Philips HP550 review
Oct 31, 2001 at 3:14 AM Post #61 of 86
Quote:

Originally posted by skippy
if you fit the headband of the porta pro correctly, it will sound just as balanced as the ksc35.


I just added a new headphone to the stable the other day, so I had to re-test everything to re-rank it all in my mind. When I came to the Porta-Pros I thought "My ghod, what a tubby piece of junk!" Mind, this is in comparison to Senns and an AKG-401. And I do like the Porta-Pros, considering the price and portability. They're just not "balanced".

Just to be sure, I re-tested them just now. I stretched the headband out and set the pressure slider to "Light" and listened again. They're still tubby. I didn't find a difference in the bass until I actually moved the headphones off my ears, which thins them out just like any other phone. That's hardly a long-term solution, though. Maybe on your head the pads actually lift off your ears when you "adjust" your Porta-Pros?

FWIW, I did this test while listening to some C&W music through my Corda HA-1 -- neither of which is bass-heavy.
 
Oct 31, 2001 at 5:57 AM Post #62 of 86
i bent the metal where the band enters the plastic driver holder, so that the drivers lightly touch the ears, and most of the pressure resides on the temple pads. (if you bend it too much, the drivers will barely touch your ears and will sound too bass shy and shrilly) if you play with it enough you can get it to sound just right. if the headband slips off your head, you can increase the pressure by bending it near the top of the band. (they now look more like an upside down 'U')

i don't use the silly headband setting on the earpiece, i find it useless.
 
Oct 31, 2001 at 11:50 PM Post #63 of 86
Back on topic for the SBC-HP550's:

All I can say is that the only closed-back headphones that sound better than the SBC-HP550's all cost well over the HP550's list price of $60. The HP550 is no giant killer, however.
 
Nov 8, 2001 at 2:44 AM Post #64 of 86
I hope I'm not being too critical of the HP550. BTW, I bought another pair of those dang V6s. The second I plugged the V6s in, it sounded good to me. There is no comparison. The V6 is cleaner, tighter and way more refined. If those were the only differences, I would be fine with the $30 HP550. The bass on the hp550 is a little more prominent but a bit grainy. I'm fine with that too. But it's that dang cupped sound I get from the vocals. No one notices that? Eagle_driver says that it's because I'm used to open headphones. The V6, which is more closed than the hp550, does not have that cupped sound in the vocals. Are there better sounding closed or semiclosed headphones for under $30? I've never listened to the ur20, but those seem just way too huge. I'm going to send these things to my sister.
 
Nov 9, 2001 at 2:56 PM Post #69 of 86
Hmm... "cupped sound" "wierd midrange" " boomy" I don't seem to hear this. To me HP550 are pretty balanced from top to bottom and perhaps just a touch bright at the very top. OK, they don't have the soundstage and imaging of more expensive, open cans but the sound is in no way cupped IMO. I find the PortaPro sounded more closed in comparison. I almost wonder, could the european and american HP550 sound different or it is just our ears. Also I inspected them very carefully and couldn't detect any sound leakage through the grills. To me the isolation is no less than with other similarly sized closed phones, i.e. I still think they're fully closed.
Anyway for closed portable cans costing 30 bucks, these are great. There are not that many (if at all) good closed cans in this price range on the market. Just compared them to something like Sony closed portable cans in this price range (V200 etc) and you'll se what I'm talking about.
 
Nov 12, 2001 at 5:34 PM Post #71 of 86
grainy. grainy is the perfect word for these. i didn't notice it so much with games, but music sounded awful.

on the other hand, i thought they were very comfortable. didn't have any problem wearing them for a few hours. the 3d positioning was pretty good in wolfenstein, too.
 
Nov 12, 2001 at 8:09 PM Post #72 of 86
I picked up a pair of the HP550 on sale at Target. I do get a little of that "cupped" midrange sound. The Sony V6 is a much better sounding headphone, but at over twice the price and almost twice the weight. The HP550 do not leak nearly as much sound as a open phone but they also don't seem to block out much sound either. They may be just right when you don't want people to hear your music but you want to hear what's going on around you.

I agree it's decent at the price but no giant killer. They're also quite comfortable.
 
Nov 17, 2001 at 3:43 AM Post #74 of 86
Heheh... That picture on the Asian Philips Web site actually had the headphones with the front side facing you; flip the headphones so that the rear side is now facing you and they will look identical!

And oh, as far as the "cupped" midrange, the North American-market version has that "tunnel" effect not found in the European-market version.
 
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