[waynes world]

  Yo gents,
 
Well I caved in and bought a pair of X1's with my tax returns. I can't wait to get them tomorrow! I really don't have an very warm/fun headphones

 
You got one now! 

 I find the X1's very addictive, especially for electronic music and trance.

 

[Zombie_X]

Hey,
 
We'll see I hope they are as good as everyone says.

 

[saer]

Picked up a pair of these last night from someone local for $175 basically brand new with the intention of only using them for gaming/movies but I just plugged them into my Lyr just for the hell of it, not expecting at all to find myself thinking "wow.." 

 and I have LCD-2, LCD-3, LCD-X and T1.
 
Very happy with the purchase thus far and can't wait until they are fully burned in. I've already ordered http://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-BoomPro-Gaming-Headset-Headphone/dp/B00BJ17WKK to use for mic duties when gaming.
 
Does anyone know if these could be recabled for balanced connection ? Would love to see what they sound like from my Mjolnir.

 

[FatalSylence]

  Picked up a pair of these last night from someone local for $175 basically brand new with the intention of only using them for gaming/movies but I just plugged them into my Lyr just for the hell of it, not expecting at all to find myself thinking "wow.." 

 and I have LCD-2, LCD-3, LCD-X and T1.
 
Very happy with the purchase thus far and can't wait until they are fully burned in. I've already ordered http://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-BoomPro-Gaming-Headset-Headphone/dp/B00BJ17WKK to use for mic duties when gaming.
 
Does anyone know if these could be recabled for balanced connection ? Would love to see what they sound like from my Mjolnir.

I have that exact same setup with the V-MODA microphone and it works so well! I love these headphones to death.

 

[TiTaN]

 
I have that exact same setup with the V-MODA microphone and it works so well! I love these headphones to death.

Me too on all accounts. Still upset I first learned of these 6 days after the $150 Amazon deal 

 

[Star2806]

I bought the Philips shp3000 for £28 and their sound signature is very like the X1 (from memory, I returned my X1's to the shop over a year ago).  Very flat and natural sounding but probably not quite as detailed as the Fidelios.  I'm pretty sure that the soundstage would be as big and the bass is equally as strong and dynamic. I did a review of them here: http://www.head-fi.org/products/philips-shp3000.  Actually I think that the X1's were more mellow in the mids than the shp3000 and at the time I returned them because I could not hear Hammond organ solos that brightly.  Considering the price, I was not happy.  Still, the X1's were great at detail and airy sounding.

 

[gr34td3str0y3r]

Day 1 review: 
Disclaimer: I am still VERY new to head-fi and audiophilism, and audiophile terminology, so this will be a very noob impression. Not to mention my ODAC seems to have **** out on me!!! (I am very angry about this... seems to be a driver PC issue. Works on windows sound, but no programs will work, only top 1/3 of frequencies seems to go through ODAC. JDSlabs says they have never encountered this problem before....)
 
WAS running Foobar, ODAC, O2 amp (flac) 
Currently running Iphone5/Ps4 with (old gen) AstroMix amp. 
Past experience includes v-moda vibrato (IEM), astro a-40, and v-moda m-100.  
 
I knew the X1s were gorgeous so I am just going to skip that for now. 
 
First impressions. After putting the X1s on for the first time I give a perfect 10 for comfort. I have them on right now and honestly can't even feel them. The moment I put them on was a 10. Hours and hours later I still give them a perfect 10. The A-40s are actually pretty comfortable, but I have had them for over 4 years and worn them for literally thousands of hours so I am used to them. I would rank them a 8.5 or 9 for comfort. The X1s still easily get a 10. Again keep in mind my pool of reference is limited, but I honestly couldn't imagine a lighter more comfortable over ear headphone. I REALLY like my m-100s, but comfort for the m-100s is probably a 7 on my scale. They just barely fit my ears and I am seriously thinking about forking out 20 more bucks for the xl pads, the m-100s have a very noticeable clamp. After hours of wear the m-100s do mash the ears a bit. The X1s just sit there like feathers on my ears. 
 
I want to jump to customer service really quickly. I was curious about Beyer's DT-770s still being produced since they are no longer on their website. I emailed Beyer and they got back to me in literally 2 hours (btw the 770s pros are still being made, but no longer offered direct from Beyer). My V-moda m-100 are already broken! I noticed a small plastic chip 32 days after purchase. I emailed them... No response... maybe I entered the wrong return email. I called them and I actually did get their 6star service. They told me to destroy them (cut the wires), send the pics and my address and they would send a new pair so I would not have to pay any shipping. I did so (I wanted to vomit, literally for destroying a 300 dollars set of cans for a chipped piece of plastic). I heard back from V-moda in 6 hours and they are shipping a new set to Japan for free. I emailed Phillips about the Fidelio X1s 5 days ago. Nothing. A lot of people are upset that you can not "user replace the earpiece". Well... That is not that big of deal, but when I emailed them about it, they only reply I got was that the headphone department does not accept emails and I had to call them. Well, I live in Japan (is Phillips going to accept collect 'cause they have no toll free international number). I have had my Astro a40s for over 4 years and the earpieces are fine. I am not going to let non-replaceable earpieces stop me from buying GREAT cans, but I think it is important to mention Philips less than stellar customer service (they make 75% of their cash from industrial and medical products, headphones are probably less than 1% of their business) 
 
I LOVE these headphones, but I want to cover the negative first because it doesn't take an audiophile to grasp this. I have had my a40s for over 4 years. I throw them on the couch. I throw them here and there. On the table. In my little cubby under the TV/PS4/AV set up. Plain and simple I toss my a40s around. They are plastic. I paid a lot of cash for these things. Especially with shipping to Japan. But I never really worried about them. They have held up GREAT. 
What about the M-100s? alright.... I am going to sound like a hypocrite because my m100s are busted but please read first: The m100s are durable! They have a tiny plastic ring around the earpiece that seems to be a weak spot. After talking to guys in the m100 thread on head-fi this seems to be a common problem (a fault from manufacturing NOT user) and on mine there is NO way it was due to an impact. 
I have slept with my m100s on my head 10 times or more. m-100s are just like v-moda says, built like a tank (minus the stupid tiny plastic ring they put on it)
What about the X1's? WOW! These things feel really fragile. I mean...I would never risk falling asleep with them on, I would never travel with them. To be honest I would never move them. If you ever plan to, you better keep their box as a case/moving box. Maybe its because they look more expensive than my m100s or a40s, but I don't think so. 
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I don't think the m-100s give you a 300 dollar sound, I think they give you a 300 dollar headphone which means a lot of things. I think the Fidelio X1 give you a BETTER sound but you are not going to get the extra cables, the 6 star service, the mobility, the durability, the customization option. 
My point is that the X1s may be fragile, but they are gorgeous and your cash is going to one thing only, the sound. 
 
 
Since my ODAC broke today, I only got about 1 hour with my X1s with a transparent set up (o2 and odac and flac). **** head-fi. For every album I feel like I re-discover I find another that sounds like crap and can hardly listen to again. 
This is where my audiophile terminology is going to break down, not make sense, or just be plain wrong, so please help me out it if can. 
I have read on head-fi and other places of people talking about the in your head headphone sound. I didn't understand. The m-100s were a MAJOR improvement over anything I had heard. It was not until I put the X1s on my ears that I understood. With the X1s it doesn't really sound like you have headphones on at all. More than 5 times (today) I have taken them off because I thought the sound was simutiosulty coming out of my speakers and I cant have that because I live next to an old bag who would love to complain about that. When they say OPEN headphones they really mean open. There are times I could swear the sound was coming from speakers. 
Are they better than the m-100s? Good question! 
(As a noob) I feel like they are more of a lateral change in terms of sound. I am not audiophile enough to tell you if the mids roll off or the bass sneaks in the to the mids. From what I can hear I haven't heard any frequency spikes. And I think most audiophile, more informed than me, would say the same. ATM my m100s are dead, but I think they might actually be little more bassy. Head-fi has a 2013 buyers guide and I think they list the X1s as one of bassiest cans out there, but I think my m100s might have had more bass than x1s. People on head-fi have said that the x1s have the really smooth sound. It may all be in my head but I think the x1s probably do sound more "round" than the m100s. BUT any spikes that I have heard with m100s are not that bad, and FAR better than any headphones or IEMs I have ever heard. I have heard a lot people throw around the term "fun". I think the m100s might actually be more "fun" than the X1s. Not better or worse. 
 
Okay. I seriously just tried to walk to the fridge with my X1s on. I honestly forget they were on my head. Thats a good sign for comferbitly
 
Its time for me to go to bed. My final thoughts if these make sense. The X1s sound amazingly "airy". The sound seems so spread out. 
Gaming: I bought the X1s mostly for gaming with my astromix amp so I wouldn't have to haul my m100s back and forth every single day.... I think... maybe my m100 may actually be better gaming cans and x1s better at music. BUT I bought my odac and 02 amp for work which I need some closed cans for. The m100s are fine for work. 
 
OH! BTW. I know everyone says you don't "need" amping for these low impedance cans. Whatever... that may be true. For the m100s my O2 amp definitely added some punch to its sound. 
The X1s are even lower impedance, but I swear that my O2 amp made a much bigger difference on them. disclaimer I didn't get much time with my o2 odac set up before my odac started to **** up. ALSO I know impedance isn't the only factor, sensitivity is also. Anyway I felt that while the m100 responded slightly to the ODAC and O2 set up, I felt that the X! responded slightly more. 
 
Edit1: (I knew I forgot something) No fatigue. I never really thought I got headphone fatigue 'cause sometimes I would seriously be on my A40s for 10+ hours on weekends, but after 7 straight hours on my x1s, THIS is no fatigue. I love my m100s, but they totally fatigue my ears after LONG (4+ hours) periods. 
 
edit2: I have more to say about the sound, which I suppose most of you would rather read about, but I am hesitant because I don't know how to adequately compare and describe it. (and yes I have the terminology guide on head-fi)
 
edit3: forgot to mention. I have been using v-moda cables exclusively. I read the phillips cables leave much to be desired (very high impedance) and I have not even bothered to removed them from the box. 

 

[CoiL]

 
I've heard bad things about the stock cable, which is a shame because it's quite handsome.  It's black, 9 feet long, and is of the braided variety.  It terminates into an attractive 1/4" plug (a 1/8" adapter is included).  The microphonics on the cable are surprisingly loud, although I don't care, as I would never walk around outside with an X1.  People say you should replace the stock cable in order to improve the damping factor a little (due to high resistance in the stock cable).  I measured the stock cable's resistance and got 1.8 ohms, which is on the high side.  It's easy to replace the cable as it simply connects via a 3.5mm jack on the left ear cup (speaking of which, I'd recommended taking extra care not to accidentally damage that earcup jack).  If you do decide to replace the cable, I recommend NOT going crazy and instead just getting an inexpensive one.  The Monoprice "mobile" 3.5mm cables are a good option.  I've measured the 6 foot version to have a low 0.4 ohm resistance and it's attractive, comes in multiple sizes, and is dirt cheap.  The Mediabridge 3.5mm cables are basically the same just in a different color.  You also shouldn't expect that much to change when replacing the cable.  We're talking about a VERY small difference in the sound here.   These are CABLES after all!  I just don't want people to get out of hand and start chasing different cables, suddenly hearing all kinds of subtle placebo-ish differences in their X1.  My advice is to just get a solid $5-10 cable to avoid the stock cable's resistance issues, then forget about cables and just use the damn headphone.

 
Updating this thread also with cable information:
 

  Just received my X1s yesterday. The first thing I did was check the resistance of the stock cable. I have the V-Moda cable from my M100s to use as a reference. Rather than blindly follow what Tyll said, I decided to measure the cable resistance using my trusty DMM myself. Here's what I found:
 
Stock Cable:
ground to ground  - 0.8 ohms
ground to terminal 1 loop - 1.5 ohms
ground to terminal 2 loop - 1.7 ohms
ground - terminal 1 through left driver - 33.5 ohms
ground - terminal 2 through right driver - 34 ohms
 
V-Moda cable
ground to ground  - 0.6 ohms
ground to terminal 1 loop - 1.4 ohms
ground to terminal 2 loop - 1.8 ohms
ground - terminal 1 through left driver - 33 ohms
ground - terminal 2 through right driver - 34.5 ohms
 
From my findings, clearly, there is little to no difference between the resistance of the stock cable and the cable from V-Moda. I'm not sure if Tyll got an early production unit of the X1s or if I'm just lucky or if Philips has changed the cables on recent models. As for sonic differences, there are none, both through my ODAC+O2 combo and through my ODAC+WA3 combo.
 
I would suggest you carry out your own tests on the cables and see what you find. Just remember to subtract the lead resistance from your readings. For example, while measuring the ground to ground resistance, I got a reading of 1.8 ohm. The resistance of the leads is 1 ohm in series with 0.8 ohms of the cable. So the actual resistance of just the cable is 1.8 - 1 = 0.8 ohms.
 
Hope this helps.

 

  Bought it from forum member conquerator2 but I have documents and purchase date is 05-12-2013 and according to Philips webpage it`s manufactured in 2012 
(it actually says presented in 2012).
 
I took out X1 box again and measured stock cable again:
 
ground to terminal 1 through left driver - 35.1
ground to terminal 2 through right driver - 35.8
ground to ground = 2.4
terminal 1 to terminal 1 (right channel) = 2.4
terminal 2 to terminal 2 (left channel) = 2.5
 
 
I changed it to self-made Van Damme Pro Grade Classic XKE Pro-Patch cable (smaller OD), terminated with Neutrik Rean gold 3.5mm and Neutrik 6.35mm jacks.
 
ground to terminal 1 through left driver - 31.9
ground to terminal 2 through right driver - 32.5
ground to ground = 0.8
terminal 1 to terminal 1 (right channel) = 0.9
terminal 2 to terminal 2 (left channel) = 1.0
 
 
Difference between cables:
 
ground to terminal 1 through left driver = 3.2 
ground to terminal 2 through right driver = 3.3
ground to ground = 1.6
terminal 1 to terminal 1 (right channel) = 1.5
terminal 2 to terminal 2 (left channel) = 1.5
 
 
I`m trusting my ears

 

Maybe that's why some people report hearing differences while others don't. I don't know the exact manufacturing date of my headphones either but I bought I last week and it arrived yesterday. Someone who recently purchased the headphones should send in their measurements. Maybe there actually a difference in newer batches.

 
Personally I DO hear noticeable difference between stock and custom cable. I`m also thinking that there are older/earlier/different batches or with possibly different quality cable being used.
 

And to those who think X1 does not sound so good with rock/metal/progressive music, then I can tell from my experience that X1`s need suitable source/amplification to sound good with these genres. I`m using Aune T1 and at first I was also little disappointed by X1 with those genres but luckily I can change tubes (buffer) and I found good matching tube that "fixes" the "problem". X1 has tremendous ∩-shaped soundstage with deep foward depth and that`s what is "causing problems" with those rock/metal/progressive (not with everything) - it sounds too distant and listener is too separated from music. I still have about 60 tubes to roll and atm I`m using JAN Sylvania 6922 (82219 EAD 7002, US, green label) tube which brings vocals closer and bumps littlebit mids (imho X1 mids are not recessed, just neutral and distant), also instruments (guitars) are more pulled "back" to your head sides (creating more back-depth) and separation/transparency also becomes better. All that sums up as mix-up between intimate inside-head and large hall-like soundstage - a really enjoyable result.

 

[chartz]

Hi,
 
Mine measures 2.8 ohms, L, R and GND.

 

[CoiL]

That`s high. I`m not sure if You personally are able to make difference with better low-impedance cable but I recommend to change it for better one.

 

[detlev24]

hi there,
 
THX for the nice review and many good comments!
 
i will buy a X1 but i am not sure yet how to power it. i am looking for a (preferably warm sounding) USB-DAC incl. headphone amplifier and the possibility to attach (active) studio monitors (e.g., ELAC AM 180).
 
software will be windows 8.1 (x64) + foobar2000 + WASAPI output plugin.
 
so my first thougt was an ASUS Xonar Essence STU or the TEAC UD-H01, since i cannot afford to spend a fortune and both I could get for about the same price (the Xonar Essence One is too expensive).
 
did anyone test the X1 on those two USB-DACs and what is your recommendation? or maybe a different model sounds/suits better?
 
thanks a lot!

 

[CoiL]

I created post about stock & upgrade cable measurements & how to measure in another X1 thread that I will be updating for some time with new user measurements/impressions: 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/623013/new-philips-fidelio-x1/4320#post_10475263
 
As been seen, cable quality is very vary and needs to be measured to see if cable upgrade will be useful.

 

[Voltmod]

I like the stock cable a ton, it's sexy as hell and is really light and comfortable if it has to touch an arm while positioned. The shielding material is great too.

My vmoda BoomPro gets here Monday so I'll have to change anyways and will report back then. I don't really see how a cable could make a huge difference. As someone stayed earlier in this thread, it seems like Philips made this cable for a reason... I wonder.

Has anyone officially contacted Philips about this?

 

[CoiL]

I doubt that they actually made cable specially with that high impedance since cable quality and impedance is very vary. Some ppl hear difference clearly, some don`t. Maybe because impedance differences on stock cable or maybe setup/source/amping is different. I can make clear difference between stock and custom cable and those impedance readings also confirm my ears. With stock cable my X1 is more "warm" and "muddy" and bass is little looser. Since X1 is anyway already warm-sounding I see no sense using stock cable making even more "warm".
 
Waiting for Your impedance results so I could post them

 

[chartz]

I like the stock cable a ton, it's sexy as hell and is really light and comfortable if it has to touch an arm while positioned. The shielding material is great too.

My vmoda BoomPro gets here Monday so I'll have to change anyways and will report back then. I don't really see how a cable could make a huge difference. As someone stayed earlier in this thread, it seems like Philips made this cable for a reason... I wonder.

Has anyone officially contacted Philips about this?

I suggest you ask your other half to plug any cable and put the phones on your head herself, then swap cables (or not !) and see what happens!