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!