[Beyerfan70]

You know what its like,sometimes a relatively cheap phone will come along,get ignored by everyone and no one ever knows how great they are.
Enter the new-ish SHP4500 from philips
Oh my goodness these open cans are quite a revelation
I picked these up today for £20
because primarily i liked the design,knowing if they were no good i'd give them as a gift.
So while i was out i plugged them in to my sony dap and oh my!
What a terrific suprise i had.
We are talking HUGE SOUNDSTAGE,some very balanced completly un-muddy and clear bass,up front mids,and the philips speciality bright highs which are very crisp indeed and not uncomfortable at all!
The sound is very lovely flat and they also respond very well to equalizer so you can make them sound how you want.
They tend to veer towards the bright sound but in a nice and controlled way.
So far i've listened to some Bowie,Prodigy, Whitesnake,Rainbow,Philip Glass and some Bach and they have performed beautifully with each style.
In my opinion they sound rather like the Audio Technica ATH ES7,but open.
Which when you consider there is a huge difference in price between the two it shows how good they are!
In fact i prefer these to my HD650,high praise indeed!
Comfort wise you can't feel them on which is a plus as the earpads are soft and cover the whole ear,and there is nice cushioning on the headband.
They look a bit like a pair of senns HD202,EH150 ish.
So if you see these then give em a go because they really do deserve to be heard,and at the price you really cant go wrong!

 

[Fixcinater]

How long have you had them? Seems most cheap cans can sound good for a while, and then their faults become evident after more time spent critically listening and A/Bing with "standard" phones.

 

[Beyerfan70]

Either a phone sounds good or it doesn't period.
It makes absolutely no difference whether its one day old or one year old,you either like it or you dont
I dont believe in burn in,there is no such thing,i mean i have had many top end cans for months and to me they still sound poor. So to me if it sounds great out the box then its a great phone.
And i use different ones virtually everytime i go out,it just depends how i feel.
If i dont like something i dont keep it but in this case i think that for the price they out perform many high priced ones that i have wasted money on
And i hope that people will get the chance to listen to them.

 

[Headphony]

I've been curious about these cans and posted a thread a while ago asking for impressions. It's nice to see someone finally got around to trying them. The new lower end Philips really seem to be excellent value performers.

My interest was piqued after randomly picking up a pair of SHP-2700 for about the price of a pizza and was totally blown away by the price / performance. To my ears they outperform MS1 and nearly reach the level of DR150's.

 

[SonicDawg]

So from your impression they are tilted toward a brighter presentation? I am usually against brighter sound signature in things, but who knows, they might compete with the Koss A250, another sleeper that turns out to be GREAT. Its sometimes overtly bright presentation and midrange coloration do bother me to the point of not listening to them much, though. How's the Philips' midrange, btw? and, where do I get one of these ?!

Are these the ones you are talking about?

 

[Citizen86]

Seems like they're only available in the UK right now, I can't find a single North American store that has them.

Edit: @SonicDawg - These are the ones he's talking about: Philips Support - SHP5400/00

 

[Claus-DK]

Yeah Philips makes great cans at very affordable prices...
I am a long time fan of their HP1000...

 

[Headphony]

^That's wierd that only a few headphones are shown under Consumer Products on the Philips UK and other Philips web sites. A few months back the SHP-5400 and a bunch of others were there too. It makes me wonder if Philips is getting out of headphones except for a few cheap models?

See here:
TV - HiFi/ audio systems - Gaming - Indoor headphones - Accessories - Philips

 

[Beyerfan70]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SonicDawg /img/forum/go_quote.gif So from your impression they are tilted toward a brighter presentation? I am usually against brighter sound signature in things, but who knows, they might compete with the Koss A250, another sleeper that turns out to be GREAT. Its sometimes overtly bright presentation and midrange coloration do bother me to the point of not listening to them much, though. How's the Philips' midrange, btw? and, where do I get one of these ?! Are these the ones you are talking about?

I wouldn't say they were too coloured,just crisp and not uncomfortable at all.
To be completely honest with you the mids are very balanced indeed,just pretty natural really.
The highs are very beyer ish which i find to be sensational.
In fact the whole range of the phone is very reminiscent of a high end beyer.
But i think the bass should be awarded a medal as its so well defined,i really cannot think of many high end cans that handle the bass as well as these do,its really quite astonishing!
Which was the idea of this post in the first place.
It just goes to show that companies charge the earth for some phones and a £20 can appears and blows them all away,but because its not made by a company that people would think of as high end they get ignored completely! which is a shame because these are absolutely incredible.
As i said in my original post,in my humble opinion i really think they are better than my HD650,i think that says it all.

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

The 5400 costs about $60 around here, a lot less than the HP1000 (which is sometimes available). It might be worth it just to try them out... But first, how do you amp your HD650? And have you compared them to any other Philips cans?

 

[Beyerfan70]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DefectiveAudioComponent /img/forum/go_quote.gif The 5400 costs about $60 around here, a lot less than the HP1000 (which is sometimes available). It might be worth it just to try them out... But first, how do you amp your HD650? And have you compared them to any other Philips cans?

I power the hd650 straight from my denon reciever,which powers every phone i own perfectly.
Maybe i'm just not a senn sound fan but they just dont do it for me at all,in fact worst phone ive bought,compared to my DT880 they are nothing at all!
What phones do you mean for me to compare,the senns against other philips?

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

No it just sounded like you have heard other philips cans and as I have two older philips cans I'd like to know whether the 5400 are similar. Just in case you had heard them (the HP890 and HP910).

 

[Beyerfan70]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DefectiveAudioComponent /img/forum/go_quote.gif No it just sounded like you have heard other philips cans and as I have two older philips cans I'd like to know whether the 5400 are similar. Just in case you had heard them (the HP890 and HP910).

Thanks for clearing that up.
Well i have not had experience of the two models you mention,so i cant really compare those,and as for the philips phones i have, they are all closed pairs.
However i can tell you that to my ears they out perform my SR80's by quite some margin.
I know it may be of no use but hope that it gives you a better idea.

 

[grantlp13]

i had SHP-5400 too. for me it was quite a leap from poor old sonicgear.. this is my first headphone wich has a fine sound. I haven't tried grado sr80 but if what you said is true then i might think twice before considering grado.

 

[Deep Funk]

I can get a pair of SHP5400/5401s less than a Sennheiser HD201. The bang for your euro ratio is high on these headphones. I should buy one just because is cheaper and better looking than the HD201 and has better specifications. That's just the start of it...

The SHP2700, is it less, equal or better than the SHP5400/5401? If at least equal the SHP2700 is the better buy.