As planned and mentioned here, I took the Philips HP890 home with me for some initial testing, today. So here are my first impressions including direct comparisions to the beyerdynamic DT531 and the AKG K501 in sound quality as well as other aspects:
1.) The package is a neatly made cardboard box, that features a window behind an extra cardboard door, so you can have a look what's inside. The inside of that door sports a frequency response graph and a distortion over frequency graph as well as the other technical data & some additional information - nice! The box itself opens at the upper side - then you can take out the plastic innard, where the HP890 itself, the fully detachable cable (with mini- and micro-plug), the mini-to-regular phoneplug-apdater and the headphone stand rest in. Taking the phone itself out was fairly easy, but I had to fumble around a little in oder to open the cable binders that fix the cable to the plastic innard of the box (I didn't want to use more force than neccessary in order not to overbend the cable). All in all: Fine packaging, nicely designed.
2.) The looks of the HP890 seem to me like an oversized blend of a DT531, a K501 and a MDR-V700DJ (or whatever the exact name of this Sony is...) - I'd say it's a good mixture of classic and modern styling elements. The earcups are made of not cheap looking silvery plastic, each outside is covered with a large metal grill with round holes - similar both to the K501 and the DT531. The headband and clamp is a blend, too, because it has separate tilt and swivel joints like the DT531, but also sports an automatically adjusting headband like the K501. The inside of the huge marine blue velour covered earpads is slightly earshaped, not completely circular like on the K501 and DT531, and will accomodate ears up to 6 cm in heigth and 5 cm in width. The depth is around 2 cm - just like on the K501 and the DT531. All in all: Fine design and proper build quality.
So I plugged the micro-jack of the cable into the HP890, the srewable plug-adapter onto the mini-plug of the cable and was ready to go. I used Franky goes to Hollywood/Welcome to the Pleasuredome, as I know that cd quite well, but still on the old portable Sanyo cdp & Marantz PM510 integrated amp, because I didn't find the time to set up the new Marantz stuff I recently bought, yet.
3.) The comfort is really good in use, even though I had the impression before, that the complete design might be a little too microphonic, and that the headband might not be strong enough to prevent the earcups from hooking into the upper ends of my ears. But the potential problems turned out to be non-existant. All in all: A comfy person just like the K501 - but if one feels inclined to a modest form of head-banging from time to time, the tighter fitting DT531 will better stick to the head.
4.) And finally: Sound quality! Oh, yes, it's quality - even good quality. Considering 199 DM list price over here, it's in fact even very good sound quality - and a blend, again, because to me it seems to have all the desirable virtues of the K501 and the DT531 in a good mixture. It's more lively than the K501 and conveys both more bass extension and impact - reasons why I recently preferred the DT531. Nevertheless it's also more airy than the DT531 (with only a tad less detail), which might seem a little too bright for some. If I should compare that to speakers, I'd say the DT531 reminds me of some Backes & Müler active studio/hi-fi monitor speakers in near-field distance, whereas the HP890 reminds me of some good Canton speakers in a medium distance - and the K501 seems more like a little smaller English two-way bookshelf speaker (never unnerving & with good soundstage, but not enough impact and livelyness to get easily involved). All-in-all: I hadn't exspected that, but this Philips sounds really fine - maybe something that Neruda would like a lot.
I like it, too, and as I have to take this unit back to the office, I'll probaly buy one or two units for myself - at least, if I still like it after some more testing (that will also include direct SL-CT570A-connection) tomorrow.
All in a nutshell: Nicely designed and comfy full featured headphone with good build quality and fine hi-fi sound for an attractive price. Recommended! Maybe it's even a more-sound-for-the-buck alternative for Sennheiser lovers...
As usual, greetings from Munich - and my personal congratulations to Philips for this well made and surprisingly good product!
Manfred / lini
. As there is some time left for the mp3-player test, I'm going to take the HP890 home tomorrow for a bit more proper testing - just wanted to let you know...
I guess, I should definitely introduce him to Head-Fi - at least if you can stand another German madman like me...
