[cute]

 

  I think I look quite cool wearing X2s. Maybe we should all post pictures wearing them? 

 
 
 

 
I'm jealous, you got the full helmet version of the X2!

 

[Hi 5]

And you should be!!
 

 
The NEW
 
Philips Fidelio HF-X2
 
Head-Fi Exclusive - Limited run Custom made - Full Helmet HeadPhones!
 
A Sonic Blast of comfort and clarity!
 

 

[Baycode]

Nice shot dude. I hope you dont cover your ears with that beanie, because it will definately decrease clarity. BTW, I was expecting a photo from obsidyen too (owner of the idea

 

[Hi 5]

Nice shot dude. I hope you dont cover your ears with that beanie, because it will definately decrease clarity. BTW, I was expecting a photo from @obsidyen too (owner of the idea

Naa =) Just wore them over the beanie once around town.
 
Although I do wear a few of my other HP quite regularly over a beanie like the Senn HD8 DJ - ATH PRO700MKII - JBL S500
 
With those I just crank up the volume and EQ the treble if need be.
 
Here in northern UT its rather cold outside. So some sacrifice in sound quality for on the go music is worth it for me =)
 
Appreciate the kind words!
 
I agree.  @obsidyen we are waiting..

 

[obsidyen]

...

 

[Fluffy Muffinz]

DWI digital is selling the AKG K712PRO's on Ebay for AU$$318
 
I wouldn't usually buy from DWI Digital but I trust buying through Ebay than through their official website
 
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BRAND-NEW-SALE-AKG-K712-PRO-REFERENCE-STUDIO-HEADPHONES-/221477744052
 
is it worth it over the X2's which will cost me around $375 through amazon? 

 

[DeadMan]

Please delete this post. See quote below.

 

[DeadMan]

  OK so I just exchanged mine with Amazon and the new pair is sounding much better. Seems like there are duds. Though I still get a weird faint hiss in my right ear when a specific drum hits or a cymbal like sound occurs. Anyone else have this sort of issue? I'm beginning to think that there's something wrong with my right ear. I can flip the headphone around (Left ear to right earcup) and not hear the sound in either ear, though the X2 drivers are tilted so flipping the headphone doesn't exactly reverse the sounds.

 
Do you get this on any other headphones? If so then you may have some hearing damage or just general loss of hearing in the upper frequencies (age?). I have damaged hearing myself (also constant tinnitus) and I find high frequencies tend to sound grainy/fizzy/sibilant. and mids can be painful if too pronounced. Thankfully the X2's mids are not too overpowering. If worried see an ENT.

 

[KFHph]

If I really strain I can hear it on my K545s. Really pronounced mids hurt too on these headphones; haven't had this issue before. I saw an ENT early-mid last year because I had tinnitus in my right ear and I had no hearing loss (I'm relatively young).

 

[DeadMan]

  If I really strain I can hear it on my K545s. Really pronounced mids hurt too on these headphones; haven't had this issue before. I saw an ENT early-mid last year because I had tinnitus in my right ear and I had no hearing loss (I'm relatively young).

 
Yeah my tinnitus is in my left ear mainly and it's the left ear that gives me the most trouble with distorted sound. If you have tinnitus it's hearing damage regardless of what the ENT graphs say. Basically it's efferent noise caused by hair like structures in the inner ear being flattened. They never recover. Some forms of tinnitus can be caused by certain drugs (usually temporary though) and of course there is 'brain' tinnitus meaning the phantoms sounds originate further up the audio pathway. They are still trying after many years of under funded research to understand it. No cure is forthcoming since everyone's tinnitus is different and caused by differing factors.

 

[KFHph]

Yeah some people have mentioned that the X2 may be sibilant. I get a weird soft "sst" on drums and cymbals but that is ignorable. What hurts are when female vocals make a "eeeee/iiiiiii" sound. I'll burn them in a bit more and after that if it's still painful I'll email Amazon and see if they will accept a return for a replacement and maybe go for a HD600.

 

[Rave77]

X2 aint sibilant.

 

[KFHph]

I mean I sometimes get pain. and if you look at the freq response chart theres a 7 db hump at the 3-5k range, opposed to what i'm coming from, the k545, which has roughly a -6 in that range

 

[Hifivoice]

  X2 aint sibilant.

Maybe sharp is a better word, treble is certainly lifted for the X2, (female) vocals always have an hiss with the X2, which is unnatural. Furthermore there is some "splashy" sound character when it comes to cymbals. 
 
 
My hypothesis is that when you tune a headphone to the "right amount of treble" (it will vary for individuals die to the shape of ears), on the attack it will sound good, but when decaying it will sound a bit muffled. When you want your treble to decay nicely, the only way to do it seems to lift the treble as compared to the low and mid, which makes the sound during attack sound sharp. So far, I have always heard this trade-off in headphones, and not so much with loudspeakers.
 
I suspect it has to do with how we perceive direct versus reverbant sound. In a concert hall a violin can sound very airy, but if you listen carefully you can hear that the airy sound comes mostly from the reflections. When you have a microphone that only captures one point of the sound field, and not like our ear that captures the direction (all the phase differences) of the direct and reverb sound, you loose that information. By lifting the treble in a headphone (or speaker) you get some of this airy and spacey sound back, but at the expense of a affected frequency curve. There is no "golden" or reference tuning, there is mainly preference. 
 
The thing that is obvious from measurements, is that the X2 has an unnatural lift at specific frequencies (e.g. 9kHz), which can explain why it triggers some tinnitus. When I equalize it with -4dB at that point, the headphone starts to sound more acceptable timbre wise, though at the expense of spatial imaging. 

 

[Prolificaudio]

Dude are you in Logan?? Is this my clone brother??