[Blighty]

Philips HP 890 Overview

I received my pair of HP890s in about 14 business days from Germany. They were packed sufficiently(double boxed) and comes in an impressive heavy duty cardboard display box(575g). The presentation stand that came with it was a very nice touch(290g). The phones themselves weigh in at a hefty 330g, the cable 55g. The gold plated 1/4" stereo adapter is the screw-in type. The self-adjusting headband is comfortable although it took me a few minutes to find the best position to place the headphones on my head. The velvet earcushions are very large and completely surround my ears and look rather ridiculous in the mirror. They are, however, very soft and smooth. There is sufficient space that your ears do not make contact with the transducers. Definitely not a set of headphones to wear out in public due to its massive size.

I was pleased with the overall construction and aesthetics that generally befits a headphone costing significantly more. The headphone cable is almost the polar opposite(detachable, single sided) of the Grado SR60's rigid, heavy, dual sided cable. Although the cable is thick, it remains very light and flexible(probably not very abrasion resistant due to thin rubber insulator) and not thin and cheap like the one that came with the HD-570s. Whereas the SR60 cable was slightly microphonic, the HP890 does not show any hint of this effect. The only thing noticeably missing are the instructions and warranty papers. Everything in the thin plastic mold that held the HP in the box was twist-tied down to the plastic mold, including the adapter, cables, and headphone -- it took a while to get everything untied ;(

Purchase Information

The total purchase price from Meier Audio was $105USD via Paypal(yeah it cost $10USD more but I hate using money orders). Added to the total a ~$10USD for Canadian taxes/handling fee for a grand total of $115USD. Shipping was a little slow at nearly 3 weeks. It generally takes me about 5-7 business days to send something from Canada to Europe via international airmail. I am not sure what business mail is from Germany but I suspect that it is not nearly as fast.

An in-depth review needs to be written regarding this headphone and will be done shortly after I break them in for 48hrs or so. They sounded fine out of the box but I just want to make sure that they are in optimal condition before I hype anything especially since I have an anti-hype personality if anything.

 

[dknightd]

Blighty,
I hope you don't mind me sharing your thread since I got my HP890 in the mail today as well. I don't know how people feel about thread sharing here yet, but in this case it makes more sense to me than starting a seperate one. Let me know what you guys think - I'l seperate it out if people think it is better that way.
Anyway, like I was saying I came home from work today to find my HP890s. They arrived 1 1/2 weeks after they were shipped. Not too bad. They arrived in good shape. My cost was $100.90 US, $95 for phones and shipping, $.90 to buy a money order, and $5 for Jan's partner to process the money order (Too bad Jan can't process credit cards without getting paypal involved - Oh well). So far it seems to have been money well spent.
Fit and finish is good overall. I'm not sure why people like having all those little screws, none of them seem to be in area's I might want to take apart. My only bad comment about overall construction is that the sewing where the pleather joins the velour could be a little better, it wavers a little. I also noticed that the nap of the velour is oriented different on each ear - the left ear the nap seems to be oriented to stop that side from drooping, and the right side is oriented to prevent that side from lifting - I dont know if this was on purpose (since the cable exits the left side) or just chance. Neither of these seems to have a bad effect when they are on my head. The cans are comfortable enough for the short time I've used them so far. I think I would prefer if the self adjusting headband was a little tighter, they almost feel like they are trying to fall down my head - time will tell if this is really a problem or not.
Like others have said, these things are big. I suspect part of this is because they have fairly large drivers, and, these drivers are aparently mounted in the front part of cans aimed back toward the ears (this was a selling point to me since I think that it should result in somewhat more realistic presentation of the sound to my ears).
A casual listen shows no glaring flaws in the sound. They are full frequency cans, with no glaring peaks or dips that I've noticed so far. I've only had them on for an hour so still too early to tell, but first impression is good. They might be a little grainy in the high end, lower midrange might be a little weak, bass was solid but seemed to have a little trouble with busy complicated bass lines. All these could easily change with a few hours of use as they get broken in. And again, even straight from the box they sound pretty good to my ears.
My initial impression is very positive. And first impressions can tend to make long term happiness more likely.

 

[delenda est Sony]

nice beginnings gentlemen! I look forward to reading your reviews as you both seem quite thorough so far...

 

[Blighty]

No problem about thread sharing. In fact, I welcome the additional input.

Quote:

I think I would prefer if the self adjusting headband was a little tighter, they almost feel like they are trying to fall down my head - time will tell if this is really a problem or not.

Yes, I noticed the same issue. The mechanism is not very tight but I assume it was designed this way to do away with the feeling of pressure you get from tight headbands. You want to set the headband down on the highest portion of your head in order to eliminate the feeling that they are falling down. For me, this means adapting a front-biased position which I prefer at any rate for most headphones.

 

[RMSzero]

Hmm, either my head is big or my headphones are tight, because I never feel that my HP890s are falling off. In fact, I can headbang like crazy and they don't budge.

I guess it's just me then since lini also commented on that feeling.

I look forward to seeing your comments, gentlemen! It seems that you both are bringing up many points that I ignored, which is a good thing.

Oh yes, and by the way, I was also wondering about the lack of instructions and warranty papers. (I ordered from Meier-Audio as well). I haven't bought ANYTHING electronic in my life without some sort of associated paperwork. I hope that doesn't mean I'll have trouble if I need to get them serviced.

 

[Buddha]

Congratulations Blighty and dknightd!!

A couple of quick comments....

* On my XL head the 890s make a firm and very comfortable fit.

* I am still noticing significant improvements after what must be at least 200 hours burn in...they more I use them the better they sound...and it just keeps on getting better.

* Over at Headwize Jan says..."The HD600 is the better headphone but the margin is rather small. Actually when driven by portable equipment without a headphone amplifier the HP890 might win."..... High praise indeed considering the virtually universal acclaim and popularity of the Senns.

Welcome to the fastest growing team at Head-Fi...Team Philips 890.

 

[Mumrik]

dknightd, I initially shared your opinion on the headband, but I've gotten used to is now, and I like the comfort level of these cans...

The "grainy" high end will improve a bit over the next few days as will the bass, I don't know what to say about the lower mid range....



Quote:

Originally posted by RMSzero Oh yes, and by the way, I was also wondering about the lack of instructions and warranty papers. (I ordered from Meier-Audio as well). I haven't bought ANYTHING electronic in my life without some sort of associated paperwork. I hope that doesn't mean I'll have trouble if I need to get them serviced.

Mine were shipped directly from Philips (in a box three times the size of the HP890 box itself!) and I didn't recieve anything like that either...


Quote:

Originally posted by Buddha Welcome to the fastest growing team at Head-Fi...Team Philips 890.

I never did get around to making that team logo did I?

 

[dknightd]

I was hoping to post a complete detailed evaluation of these phones, but looks like other commitments will prevent this. So, I figured I'd better just go with what I have so far.

I've only listened to the HP890 for a few hours now, and they played by themselves for several more hours. The rest of my equipment is high-end consumer, or low end audiophile. I'm not using headphone amplifier. For me headphones only serve one purpose - to allow me to listen to music at home when using speakers would bother others in the house.

My initial impression of these cans really hasn't changed much. They are big, yet comfortable. They reproduce all frequencies with no objectionable dips or peaks. The bass is full, and deep, but not at all boomy. They still seem to have a slight problem with clearly reproducing complex upper bass lines (especially those containing multiple instruments) but seem to have got a little better in this regard. It could be the recording, could be the phones are not really broken in yet, or it could just be the way they are. I still think they might be lacking a little in the lower midrange as well. Voices don't seem to be quite fully anchored. I know my speakers have a slight peak in the upper bass frequencies, this probably tends to anchor voices in the lower midrange - it could just be the headphones are more accurate here. The upper frequencies still are not as smooth as I'd like. A cymbol strike sounds good, but, somehow the timbre of the instrument doesn't seem to come through just right. When brushes are used on cymbols the swish-swish didn't sound quite right. This may have just been the recording, I didn't get a chance to listen to the same recording on my speakers. Also it could be that the source was a CD (not great at high frequency reproduction in my book). I suspect that this weakness might not be so obvious on an LP. Perhaps the phones just need some more use <<edit - OK I just replayed some of those tracks on my speakers, it is clearly the cans - hope the treble smooths out a little with use>>. These issues are not huge, I found I really had to try and listen to the equipment to have them bother me. I did try to listen to the equipment, but soon found myself involved in the music and listening to that instead. This is what I want! I happened to be listening to a live Tony Furtado CD (he plays rock and roll Bango, with occasional celtic and cayjun influences). The sense of presence and ambience was superb (and really surprised me when I stopped to think about it). You could almost feel the excitement of the audience as they listened and reacted to the music. A couple of times I had to take the headphones off to see if what I was hearing was coming from the headphones, or from the wife and kids in another room. The sound was from the headphones, but I couldn't tell that with them on. The overall presentation of the headphones was somewhat laid back, but when the musicians wanted to put something right in your face the cans had no problems doing it. I also listened to some Bob Marley, and Alpha Blondy, and breifly connected the cans to an electric keyboard - again the sound was good.

If you are looking for a reasonably priced set of cans, that seem more or less nuetral, have full frequency capability, let you listen to the music without the equipment getting in the way, and don't mind their large size and open back, I don't think you can go too far wrong with the HP890.

I bought them without first listening to them. I really don't like doing this, but hadn't really liked any other inexpensive cans I'd heard and wanted to avoid the cost of HD600 and dedicated amp. Now I have listened to them for several hours, and I would buy them again. I'm happy

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Quote:

If you are looking for a reasonably priced set of cans, that seem more or less nuetral, have full frequency capability, let you listen to the music without the equipment getting in the way, and don't mind their large size and open back, I don't think you can go too far wrong with the HP890.

Hmm that's quite a handful and lots of 'ifs'... sounds like I have to satisfy quite a lot of conditions in order to not 'go too far wrong with the HP890'

OK I have the 580 so I can talk!

Sounds like you think you've got a good pair of phones in your hands... I think

(Next time you can be more straightforward in your wording

)

 

[dknightd]

Quote:

Originally posted by Joe Bloggs (Next time you can be more straightforward in your wording )

OK, here is the readers digest condensed version just for Joe.

The HP890 are very good headphones <edit> for $100 </edit>