[New] Philips Fidelio X1

Indeed, it is so! And as thread starter, I proclaim: 
 
Let us not suffer these things to pass! Let us not bring about the hype! 

╚(•⌂•)╝​

Well for now i can say that the X1 is bass heavy, especially considering these are open headphones. It's probably one of most bass heavy and punchy _open_ headphone i've heard yet (see history in my profile, didnt listen to the Audeze and open Ultrasones yet).  I'm not really a bass head but i'm easy to please and can adapt to pretty much every headphone out there. The good thing: the mids are not suffering from the bass and remain clear. I really wonder how they did that since most other companies fail at mixing big bass with nice mids. It doesnt have quite the clear and natural mids the Shure 1840 has to offer but for my taste i like them better than the mids from the T90. Besides that i find the X1 more involving than both, soundstage sounds very coherent while both the Shure and more so the T90 suffers from a 3-blob stage where the left, center and right are too seperated from each other. I think Philips did everything right with the angled 50mm driver construction. Comfort is very good. Treble makes them appear very slightly on the "warm" side of things.

Bass heavy? HMMMMMMMM...

Now my interest is even more piqued.

And mine has been killed 
Quote:

mad lust envy said:

Bass heavy? HMMMMMMMM...
Now my interest is even more piqued.

Click to expand...

Woot... now you got me curious, didn't expect it to be matching my preferred sound signature by the description of it. Bass emphasized + slightly warm & involving & a bit more coherent soundstage is right up my alley (I don't enjoy soundstages like for example AKG K70x).

I'll hold off for more impressions, but I'm not put off by bass heavy. What about the build quality? Cables, changeable earpads, etc?

Thanks for the impressions.  Sounds right up my alley.  

I'll hold off for more impressions myself as someone stated bass light, and the other bass heavy. I want the general consensus. I don't expect DT990 levels of bass, but a mild emphasis, without the treble sounding rolled off would suit me well.

Bass heavy? Warm? 
 
Then again, he is comparing them to the SRH1840 and T90. I wonder where it sits in the broader scheme of things.

Please keep in mind this is a consumer headphone targeted at masses. What HiFi considers bassy can still be bass-light for the casual headphone user.
 
An HD650 with punch? Would sound too good to be true! But I hardly have any justification to hold an X1 next to L1, Z1000 and DT-880...

Hm, too bad... but I don't need another bass heavy, warm headphone. Recently returned the M1 on the same grounds, I guess, I'll cancel my preorder of the X1. Open headphones are not a good fit for my usage patterns anyway... Still a very nice design though...

I'm still gonna wait for more impressions and comparisons to different phones. Haven't read up a ton on the 1840 or T90 the X1s were compared to so far, but from what I've gathered they are both bright or upward tilted so its hard to guess to exactly what degree the X1s are warm and bassy in the big picture. If they do indeed turn out to be merely bigger M1/L1s I won't be surprised though.

Quote:

manveru said:

If they do indeed turn out to be merely bigger M1/L1s I won't be surprised though.

Click to expand...

Exactly that is what came to my mind... I do like the optics of the L1 and the X1, the sound signature of the L1 is not to my taste though (M1 even less so).
Of course a single first impression is not much to decide upon, but the mention of bass heavy together with the open design kills it for me. Not much of a problem as I still really like the AKG K550 for home use, so there's no urgent need to replace that one.

Quote:

plakat said:

Exactly that is what came to my mind... I do like the optics of the L1 and the X1, the sound signature of the L1 is not to my taste though (M1 even less so).
Of course a single first impression is not much to decide upon, but the mention of bass heavy together with the open design kills it for me. Not much of a problem as I still really like the AKG K550 for home use, so there's no urgent need to replace that one.

Click to expand...

 
I also had the K550 some weeks ago (i got perfect seal btw), it  (AKG) sounds brighter, less bassy and with recessed (lower) mids. The bass was also slower and less detailed. It has more of an upper mid peak which fit vocals nicely even though some parts of the mids were lacking in quantity. The X1 has more to offer in the lower mids and slightly less peak in the upper mids, more balanced for my taste.
What i really enjoy on the X1 is the soundstage and how the layering/depth works with the amount of bass the X1 has to offer. For example you get a giant drumkit playing behind the vocals but they never get in each other's way. Soundstaging like this is usually only found in speakers. In all other bassy headphones i heard, the bass would overshadow the rest and ruin the soundstage depth making the bass too present.

Sounds like the soundstage has real potential. I'd love it if it was an improved version of the already awesome soundstage on the Uptowns.