Hello to all. I am from Austria, so please excuse any grammer errors and my not that excellent English in general. I own the X1 for three weeks now and I am stunned. They are amazing and in my opinion will go down as the reference of their price range.
I am no adiophile, but I like good sound. Besides the Philips X1, I own the Beyerdynamic DT990 Premium, the Sennheiser HD-650 and the AKG K-701. I also have listend to the Beyer T-90, the Senn HD-800, the AKG K-712, the Grado SR-325is, Hifiman HE-500 and some of the higher priced Denons. I will only compare the X1 to the phones I own though, as it would not be fair to make comparisons with cans I can ony judge from memory.
First thing I want to mention: As with all top-notch cans, the Fidelio need a good burn-in. They sound okay out of the box, but give them a few weeks of work and they will really start to shine. I thought them to be great from the get go, but now, three weeks after I purchased them, they open up, the sounstage widens and they become incredible detailed too. They are not only lovely warm and "musical", but they show me stuff I never had heared with my other cans.
In short: In my opinion, the X1 are easily as good as the DT990 and the HD-650 and better than the K-701. The AKG are generally not my cup of tea, they are too liveless and cold to my ears. The X1 mange a powerfull bass presentation while not letting the bass leak all over the place and without neglecting the mids and treble. In fact, the Philips give the best mix of soundstage, bass, mids and highs I ever heard in headphones in that price range, and really far beyond it. Of course many will not like to hear that, but I think the X1 really should be compared to models costing from 500 Dollar upward, as it playes in the league of the Beyer T-90, The Senns HD-800, Hifiman HE-500 and several top Grados.
But returning to the price range I´d say that to my ears, the best two are the Beyer DT-990 and the Philips X1. For my tastes, the Sennheister HD-650 is a bit too laid back and too dark, while the AKG sound way to cold and dead. The DTs have lovely mids, a thing that sets them apart from many other cans and the reason why I will still give them some "screen time" on my ears. But the X1 are overall a much better package. Incredible value for the buck. Downsides? well of course the pads are not replaceble, and that sucks, but on the other hand, I never replaced any pads before on any other headphones, so I am positive I can go with the standard.pads here and be happy for several years. And yes, at first listen, some might find the bass a bit too much, but as I said, give them some burn-in time, and you´ll expierence a much more balanced sound.
