Hi All,
Just bought my new spanking new pair of HP150s and thought I'd write my impressions on where I found out the most info originally - these are just my opinions though from a music enthusiast but definitely not an audiophile junkie yet - All played from a FIIO X-1 (which I love btw) - spoiler alert, I didn't end up liking these
So, first off I really like the feel of the headphones, the new paintjob and style is a lot nicer than what the HP100 looked like. The whole thing is seems quite rugged, despite the much talked about hinges, but honestly I can't see myself moving that about too much anyway.
The cans fit nicely over my ears and are generally comfortable thanks to the padding all around and extra padding on the inside of the cups themselves. The stuff it comes with, case, extender cable, adapters etc. are all a nice addition as well as the gold plated connectors.
HOWEVER,
I personally don't really enjoy what the soundmagics are putting out in terms of sound. So to give some perspective, I don't own 100 pairs of headphones and can compare them all, I had a pair of In-ear Isport victorys which I think sound pretty good on the whole despite the slight lack of sound stage, but they are IEMs afterall...previously had a couple of pairs of random in-ears, Bose soundtrue Over-ear and a few other random over-ears. This was my first pair of "okay I want good over ears now".
So I'll describe what I hear and why I personally don't like it, but maybe you might.
The sound generally IS good, it reproduces sound sensitively, especially when you have low frequency base ramping up and you feel it all the way, its great. So the low frequency range is there and gives much a decent punch when needed, but for me if you wanted to listen to something bass heavy expecting to be really hyped up, this doesn't really deliver for me, but of course it's not designed to be a bass thumping pair of headphones...fine.
Then I'll jump to treble. Sounds are crisp, you can really focus and distinguish cymbals, highhats, anything short and sweet sounds good.
But where I have problems with being super happy with my new purchase is the midrange and generally how the music "comes together".
This is why I disclosed my history of mainly in-ear, I feel that years of mainly relying on my Isport victory's have distorted how I might imagine music. But generally I try and imagine what I want my headphones to sound like vs. having a perfect speaker system setup.
Anyway, I generally find vocals just slightly "off", it's hard to describe, because generally vocals sound okay, especially when I fiddle around with the EQ. But it just feels like the vocals are just on the other side of a thin web and just isn't as clear or upfront as I'd want it to be. From imagine dragons, to avicii, eminem, the eagles and Jess Glynne (who is very vocal oriented) - all flac just to be sure - I can't quite get the AHhhhh sensation of the vocals being just perfect that I imagined I'd get.
Partially because of this vocal midrange business I feel like the top and bottom frequency ranges sounds good if you focused on them but I just found the HP150s didn't quite bring it all together, it feels like I'm listening to 3 different parts of one track if that makes sense. I've given it a few days but just couldn't quite feel fully relaxed and enjoy the sound coming from the phones.
So overall, the sound IS good, highs are clean, lows aren't overpowering, but just the middle, I just can't quite sit back and think, man this is perfect.
This is one of my first review replies so please do comment if you agree or disagree. I'd also be really happy to hear any suggestions about alternative pairs of headphones I could get, I remember not liking the B&O H6s or 7s, but feeling good with the H8s, but obviously I'm paying a lot more for that. So is it a price issue, a not being a headphones guy issue or just the HP150s aren't the right pair for me?
Thanks for reading if you did!
