the philips shl5500: natural sounding can. - Page 6

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danielvr 

Well, I think I found one strong sonic weakness in my SHL9700 after all: At some frequencies, mostly in female vocals and string instruments, there's an ugly crackle that distorts the sound. A prime example would be Norah Jones' "Come away with me", at 1:54-2:00 into the song where she loudly sings "but you'll be on my mind forever". When I listen through the SHL5500, I hear a bit of the same distortion but by far not as pronounced as in the SHL9700. I wonder if the new Downtown and Fidelio L1 models will turn out to have the same problem.

I hear the same distortion on my sr80i and hje70, the song is "Dont Know Why" on "Come Away With Me" album. On the line "but you'll be on my mind forever" I hear a slight crackle on the left ear at the end of "you'll". I think its the recording, might have to tone down the replaygain of this album.

Very interesting thread.

Tempted to get a pair of these but was wondering how the shl5500's compare to Sennheiser PX100-ii's? Are they less airy? More engaging? Do they offer better isolation?

Any feedback would be really appreciated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cieran 

Very interesting thread.

 

Tempted to get a pair of these but was wondering how the shl5500's compare to Sennheiser PX100-ii's? Are they less airy? More engaging? Do they offer better isolation?

 

Any feedback would be really appreciated.

For me, i wouldnt recommend px 100-ii. its has a very dark sound and sometimes sibilant. I listen to modern metal stuff like metalcore/deathcore and i find the bass of the px100-ii too much enveloping. It is good for dubstep, trance, house,club music though. but its not my cup of tea. from my experience SHL5500 is much more natural and enjoyable. More comfortable too! It is neither dark nor bright. It also suits a wide variety of genre, i tried listening metal to it and its fine for me. An enjoyable dark signature for me is Pioneer HDJ500, you should try it. If you want a cheaper one, get the AKG K518le.. hope this helps 

The SHL5500 isolates better too.

Cheers for the info. Sounds like the Philips are the way to go for me.

What is their loudness and soundstage like compared to the PX100's?

Ive read on your posts that you would be using headphone fow watching tv. i would say get the philips shl5500. outclasses the px100-ii in terms of comfort, class, and SQ. I dont know why so many liked the px100-ii. it sounds too bassy for me which i find quite unnatural. Im not much of a fan of sennheisers anyway. I dont know which soundstage is better but i dont like very big sounstage it messes up the agressiveness of my metal. Too much airiness is bad also. For me the shl5500 has just the right amount of everything. Sounds good unamped too.

Thanks for all the info guys. Really helpful. I'm just about ready to pull the trigger and get the Philips but I have 1 last question - how do they compare to Sennheiser HD202's?

Ok I finally took the plunge and ordered some of these. First impressions is that they are very nice - only used them for a couple of hours but they are extremely comfortable and pleasant on the ears. My only concern is that while they are marketed as open they don' t seem to have any vents on the back of the cups. My understanding is that for headphones to be considered open they should have vents - is this correct?

My apologies if I have got the wrong end of the stick as I am fairly new to the world of decent heaphones.

There will always be debate about what is the proper definition of what's "open" and what is "closed". One could argue that any headphone with holes in the back is "open". But one could also argue that any headphone that leaks sound while using them at moderate volumes is "open", no matter if it has any holes.

Closed, open. More than anything else it is a way to satisfy the manufacturer's desire to advertise and specify a headphone. People love specs, even when they really do not matter that much or do not tell the whole story. Compare it to the advertised output power of an amp in Watts, which says very little when it is not specified if it is peak, continuous and at what allowed distortion it was measured, and even then...

So back to the Philips cans. While the ear cups do have a closed (non-perforated) back, I think they are "open" in the sense that they do not completely enclose the ear and thus cannot prevent that sound will leak to the outside world - one could even say any on-ear type headphone is not a closed headphone. I guess that is why they invented the really useless term "semi-open". Anyway, I would not bother. If you look at the specs of the Philips cans they use the terms closed / open / semi-closed pretty randomly for very similar designs. Marketing... ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cieran 

Ok I finally took the plunge and ordered some of these. First impressions is that they are very nice - only used them for a couple of hours but they are extremely comfortable and pleasant on the ears. My only concern is that while they are marketed as open they don' t seem to have any vents on the back of the cups. My understanding is that for headphones to be considered open they should have vents - is this correct?

 

My apologies if I have got the wrong end of the stick as I am fairly new to the world of decent heaphones.

So hows the sound bro? were awaiting for your detailed impressions  are you diggin the philips sound sig?