[Buddha]

Oh my goodness,
I was wondering when the "team" were going to show up...and look whats happened.

Mumrik... I believe your statement was made in a sense of "good humour".... however it is easily misinterpreted... and considering Tuberoller's quite sincere attempts at "offering the olive branch"
... somewhat inappropriate.

I am sure you will know the right thing to do...

 

[MacDEF]

RMSZero, very good comments. Actually, I think your comments and mine are very similar. I pretty much agree with your relative judgements on the three headphones.

 

[RMSzero]

Really? That's interesting, because I was frothing at the mouth as I read your comments!

Actually, what happened was that I reallized that I'm a newbie and tried to only talk about what I was certain I really heard, and I guess I was right about what I know and what I don't!

I think I need a signature . . .

 

[delenda est Sony]

Excellent review. MAcDEF, and very nice comparisonsm RMSZero!!

Tuberoller is indeed a good camper for his efforts to get the 890s reviewed by a broad range of listeners, including yours truly!

I look forward to getting these soon. I'll focus on comparing them to the Grado SR60s and 125s, and the Senn 497s, 280s, and 590s. This will give a broad range of cans costing from $60-$150 U.S. (I got a good deal on the 590s!

) Macs comments on the 580s/600s/V6 vis a vis the 890s seem pretty definitive, so I'll hit the cheaper end of the comparison spectrum.

At $28, everyone who could get them should buy em though!! It would be sad if Philips indeed does plan to get out of making phones. In truth. their models in Virgin do not seem to be selling well. Maybe they just plan to get out of the U.S. market???

Time will tell...

 

[VTV]

Well I got my HP890 at last. I got it from India through a friend of mine who paid $53 ($75 after including shipping charges) after a 10% discount from a Philips dealer.

I have logged about 30 hour on them so far. It is not a WOW at first hearing as I had expected it to be. But then I am seriouly handicapped in the sense that I listened exclusively off my Live Drive and my previous head-fi, hi-fi experience is not something to write home about. I guess I need a better source and more burn in before I can comment on these. However my initial impressions are:

1. Good build and look, but not what I would call extremely durable.

2. Good bass but go loose occassionally with lower frequencies.

3. Comfortable, they kind of evaporate from my head after a while. If it is warm, gets sweaty though.

4. Nice sound stage and positioning. They were enjoyable with DVD's and games. Binaural samples I played really conveyed the distance and direction and sounded amazing.

5. I can hear lot of details that I missed before, I can focus on individual instruments or vocals in a song.

6. Huge. I was prepared, but not for THIS huge

No way I can take this out.

7. Some music tend to sound too cold, a bit laid back. They have good overall sound, but with some music I feel something lacking. It is as if the whole sound doesn't come off to its potential (May be an amp or a better source will correct them).

8. Lots of my Mp3's will get the boot.

To sum it up all I was kind of expecting to be blown away, being a newbie and this being my first introduction to head-fi. But instead of a love at first sight it is more like a studied appreciation. I get a feeling something is lacking, may be I expected too much.

I do realize more pluses with each hearing, but this cans haven't fully conqured me. May be I am spoiled by my el cheapo audio history or my minimal audio 'system'. May be I may more prefer a more agressive Grado sound. I truly wish I could audition more phones. Or buy an Amp. Or a better source. A SR80? This place is evil, certainly

I should keep telling that to myself.

 

[Mumrik]

Quote:

Originally posted by MacDEF The 890 definitely have a warmer sound, but given that the KSC-35 are often described as being slightly warm, this is not necessarily better (i.e., they can come off as too warm). The KSC-35 have slightly clearer midrange and treble (which you might expect given much smaller drivers).

Mac, I agree with you on your first reply to Buddha; something is wrong here...
I just recieved my (3) KSC-35 and like it very much, they are however without a doubt warmer sounding than my HP890 is...



Oh yeah, as people have said already, you can in fact wear the HP890 over your KSC-35s

 

[xerx]

Oh, this is abit out of topic but I would like to know if anyone use an amp with their HP890. Please list down your amp model.

THanks

 

[hardwarenut]

Can anyone tell me where in Malaysia do the Phillips HP890 cost USD$28 dollars?

 

[allenultra]

u have to ask Xerx.
hardwarenut u from where?
xerx get it from distributor.

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mumrik Mac, I agree with you on your first reply to Buddha; something is wrong here... I just recieved my (3) KSC-35 and like it very much, they are however without a doubt warmer sounding than my HP890 is...

You know, I'm beginning to think it's because my pair of KSC-35 are quite old with a LOT of use... talk about burn-in!

Compared to a pair of newer KSC-50 I have, the 35 have *way* more detail.

 

[tktran]

Mumrik said:

Quote:

I realize that you and many of the Head-Fi'ers live in the U.S. and I'm not saying that you should post value comments relating to other parts of the world, but Head-Fi isn't purely American so a lot of people will be curious to hear what you think of them as $50-60 cans (and even $28 cans). Besides, unless you state so, many people who haven't read up on these threads might assume that $100 is more or less the standard international price...

So how about it MacDEF? As a US$60 pair of headphones, what do you think of the HP890?

 

[Driftwood]

great review MacDEF.

maybe it is because I have not heard any of the headphones mentioned in this thread, but I thought it was a pretty well thought out and fair review, and I think it did a good job in determining the relative (non-cost) value of these headphones.

I think that if we argue about price-performance value we will get nowhere. I think we should judge headphones based on sonic performance and allow each person to dermine based on this information a relative ranking of headphones, and as a result make headphone purchases based upon their own criteria of how much they feel each headphone would be worth and how much they can find them for.

It doesn't do me any good to hear that these are a great deal for $28. The HD-600 is also a good deal for $28, but I can't buy either at that price.

Driftwood

 

[tktran]

I can see your point of view Driftwood.

But also consider this.

In some countries the cost of entry into the world of headphones is very different. Here in Australia the entry level Grado SR60 costs an equivalent of US$100 and the Sennheiser HD495 is about US$135.

For anyone who's interested I can list a few more models and their respective prices, but it's easier (and just as accurate) to say that these brands cost up to 50% more than their US counterparts. And forget about "street prices"- there's no such thing as competitive pricing when only a handful of stores in the country stock the headphones eg. Grado.

Meanwhile Beyerdynamic headphones are cheaper than in the US. The DT 931 and DT 831 are 30% cheaper than even Headroom's already great (discounted) prices.

The DT 231, which some of us aren't familiar with, but are commented by Headroom as "A good inexpensive, closed headphone??? You bet!" represents even better value for money. Why? Because it's half the price here in Oz.

A lot of Headfellows praise the Sony V6/7506, and rightly so- they're great cans at a street price of US$80.

But would we praise them so if they were $160?

The tables have been turned...

PS. If I found HD600 for $28 shouldn't I let you know? I could send you a pair if you would pay for postage/shipping...

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by tktran So how about it MacDEF? As a US$60 pair of headphones, what do you think of the HP890?

All other things being equal? (I mean other headphones being the same price as they normally are.) I would say that if you like the particular sound of the 890, then for $60 they'd be a pretty good deal. They certainly have some of the best build quality of any sub-$100 headphone I've seen (the V6 is also very good, but more utilitarian and "throw-around"). And they do have fairly good sound. On the other hand, I could easily see someone liking the V6 more. Once I hear the HD497, I'll tell what I think of them compared to the 890, since they cost under $60.

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by Driftwood It doesn't do me any good to hear that these are a great deal for $28. The HD-600 is also a good deal for $28, but I can't buy either at that price.

LOL! Good point, Driftwood.