They've had issues with QC from day one but it seems to be little things that to me are inconsequential. My pair while cosmetically perfect, came with a plug adapter that an insane channel imbalance. I almost returned them but decided to trouble shoot with different sources and a couple of those are 1/8" instead of 1/4" and that's when I realized it was the adapter. Switch it out for one I knew was fine, boom no imbalance. All in all I have no qualms recommending it. Let's face it guys... Philips isn't generally known as the king of build quality(generally speaking as a company) nor luxury. They have only recently jumped into headphones in this price class and I think they've done an admirable job where it counts. These things sound fantastic and I don't see many posts about driver issues, almost exclusively issues that really don't affect the sound.
Complete agreement, Badfish5446. These headphones sound so great that slight cosmetic flaws don't detract much from the total package. My X2's do have a noticeable channel driver imbalance favoring the left channel that unfortunately is not related to any simple adapter or cable but I enjoy the sound so much that I modified an inline volume switch to allow me to adjust the balance. Now I'm pleased as punch. Looking at the latest posted picture one side also has a slight gap in that aluminum ring as well but it is really a very minor flaw that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I didn't religiously read this forum topic. I just love the sound of these hps!
Eventually, I'll probably get a TOTL pair of carbon fiber Ether-C's or the next whiz-bang headphones that catch my fancy but right now I'm thoroughly enthralled with these
wonderful (though slightly flawed) Philips Fidelio X2's.