[yifuhood]

Yeah, X1 benefits quite a lot from neutral sided DAC and powrful amping (be careful not to exceed 500mA with these).


Here is Your pic:

thank you CoiL

 

[yifuhood]

the X1 is more of a semi open hp. it use the cup air pressure to achieve its sound body, but still , open back allow the drivers free movement. but the air pressure of the bass some times vibrate the cup and other sound echo around in the cup acoustic chamber which make it little loose, little chaotic in busy music with high volume.

in any case , the sound of this headphone is unique in a good way. the Nighthawks is copying the cup acoustic chamber design of the L1, X1, but the cup is different material, thick, and better damping design for audio quest. I heard the Nighthawks, this headphone is warm dark, but very aggressive all in the same time. I personally think it is a driver designed for different headphone and mistake tuned, put together in a woofer like cup acoustic chamber. all miss take , make a unique result. I would not take the Nighthawk headphones as my very day use headphone, one should know what is right , and then you can go for different.

 

[CoiL]

@yifuhood have You changed Your X1 stock cable for better low-impedance one? If not, then measure it with multimeter and recommend to get 0.3-0.5 Ohm cable.

I haven`t had time to open my X1 cups again (which imho is quite easy) but I`m going to re-solder higher quality 3.5mm sockets to both cups and use separate grounding with 8-strand custom cable (silver-plated x4 (2 for G) + cu x4 (2 for G). Going to use HQ Neutrik jacks too.
Will post pics when done. Probably need to do custom socket "mountings" from wood onto cups too (at least to one).
.

 

[yifuhood]

yes ,i have many 3.5mm cable, to me they sound pretty much the same, right now, the X1 is with some long 3.5 to 3.5mm silver copper cable for the TV. cable will not do much difference, I can't tell is my head or is the cable ever made me feel different. But balanced cable and amp do make difference for high impedance balanced headphones.

 

[CoiL]

Well, I`m not here to debate over "cable-sound" - it`s pure physics and electronics - high impedance cable affects X1 sound. Some X1 stock cables are even high as 2.2Ohm (multimeter leads resistance subtracted), this is certainly way too high.
Take a look @ this post: http://www.head-fi.org/t/623013/new-philips-fidelio-x1/4320#post_10475263 ...and ppl impressions about using better cable.
It all depends of course about source gear output impedance, amping etc.
With some gear I have tried X1 stock vs. better cable, I didn`t notice such noticeable change.

 

[pyed]

Back to this thread after 5 years.

some water found its way into the right cup of my X1, and now it sounds weaker than the other side and it has this jammy noise -especially with base- it sounds like this.

Now I don't really think that this is fixable, I emailed Philips customer support asking for options but they haven't answered yet -been 3 days already- So I looked into opening up the right cup to look if there's something that I can do, as most of you know it is glued in so I ripped the glue and opened up 4 screws to end up with THIS then 3 screws in the back that holds a plastic ring - SEE HERE - that looks it does nothing, and I couldn't actually go any further into the driver, it looks like one piece that you need to break to look inside.

Is there something I should try ? or just give up and throw it away

 

[CoiL]

You can`t go further! Going further means breaking the driver. Seems Your driver voice coil has been damaged(oxidized/corroded maybe) and You can`t clean it.
Don`t throw them away - put them on sale here at head-fi as backup parts for working X1. Certainly someone wants it! Even I would take it depending on price in EU.

 

[pyed]

the problem with selling them for me is that shipping from my country to the EU or US would cost more than its current value, so I guess that's off the table, maybe someone here is willing to sell me their X1's right driver

Today I joined the Massdrop on their Sennheiser HD 6XX as a replacement, It got me excited to try a new pair of headphones, I guess my X1 will just go back to its box, forever.

 

[waynes world]

I guess my X1 will just go back to its box, forever.

 

[nintendoo]

Anyone tried this on classical music? How's it sound

 

[CoiL]

Anyone tried this on classical music? How's it sound

Not much fan of classical but sounds great imho. contrabass and low-fr instrument timbre is beautiful!

 

[yifuhood]

what classical, baroque ? or Shostakovich, solo and sonata , or symphony? x1 is not the 1st choice for classical. for symphony is ok. some opera are surprisingly good. but for piano and violin solo and concerto, missing air and clarity, too thick.

if you need a kick ass good headphone for classical go the Aeons , a cheaper one ? just get the HD6XX . The Nad viso hp50 is cheaper closed back , but still not bad at all.

X1 is good for general use not bad for anything. I like it for jazz,classcal is not bad(it is not like hd25 playing Mozart). wonderful for movies.

 

[CoiL]

...but for piano and violin solo and concerto, missing air and clarity, too thick.

Choosing "right" signature source (neutal/bass shy) and proper amping (around 500mA max) resolves that "issue".

 

[nintendoo]

Not much fan of classical but sounds great imho. contrabass and low-fr instrument timbre is beautiful!

I mostly listen to symphony, but low-fr is one of my favorite

 

[nintendoo]

what classical, baroque ? or Shostakovich, solo and sonata , or symphony? x1 is not the 1st choice for classical. for symphony is ok. some opera are surprisingly good. but for piano and violin solo and concerto, missing air and clarity, too thick.

if you need a kick ass good headphone for classical go the Aeons , a cheaper one ? just get the HD6XX . The Nad viso hp50 is cheaper closed back , but still not bad at all.

X1 is good for general use not bad for anything. I like it for jazz,classcal is not bad(it is not like hd25 playing Mozart). wonderful for movies.

Sounds like a budget choice for me, as I am using ATH A2000x mostly on symphony. Could the HD6series beat Audio Tech?