I received my Philips Fidelio L1 headphones yesterday evening, edition no. 01762, from the Apple store. The product box is quite thick and heavy with foam on the underside of the top to protect the contents. There was no sound demo disc with mine so that may just be for Hong Kong. My pair has no resonance or distorion that I can detect. I will be comparing the L1s with my Pioneer HDJ-2000s hence forth known as 2ks. The 2ks are a closed headphone in the same pricerange as the L1s. The materials used and the build are very similar between these two headphones. I will be listening to them with my Sony NWZ-S545 walkman and with my main stereo OPPO BDP-95 universal disc player through the headphone section of my Luxman L-505u integrated amp.
Fit and finish: The L1s looks great! They have deep rich brown leather with very well done stitching on the headband, black aluminum earcups with black leather earpads, and raw aluminum arms. Everything looks very well put together but there are tool marks on visible screw heads. Everything on the L1 feels good except the raw aluminum arms. When I reach up and feel or grab my 2ks I feel silky smooth metal with rounded or eased edges, with the L1s I feel rough metal with sharp edges.The earpads are not large but fit my ears just right, these may not fit somebody with large ears. The headband does not have enough pading and requires some moving every half hour or so to stay comfortable. Even though the earpads are the same for these two headphones the 2ks are very soft and comfortable while the L1s feel much harder when wearing them and far less comfortable, this may change with time. The cable is attached to the left earcup and has a short lead that dangles down to which you attach the extending cable. The cable is very light and flexible with small connectors.
Sound: Let me start by saying that with my equipment the L1s sound great but do not sound like an open headphone which is mostly for the good. The L1s let some sound in but leak very little sound at all. The L1s sound like a closed headphone with a little lightness and air to the upper mid and treble with a little added perception of space which encompasses the term semi-open very well. The 2ks sound a little richer and less airy with a little less space in the upper mid and treble. Where these two really diverge though is in the low bass. The 2ks roll off the low base pretty quickly but the L1s boost the low bass. The 2ks have a very well balanced sound right down as low as they go before rolling off. The L1s sound is very well balanced until you get to the low bass which really stands out. I achieved this same effect by disconnecting the headphones from my stereo so I could listen through my speakers, Bohlender-Graebener Radia 520i loudspeakers and GoldenEar ForceField 3 subwoofer. I then turned the sound level on my subwoofer up one notch and got the same kind of sound, very well balanced right down to the low bass which was then too prominant. Switching back to the L1s I noticed that even though the low bass is boosted it doesn't seem to intrude on the mid and treble presence or clarity. I think that this might just be the headphone for bass lovers who still want great sound everywhere else too. Let me tell you, these headphones do sound great and that bass can become addictive but sometimes it is just too much of a good thing. The more I listen to the L1s the more I am impressed by them.
Conclusion: I have owned and listened to a large number of open, semi-open, and closedback headphones over the years but the L1s have a very unique sound to them. In some ways they combine the best of all worlds by being easy to drive and sounding great out of a portable device, having deep sub bass while maintaining clear open mids and extended airy highs, scaling sound quality with better equipment, and being both lightweight and beautiful to look at. For some though the rough sharp metal, stiff earpads, and less than comfortable headband won't equate to three hundred bucks. The sub bass boost could be too much for others unless they have the ability to eq them. I would guess an eq drop centered around 40-50 hz would probably even the whole thing out fantastically but that is just a guess on my part as I cannot try it myself. I have only had the L1s for sixteen hours now and even though they have been playing the whole time it is possible that the sound could change some with further use and the earpads could become softer also,which I am pretty sure that they will. I am going to let them play for five more days and see what I think at the end of that time, either I will have completely fallen for the bass or it will have proven to be too much for me.
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