jakkal said:

  The Philips representative told me that they will be most likely not available in US for now. They have some issues with the distribution in US.
But of course you can always buy from Amazon. 

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Probably due to last year's aborted sale by Philips of its lifestyle division to Funai (Philips pulled out).  Funai I believe is still the exclusive North America distributor.  I would speculate that Funai has little incentive to bring any new Philips products to the U.S. at this point.

ozyx said:

 
Well, the price is back to €299 at Amazon.it
 
Lets see if and when we will see a €229 or better price again!
 
The price of the x1 went up also. €199 is the best deal now.

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Just noticed this myself. Gotta give my thanks to depleted for highlighting this earlier. Bagged it at 225eur which will work out to £180 inc shipping!
 
Just waiting for stock to arrive now and also glad to hear they haven't deviated from X1 sonic attributes judging by some initial impressions.

you're welcome (=
 
I didn't lock the price though =( hope it goes down again soon..

Oh that's unfortunate mate as that was pretty much a 'buy now think later' price! Hopefully it does come down again soon...

communic said:

  Oh that's unfortunate mate as that was pretty much a 'buy now think later' price! Hopefully it does come down again soon...

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Yeah I should have ordered them anyway and then maybe canceled the order..
 
By the way when the X1 entered italy's amazon store was priced 182€ right from the beginning, down from a 299€ MSRP. So in my brain 228€ for the X2 was good, but probably not good enough
 
Also I don't think Philips will ever be able to sell these at 299, it's too close to other possibly more refined cans like Senns HD600/650, AKG K712 etc., I'm confident it will go down soon :sataniclaugh:

182eur for the original X1 from the off is a cracking price and sure if the X2 follows suit then it is likely that 225eur may indeed not be the lowest price which is a scary thought as imo they would effectively be giving them away!
 
I honestly don't think the HD6xx sounds as good nor the K701 (can't speak for the K712) but of course they do have reputation and pedigree built over the years in hi-fi which Philips don't have despite the success of X1/L1 which I'm sure, like you said, bodes well for pricing.
 
Me personally, even at 299eur it's a steal. I think circa 599eur would be the price point at which I would start weighing up my options. The X1's really were that good.

communic said:

   
Me personally, even at 299eur it's a steal. I think circa 599eur would be the price point at which I would start weighing up my options. The X1's really were that good.

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I could not disagree more, there is vary litte clearness in the sound. If you compare it with a well balanced speaker or even better, to the real life music you will know for sure that the X1 is coloring the sound quite much.
 
I got my X1 for about $220 and for me it was definitely not worth the money.
 
But, yet again, its all about taste. Im hanging on to this thread just to see if there is a big step up in clearnes or if it remains to be a muffled headphone.

communic said:

  182eur for the original X1 from the off is a cracking price and sure if the X2 follows suit then it is likely that 225eur may indeed not be the lowest price which is a scary thought as imo they would effectively be giving them away!
 
I honestly don't think the HD6xx sounds as good nor the K701 (can't speak for the K712) but of course they do have reputation and pedigree built over the years in hi-fi which Philips don't have despite the success of X1/L1 which I'm sure, like you said, bodes well for pricing.
 
Me personally, even at 299eur it's a steal. I think circa 599eur would be the price point at which I would start weighing up my options. The X1's really were that good.

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Yep: http://it.camelcamelcamel.com/Philips-X1-00-Fidelio-Auricolari/product/B008ZW2T7M?utm_campaign=safari_ext&utm_source=&utm_medium=camelizer
 

 
 
About the price... I'm not an expert so I don't know. For sure Philips in a couple of years has gained much recognition, so the products must be good. But honestly I don't think they could be able to sell it for more. Look at the Denon AH-D600, still a good fun pair of cans, but at 399€ didn't sell well and now you can buy it for 130€ (amazon.de)....
 
 
Then about me, I use mostly an XB500 that have insane amount of bass and is everything but detailed, and sometimes I fear X1/X2 will not be clear enough for me.. 

jimmy80 said:

   
I could not disagree more, there is vary litte clearness in the sound. If you compare it with a well balanced speaker or even better, to the real life music you will know for sure that the X1 is coloring the sound quite much.
 

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Are we talking speakers or headphones? I'm not sure if there were any QC issues with the X1 but I think I do remember someone saying they had two pairs bought over a time period that sounded very different. My X1's, however, bought from the very beginning of release were crystal clear. The bass never muddied the sound and it was well suited to both analytical and laid-back listening.
 
All headphones will colour sound to a degree. I'm not someone that subscribes to the whole 'neutral/balanced' disposition. Unless you hear the original music through the mastering headphones it would be impossible to tell. If you equate neutral to transparency or a flat FR then that is your inclination and fair enough.
 
I personally don't want any frequencies under-represented and felt the X1 did a good job in that respect. Maybe a smidgeon more in the mids and when combined with its other qualities it would be the perfect headphone for me. Maybe you had a 'dodgy' pair or maybe you are just of a different persuasion. Horses for courses...
 
 
 

depleted said:

   
About the price... I'm not an expert so I don't know. For sure Philips in a couple of years has gained much recognition, so the products must be good. But honestly I don't think they could be able to sell it for more. Look at the Denon AH-D600, still a good fun pair of cans, but at 399€ didn't sell well and now you can buy it for 130€ (amazon.de)....
 
 
Then about me, I use mostly an XB500 that have insane amount of bass and is everything but detailed, and sometimes I fear X1/X2 will not be clear enough for me.. 

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Never heard the D600's but not really surprised by the price drop either. They would have had to viral to charge RRP in these current times; competition is just to fierce.  I do agree it would be tough for Philips to have a pricing model similar to the big commercial guns like Senn, AKG or even Sony. They are simply not synonymous with hi-fi like those guys are and it would probably take decades before they ever are (provided they don't close that division down like they have with some others).
 
Never heard XB500's either but just going by the ear pads alone it looks like they kick serious bass! Coupled with Sony's house sound for their consumer lines then I'm sure that you may not be hearing much other than copious sub/midbass. I would be amazed if clarity was an issue with the X1/2 coming from those!

FWIW the X1 used to sell for $500 and now they're going for less than half that even before the X2 was made public. I love mine but there is noooooooo way I'd have dropped $500 on them. 
 
Do they color the sound? Of course. I don't get why that's bad.

someguydude said:

  FWIW the X1 used to sell for $500 and now they're going for less than half that even before the X2 was made public. I love mine but there is noooooooo way I'd have dropped $500 on them. 
 
Do they color the sound? Of course. I don't get why that's bad.

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Me generally would like to listen to the material as the artist intended it to be. Not with Mega Bass or Mega trebel but just as it was intended. But yes, all speakers and headphones will color the material in some way just as TV sets do. But again in diffrent extent. For us(me and gf) the X1 just muffled the sound way to much to be realistic and it was a big diffrence between the other headphones/speekers that we compared(this speeks for more coloring).
 
I have however notice that its not always easy to compare sound if its not a side by side compare. A sound may sound clear in a stand alone test but while testing it side by side it could turn muffled. That is my experions since my side by side and stand alone tests.
 
If the sound differs a lot it will be shown even in a stand alone test. While listening to the X1 for a couple of hours I often notice how much detail was lost in the upper region.
 
Heavy colord sound my be more appealing to some, i get that, but lets put it short, the X1 is everything but audiophile headphones.

It's all relative. I'm not sure about US prices for comparable HP's but when I bought my X1 two years ago the HD6xx/K701 which I had bought earlier would have been around £290. I personally think the X1's were more competent and so I would have ponied up ~£400 for them if I had to.
 
Now, I see those same flagships are ~£210 and over here in the UK the X2 is £300 which I think is fair. The new K712 is in the same bracket and the HD700 1.5x more. I may get a chance to try them hopefully but doubtful as there is something about their house sound that irks me. If, however, they or any other HP for that matter in similar price bracket were more capable then my stance would change.

Been re-reading this thread as I work on my review. 
 
Just wanted to say that while the sonic differences between the X1 and X2 are somewhat subtle, they're also very well targeted and the sonic upgrade is significant in my view as a result.
 
I also want to say that I'm getting quite a lesson with this comparison, the X2 measurements look worse in some ways, to my eyes. But to my ears it's quite a bit better.
I had an email convo with the engineer of the X2 and there are numerous internal differences with the X2 that according to him were subtle improvements towards their evolving understanding of what the headphone target curve should be. I guess my point here is that I'm learning that to get something right for headphones, you don't end up with something that's necessarily elegant looking. The ear, human hearing system, and the complications of coupling to it artificially with a headphone and trying to make it sound natural is horrifically difficult. As a result, the solution as seen in measurements is very complex. 
 
Anyhow, it's been really interesting for me to look at the measurements of the two and see the X1 as having cleaner measured response, and then listening to the X2 with clearly better sound has messed with my mind....in a good way. 
 
When things start getting close to sounding good, you have to be VERY knowledgable to have the measurements remain meaningful.
 
Funny thing is, it's not just the X1---the New P5 and Thinksound On1 don't measure particularly well, but they sound pretty good.
 
Anyway, the lesson for me is not only do measurements not tell you everything, but you have to be way more expert than you think you need to be to understand them. 
 
Your ears remain the best judge.

 
Your ears remain the best judge.

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and plus THD+N

Sounds tantalising and await your review.
 
I've never given too much weight, if any at all, to FR curves as they don't always paint a true picture of the HP's sonic balance but more importantly never account for intangibles (e.g, spatial qualities or energy etc) that add extra elements to perception of sound.