[SomeTechNoob]

Yep, seems like amp clipping is the case.
Since you are a skilled headfier, can i ask you, what are the possible kinds of damage when playing a clipped signal through headphones or overpowering them?
I know that after a really long time of playing clipped, the voice coil could overheat (mayb melt?) and completely prevent the driver from moving, but thats the only thing i know.
Thanks for the help man, i really appreciate it, i'm a noob in the world of headphones, so i'm still learning.

You would go deaf before anything like that happened.

 

[gargani]

Yep, seems like amp clipping is the case.
Since you are a skilled headfier, can i ask you, what are the possible kinds of damage when playing a clipped signal through headphones or overpowering them?
I know that after a really long time of playing clipped, the voice coil could overheat (mayb melt?) and completely prevent the driver from moving, but thats the only thing i know.
Thanks for the help man, i really appreciate it, i'm a noob in the world of headphones, so i'm still learning.

Well, I have a certain amount of knowledge, but , I don't consider myself an expert..
You are correct; melting the voice coil is a concern.You can play while the amp is clipping, but, as you know, it can cause some unpleasant sounds.
If it gets too extreme it can melt the voice coil.(fry the speaker).
The other type of damage that could occur is mechanical.The voice coil doesn't melt, it moves so far out of place that it won't go back in place (blow the speaker).

As I said, the best way to prevent this is to turn down the volume, when you hear buzzes, rattles, loud clicks, raspy or staticy sounds.

I think you have a good understanding, now, of how it works.Enjoy your shp 9500; a bargain of a headphone, IMO.

 

[gargani]

You would go deaf before anything like that happened.

Ha, ha; you make a good point there. Burning out the voice coil is possible; but the sound would be so loud that a person would turn down the volume, before that happened.
Besides, no one would want to continue listening to buzzes and rattles and other distorted sounds; even if the power causing them wasn't enough to do any permanent damage.

 

[RandomDave]

Well, I have a certain amount of knowledge, but , I don't consider myself an expert..
You are correct; melting the voice coil is a concern.You can play while the amp is clipping, but, as you know, it can cause some unpleasant sounds.
If it gets too extreme it can melt the voice coil.(fry the speaker).
The other type of damage that could occur is mechanical.The voice coil doesn't melt, it moves so far out of place that it won't go back in place (blow the speaker).

As I said, the best way to prevent this is to turn down the volume, when you hear buzzes, rattles, loud clicks, raspy or staticy sounds.

I think you have a good understanding, now, of how it works.Enjoy your shp 9500; a bargain of a headphone, IMO.

Thanks, now i know exactly what i wanted.

 

[Vatnos]

They are rolled off in the sub and mid bass, but they have a decent amount of upper bass. They also have an elevated treble between about 4khz. to 10khz. But for a $ 50 open back, IMO, they can't be beat..

For an open dynamic, the bass is up to par with anything else. A +2 boost in eq around 60 hz does the job for me. They handle EQ very well.

As for the treble... I have seen two completely different measurement curves for it, one which shows elevated treble and one which does not. It's important to take various measurement sites with a grain of salt, because many of them don't post their setup, and any site that sets out to make a hitpiece (Verum Sonus) can use whatever combination of sources they please to get the terrible looking measurements they want, to confirm their bias. Suffice to say, these headphones have a slight treble raise, but the emphasis is on 'slight'. It is high quality treble which I do not perceive as remotely grainy, so I do not mind. The SHP9500s will sound on-point from warmer setups. I've managed to replicate both of these frequency curves below on different dac/amps.

https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/brands-philips/shp9500/ - murdertreble. this tends to occur on poorly synergized dac/amp combos

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/philips/shp9500-hifi-precision-stereo - dead neutral. this is how they sound on my phone, as well as most integrated dac/amps.

 

[Electrolite]

Thank you for your first impressions! From the looks of things, it seems the Philips are rather good. I had feared at first that they'd lack bass, but after reading this, it appears it is not at all.

How do you find these to compare to your Grados? Of which of the two is brighter in sound?

I was afraid of the lack of bass as well. I used to have an headphone with subwoofers. But I can tell you I love the SHP9500, the bass may not be loud but it's there, it's tight and precise. I like it. Also if you plan to use this headphone in the computer I can send you a link to an EQ tune that improved a lot the SHP9500 for me. It tamed the treble a little bit (still crispy and lively) and increased a little the bass. In general the headphone feels much more enjoyable after the tuning. I love these headphones. It's a shame that I got used to it's sound, so they kinda lost the WOW factor, because their sound is now the norm to me (and every other piece of audio gear I own sounds terrible).

But I gave these headphones to my friends so they could test. None of them care much about audio, they just use some cheap earbuds, all of them were amazed, they listened to this headphone for hours saying they could head details in their favorite songs that they never noticed before none complain about the bass as well.

 

[Electrolite]

I got one- these are 123$ on ebay from USA seller right now. These are great open air headphones, and compete well with audio technica's ad500/700/900x series, and sonys mdr-ma900 (all of which I have had)

I was very curious about the ATH-AD900x/700x and I was thinking if they were worth buying considering I already own the Philips. Please if you have some spare time, can you compare these headphones to the SHP9500?

 

[gargani]

For an open dynamic, the bass is up to par with anything else. A +2 boost in eq around 60 hz does the job for me. They handle EQ very well.

As for the treble... I have seen two completely different measurement curves for it, one which shows elevated treble and one which does not. It's important to take various measurement sites with a grain of salt, because many of them don't post their setup, and any site that sets out to make a hitpiece (Verum Sonus) can use whatever combination of sources they please to get the terrible looking measurements they want, to confirm their bias. Suffice to say, these headphones have a slight treble raise, but the emphasis is on 'slight'. It is high quality treble which I do not perceive as remotely grainy, so I do not mind. The SHP9500s will sound on-point from warmer setups. I've managed to replicate both of these frequency curves below on different dac/amps.

https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/brands-philips/shp9500/ - murdertreble. this tends to occur on poorly synergized dac/amp combos

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/philips/shp9500-hifi-precision-stereo - dead neutral. this is how they sound on my phone, as well as most integrated dac/amps.

I agree that the bass is pretty decent, and does compare favourably to some other open backs. But there are others that have more bass.
When I ordered them I was expecting them to have less bass than, it turns out, they actually had.I also agree the bass can be boosted nicely with eq, if one so desires.

I have seen both the graphs that you linked to, and I agree entirely with you, that It's not possible to compare graphs from different sources. Sometimes though, I will compare different graphs to see if they have anything in common in a general way. The diy graph and the ratings graph don't have anything in common,from what I can see.This isn't too surprising. Rtings uses the hats dummy head , diy doesn't. Also, diy doesn't use a compensation curve. Ratings plots the frequency response of the headphone relative to their target curve, which is the flat dotted blue line.

Interesting, to me,was the graph at golden ears headphone reviews. Below 1khz. there was not much in common with the rtings curve , but from 1khz. to 10 khz., ignoring the graph, and just looking at the general shape of the curve, it was quite similar to the ratings curve.
I still don't think the treble is exactly neutral. It is not as extremely elevated as the diy curve makes it look, but from about 3khz. to 6khz., on rtings graph there is some elevation. And, of course, as with most headphone responses I've seen, there's a 10khz. spike.

I also own the Senn. hd598. When I first got the shp9500s, it was the only headphone I listened to for 5 days. After that I pulled out my 598's . I heard the 598's as warmer with less brightness and not as detailed in the treble. I looked at rtings comparison page, where you can overlay the frequency response of two headphones.This is an apples to apples comparison, since the same equipment, procedure,compensation etc.are used to measure different headphones.
The graph shows the 598's to have a little more energy from 100 Hz. to 500hz. From 100hz. down to 20 Hz.,the response for both headphones is identical.From 500hz. to about 4.5 khz. the response is fairly similar. Not identical, but similar. From 4.5 khz. to 8khz. the response deviates, the most..The 9500s has more treble energy here.A maximum of 5db at 5.5 khz.
This could relate to why I heard the 598's as warmer, and less bright , with less detail.

This isn't meant to imply that the 598's are better, or worse than the 9500's. Just that the 9500s are brighter. Of course one could say, the 598's are recessed in the treble,and the shp 9500s are neutral.
As I've said before on this thread; for what I paid for the 9500s; they were, and still are, a bargain.

 

[gingygrant]

How disappointed will I be if I go from mad dog to these? Or will I be pleasantly surprised?

 

[SHAMuuu]

The XL round sheepskin fit on the SHIPs disc much easier than the reg sheep (oval). More comfy. Note: it seems a tad bit shallower, for more intimacy.

Funny enough, this ship disc fits the LIVE! and makes them over ear for anyone who has the CAL. They just snap on , and the shallow XL is better than the fatter reg hm5. I could not believe XL sheeps and CAL work together with the SHIPs disc. Also, back cover off (open-back). I prefer these slightly more to SHIPS.

so for those who are considering hm5 pad swap on SHIPS, consider XL round sheepskin. Much , much easier to go around.

Peace

 

[Coguarjacked]

So i've been looking to upgrade from my superlux hd681 evo, with headphones under or around 100 euros. I've been reccomended these by some people, and it does seem like it could work for my tastes (assuming i can find them at a good price... what with import fees from US and whatnot), but i have a few questions
-- How well do these work with metal, particularly symphonic metal? I tend to be more drawn to the vocals, guitar, and "orchestral" elements in that genre. I think i like my vocals to be audible and not overpowered by bass or treble much.
--How do they compare to the superlux hd681 evo?
--I tend to move my head quite a bit when listening to music, and i heard they clamping is very light.. is that likely to be a problem?
--Do they require a good external dac/amp? If not, in what way would they benefit from it?
--How do they work with games? I don't need amazing ultra immersive sound or great soundwhoring capabilities, but i'm hoping they're not bad either.

 

[riffrafff]

So i've been looking to upgrade from my superlux hd681 evo, with headphones under or around 100 euros. I've been reccomended these by some people, and it does seem like it could work for my tastes (assuming i can find them at a good price... what with import fees from US and whatnot), but i have a few questions
-- How well do these work with metal, particularly symphonic metal? I tend to be more drawn to the vocals, guitar, and "orchestral" elements in that genre. I think i like my vocals to be audible and not overpowered by bass or treble much.
--How do they compare to the superlux hd681 evo?
--I tend to move my head quite a bit when listening to music, and i heard they clamping is very light.. is that likely to be a problem?
--Do they require a good external dac/amp? If not, in what way would they benefit from it?
--How do they work with games? I don't need amazing ultra immersive sound or great soundwhoring capabilities, but i'm hoping they're not bad either.

Symphonic metal...I listen to a lot of Nightwish, Epica, etc., and dial just a wee bit of bass into the SHP9500S. I listen through a Magi3 and Loki Mini. The Loki allows me to subtly tweak the bass to compensate for the inherent low-end roll-off of open-back 'phones. The bass is there, in these headphones, just rolled off. It works well for me.

 

[Slater]

Symphonic metal...I listen to a lot of Nightwish, Epica, etc...

Never heard of this genre. Checked Epica out on Soundcloud. Pretty cool!

 

[riffrafff]

Never heard of this genre. Checked Epica out on Soundcloud. Pretty cool!

A guy on youtube kinda turned me on to Nightwish; I'd never heard of the genre, either. Well, I'm hooked. Check out the Nightwish Wembley video on yt.

 

[Coguarjacked]

welp i didn't expect to "convert" people to symphonic metal when i asked for that question, lol. Not that i mind