bass that really grabs you! The mids are also really smooth and present, they are very detailed and project vocals and mid subtleties amazingly natural and exciting, while the highs are also really detailed and well extended, but also very, very smooth sounding and at no times fatiguing, unless it is supposed to, like withing games or movie, where there are gunshots and similar effect, which are supposed to sound hard to your ears. It also sounds very open and spacious, with great depth and positional cues, which really tends to impress during live concerts, acoustical music or games and movie. Only downside to the sound would be that it is not completely neutral and therefore not perfect for mixing purposes, but for enjoying music, it is definitely a winner!
Sound : 9.5/10
Conclusion:
The Philips X1 is one of the most impressive headphones under the 500$ mark and easily compares with Sennheiser HD600 line (More so with the HD650), AKGs K700 series, Beyerdynamic DT and T series, as well as with Sonys flagship the MA900. The MA900 may have the better soundstage and the HD650 some more detail in the midrange, but overall the X1s have their own signatur and live up to the hype.
Final Score : 9.75 - Amazing!
