Philips SHP3000

Build quality
 
Very light with light to medium clamping force, soft pleather cushioning makes for very comfortable wearing for long periods.  Ratchet mechanism is strong and precise for adjusting the headband.  Earcups swivel up, down, left and right.  The lead is a generous 3 meters long. 
 
Sound quality
 
The bass is dynamic to be heard very fully when needed and also it extends quite deep.  Punchiness is average.  Mids are mellow, reproducing vocals quite flat, but not too veiled to spoil the listening experience.  Chocolate-like is another way to describe the mids!  Mids to treble onwards has a linear flat sound signature, so that cymbals are very accurately reproduced, there are no upper-mid/treble spikes at all, unlike many headphones that have an upper-mid emphasis.  Upper treble is very pleasing and sparkly.  Soundstage is very elegant and wide, for example, panned reverbs and echoes of guitars on Pink Floyd's Pulse album are quite detailed, compared to the Philips uptown.  This is due to the semi-open design compared to the uptowns closed design.  Instrument separation is very good.
 
To summarize, the Philips shp3000 have a similar sound signature to the Philips fidelio x1, especially the mids.  Perhaps you could call them 'the poor man's fidelio x1', except maybe there is not quite as much detail retrieval.  Having come from the bright sounding Philips hp890, I had to adjust to the mellow mids; Indeed, the mids are slightly less pronounced than the Philips uptown as well as the treble and bass quantity, very slightly so.  These have now replaced my Philips hp890 because the mids are less harsh and the soundstage is almost as wide.  Sound signature is just perfect when listening to Men At Work's album 'Business As Usual' or Neil Ardley's 'Harmony Of The Spheres'.  The only downside of these headphones is that not everyone might like the mellow mids - vocals and some guitars do not shine too well although it makes for a non-fatiguing listen.  That's not to say that the mids are veiled, just chocolate-like.  Amazing value at £28 from amazon uk, surely they compete with headphones costing 4 times the price!