[Orlando Rincon]

thanks for your reply, when I got my x2 without knowing the gibson issue the first thing I noticed was that the bass was not that different from my HD598, very different from what I read on reviews before purchasing them, second thing I noticed was the soundstage, again very different from what I read on reviews and comparing it to the HD598, now I'm wondering if there is any difference between the 2014 gibsons and the 2015, I will be waiting for your comments after you get your new pair.

 

[LaCuffia]

That's interesting re your comparisons to the 598. Before I returned the X2 I did comparisons with my 598 and didn't think the x2 was all that much better. In fact I thought the 598 had more clarity in all areas not just treble.

 

[Hammy]

  thanks for your reply, when I got my x2 without knowing the gibson issue the first thing I noticed was that the bass was not that different from my HD598, very different from what I read on reviews before purchasing them, second thing I noticed was the soundstage, again very different from what I read on reviews and comparing it to the HD598, now I'm wondering if there is any difference between the 2014 gibsons and the 2015, I will be waiting for your comments after you get your new pair.

 

That's interesting re your comparisons to the 598. Before I returned the X2 I did comparisons with my 598 and didn't think the x2 was all that much better. In fact I thought the 598 had more clarity in all areas not just treble.

 
I agree with you guys, the X2 is more of a side-grade than a true upgrade to the HD598.  It's 598-like with more emphasis on the bass and less rolled off treble.  The 598 is more open, bigger soundstage, but feels less weighty (literally and sonically).  Still, I can see why you'd prefer the Senns for some types of music.
 
Currently tracking my third and probably final attempt at getting a decent pair of X2s - currently hovering over Germany at the moment with scheduled delivery for tomorrow.  Woop woop.  WOOX WOOX.

 

[Hammy]

So my 'special edition' Fid elio pair (Gibson) sound a lot better compared to my first Gibson pair.  I'm not sure I could A/B this pair with my WOOX pair.  The bottom line is that there doesn't seem to be any good or bad (Gibson/WOOX) pairs, per se, but rather some radical differences in each individual sample.  Three pairs for me, all sounding slightly/drastically different.
 
Related:
 

 
 
The most interesting thing I discovered tonight though is that my WOOX pair doesn't actually seem to have an imbalance in the driver.  I switched the Gibson pads onto my WOOX for the lulz and, lo and behold, they sounded very balanced.  I tinkered for a few hours swapping things around and the problem lies with the left pad on my WOOX pair - it blocks more frequencies (especially sub-bass) than all the others.  I checked by putting it over on the right side of both pairs and such, all different combinations, and the side it was on was always lower in volume.
 
All three pairs have had identical looking pads (to my eyes..) so I have no explanation as to why one particular pad could cause such an imbalance.  It's quite a revelation for me, as I never would have imagined a pad could change the sound so much.
 
On principal, I don't think I can keep my Fid elio pair, but I'm seriously considering keeping the swapped left pad for my WOOX pair.  Whichever one I send back is going to sound/look faulty in one way or another.
 
And now for something completely different..
 

 

[Orlando Rincon]

So it seems is just matter of luck, well, I just bought an old version from ebay, I really want to know for sure how different they are, I think this is the safest way, I will be selling one of them after I check, I will share my comments when I get my new/old pair.

 

[spdtdl]

Welcome to the X2 Lottery

 

[stingraybernard]

I recently bought a pair on amazon and my ear pads have 4 pins and the just snap on and off , never seen a pair glued on except the first release the x1

 

[K.T.]

I got my X2s a few weeks ago.
 
Got them fulfilled by Amazon, from a third party seller, with Prime shipping. So I guess that means they come from the Amazon warehouse just as if I had purchased them directly from Amazon?
 
I've been so busy I haven't opened them yet. And now I find out about this mess. I can't wait to get done with work so I can check them out.
 
All any of us want is to buy something knowing what we'll get. And good product quality, and a good price if possible. Certainly not a crapshoot, and a bunch of mental chaos trying to ultimately get what we signed up for.
 
Why does everything have to be so hard? Buying what's supposed to be a good pair of headphones should never be this stressful.
 
Shame on Philips for putting consumers through this fiasco. I think it's a real failure of the values any upstanding business should abide to.

 

[stingraybernard]

I never buy from third party sellers on Amazon ,, hope you have better luck

 

[K.T.]

Well, third party sellers aren't so bad if they are under the Amazon Prime umbrella. You get the same return privileges as if you had purchased directly from Amazon.

So I didn't know what to expect, having never owned an X2 and reading about all these issues.

Well, I got a Gibson distributed unit with the box dated 2014. There's also some info about Mexico printed on the box, though it says made in China. I don't know if that date means anything, or if it's just the printing date of the box.

Cosmetically, the headphones are pretty much as I expected. No real complaints.

It seems like a very high quality build, but don't have a WOOX unit to compare it to. The headband does have a glued on center strip, though it seems quite secure and I wouldn't have even noticed it had someone not mentioned the older style was different and, arguably, better. The pads are glued on, so I didn't mess with them.

Soundwise, they are also what I expected. They sound pretty great, actually. As good as I'd hope a brand new, not as yet broken in set of phones to sound. I'm very satisfied and will be happy if they break in the way others have described.

If there's anything to gripe about,the left side seems noticeable more open and airy than the right side. It's not a channel imbalance. Centered voices and sounds seem properly centered.

Rather, the soundstage on the left side seems really open and expansive while the right side seems more closed in. I hope this will work itself out with more burn in time. Or maybe it has something to do with the pads? I hope it works itself out.

I own HD600s, HD650s, HE400, HE500, HE400i, and a slew of other cans including a bunch of the better AKG models, and this sample of Gibson X2 is right on par with those. So as long as that soundstage thing works itself out, I can see this becoming one of my favorite cans.

BTW, I have a little of that ring issue on the left cup. It's mildly annoying, but hard to notice and easy to overlook.

What's happening is there's a narrow strip of black metal, probably aluminum, that wraps around the circumference of the metal ear cup body. If it were made out of wood, it would be called a veneer.

Problem is, at certain spots it doesn't sit flat and stick to the metal underneath as it should. It's raised a little bit at those spots. You can actually press the veneer down and it will spring back up.

This wouldn't really be noticeable except the edge of that metal veneer is silver, so it's noticeable against the otherwise all black headphone. I doubt that it affects performance, however.

So I'm pretty happy mostly with my Gibson unit. Of course, I haven't compared it to a WOOX unit, so my point of reference is against my other phones, and written description of what other folks have heard.

But I'm certainly more satisfied than disappointed.

 

[Hammy]

Well, third party sellers aren't so bad if they are under the Amazon Prime umbrella. You get the same return privileges as if you had purchased directly from Amazon.

So I didn't know what to expect, having never owned an X2 and reading aboutall these issues.

Well, I got a Gibson distribution units with the box dated 2014. Theres also some info about Mexico, though it saus made in China. I don't know if that date means anything, or if it's just the printing date of the box.

Cismetically, the headphones were pretty much as I expected. No real complaints. It seems like a very high quality build, but obdo t have a WOOX unit to compare it to. The headband does have a glues on center strip, though it seems quote secure and I would have even noticed it had someone not mentioned the older style was different and, arguably, better. The pads are glued on, so I didn't mess with them.

Sound wise, they are also what I expected. The sound pretty great. As good as I'd hope a brand new, not yet broken in set of phones to sound. I'm very satisfied and will be happy if they break in the way others have described.

If there's anything to gripe about, the left side seems noticeable more open and airy than the right side. It's not a channel imbalance. Centered voices ansd sounds seem properly centered.

Rather, the soundstage on the left side seems really open and expansive while the right side seems more closed in.I hope this will work itself out with more burn in time. Or maybe it has something to do with the pads? I hope it works itself out.

I own HD600s, HD650s, HE400, HE500, HE400i, and a slew of other cans including a bunch of the better AKG models, and this sample of Gibson X2 is right on par with those. So as long as that soundstage thing works itself out, I can see this becoming one of my favorite cans.

BTW, I have a little of that ring issue on the left cup. It's mildly annoying,but easy to overlook.

What's happening is there's a narrow strip of black metal, probably aluminum, that wraps around the circumference of the metal cup body. If it wereade out of wood, it would be called a veneer.

Problem is, at certain spots it doesn't sit flat and stick to the metal underneath. It's raised a little bit at those spots. You can actually press the veneer down and it will spring back up.

This wouldn't really be noticeable except the edge of that metal veneer strip is silver, so it's noticeable against the otherwise all black headphone. I doubt that it affects performance.

So I'm pretty happy mostly with my Gibson unit. Of course, I haven't compared not to a WOOX unit, so mynoiny of reference is against my other phones and written description of what others have experienced.

But I'm certainly more satisfied than disappointed.

 
Glad you're mostly happy with your pair.  I would agree that the perceived difference in left-right is likely due to the pads, as they can be quite mis-matched in certain pairs.  I doubt this will change over time, but feel free to prove me wrong!  This is quite a L-C-R headphone anyway IMO.
 
You have some good 'phones already, so I expect you know about this but I'd recommend checking the X2 using something like SineGen to test for imbalance.  I've noticed quite an imbalance (3-4db) in sub-bass area (around 30hz) on 2 out of 3 pairs.

 

[K.T.]

Yes, thanks for the advice. I will certainly run the SineGen test to see if there's an issue. Especially relevant while the cans are still within the return period.

 

[andrs08]

Quote:

   
Glad you're mostly happy with your pair.  I would agree that the perceived difference in left-right is likely due to the pads, as they can be quite mis-matched in certain pairs.  I doubt this will change over time, but feel free to prove me wrong!  This is quite a L-C-R headphone anyway IMO.

 
3-blob soundstage, as in HD 600/650?

 

[Hachiroku]

I just can't understand how something like this can ever happen. They clearly knew the major downside of the X1s were the glued earpads (really stupid idea, idk how a big brand didn't consider this), yet this happens again. And I must say reading this a while back immediately tipped me off, I really enjoyed the X1s I bought a few years ago, but hated that I had to be contempt with the glued pads...one of the best material quality out there (especially the chassis), and yet there's something like this to counter their premium feel. Really sad something like this slips through, we're lucky being able to voice out our dissatisfaction publicly online, and massive markets like amazon take notes on such things. I'm definitely gonna stick around and see if this gets fixed. 
I'd be so pissed off if this had happened because of sparing some money or some other disregarding marketing plot. 

 

[stingraybernard]

If the metal ring is silver and the ear pads are glued on then the seller put a version X1 in a x2 box ,,, maybe he bought an x2.and put his old X1 in his x2 box ?? Just guessing ,, the x2 has a black metal ring and the ear pads are held on by 4 plastic pins and are easily removable ,, I would send them back to Amazon and purchase another