Just wanted to share this:
I bought a pair of the Philips Fidelio x2, and received them Saturday, and have been burning them in ever since.
Not very impressed with their sonics at first...
Boomy bass, recessed mids, and sort of uneven, or even "scratchy" sounding treble out of the box, but the impressive soundstaging, bass power, openness, build quality, and comfort were too impressive to just give up on them, so I decided to burn them in...
MUCH BETTER last night.
The bass boominess has subsided substantially, the mids are more forward, and the highs have really improved. They have also opened up even more, and the sound is overall stunning.
These are extremely impressive headphones! These are keepers for sure.
They do a few things better than my HD600/650 headphones.
Deeper and more defined sub bass without a doubt, better, and wider soundstage, better treble extension than HD650. Very lively and open sounding. Not boring at all.
They sort of remind me of a HD650 on steroids. Lol.
I'm still keeping the HD650, cause I love their instrumental tone, and lack of grain in the treble, plus I am getting a Schiit Valhalla 2 to drive them with, and have Stefan Audio Art E-Series cable for them on order.
Another thing...to my own ears, even though I love the overall sonic signature and overall naturalness of the HD600, I find a slightly annoying peakiness between 3k and 4k, and their sub bass leaves a little to be desired.
The X2 sounds smoother and better balanced in the 3k to 4k region than the 600, and has substantially more extended and powerful bass, and more impressive soundstaging, imho.
Contrary to others, I feel that the 600 actually has a grainier and fuzzier sounding treble than the x2, even though the 600 has just as good, or maybe even slightly better extension in the very top octave?
I also bought a pair of HD800's about a month ago, used them for about a week, but returned them, due to their "hotness" around 6khz, and slight lack of musicality. They also seemed to have some sort of phasing issue that I cannot quite put my finger on.
Don't get me wrong, they did some things really spectacular such as soundstaging, detail retrieval, sense of scale, and image seperation, but I could not live with their other slight flaws, nor the fact that I paid almost $1,500.00 for them. Way too steep, imho.
I also tryed out a touring pair of HiFiman HE-560's, and in the past, a pair of Audeze LCD v.2, as well. I loved their sound, and their supreme bass extension and power, but there is something about planar magnetics that doesn't suit my tastes as well as dynamic drivers do.
The planars seem to suffer from some slight dynamic compression, sort of diffuse sound, and/or something else that is slightly amiss to my own ears, and personal tastes compared to the dynamic drivers.
I actually personally prefer the X2 overall to the HD800, HD600, LCD 2 v.2, and HE-560 by a small margin.
The HD650 and X2 are a virtual toss up to me, but I am currently reaching for the X2 more often!
The X2 isn't perfect by any stretch, the treble region can sometimes, (very rarely), sound a touch artificial, not quite refined as I would consider ideal, there seems to be a slight midrange depression, and sometimes seems to lacks ultimate extension on top, but I do believe that overall, they do suit my own sonic tastes to almost a T, and their strengths more than outweigh their slight flaws to my ears.
I honestly feel that they are at least 90% as good as the top tier headphones I have tried, no joke.
They are also very well built, solid, easy to drive,and very comfortable.
If Philips ever decides to do an all out assault and research and develop a true top end headphone, Sennheiser, Audeze, Beyer, AKG, and others better be ready!
I would recommend these without hesitation, but they do need alittle burn in to start sounding their best.
Don't give up on them!
