Fidelio X2HR Over-Ear High Resolution Wired Headphones | Open-Back Design | Double-Layered Ear Shells | 50 mm Neodymium Drivers | Deluxe Memory Foam Earpads

Simply put, the best headphones I've ever owned and well worth the 110 I paid, thanks Amazon! These are what I would call 'fun' in their response. You can get "truer" units with a flatter response curve, but these give rich plentiful sound that is more akin to being in a room with a decent speaker setup, than wearing headphones. Bass is well defined, and not overwhelming. Kids are clear and rich. Treble, which I am sensitive to, is not too much and if not absolutely Cristal (if I am being super critical), is bang on to my taste without having to play with the EQ. The clarity is simply incredible, even using my phone (but note the 3m cable is not ideal for this use case). Build quality is spot on, even the cable is great. They are heavy in the hand but very light on your head and very soft around your ears. As a glasses wearer, and having a larger head, I find it hard to find comfort in a pair of headphones, but again, these are the most comfortable units I've ever encountered!!! Being open can design, some sound is leaked, so public use, i.e. train, you want something else... However for home use you would be hard pressed to get better for the money, I would suggest these are worth 150 of anyone's money easy, even if the RRP is a bit of a stretch. The open can design however, means I can listen to whatever I want and still hear others, the OH and the kids etc, without needing to remove them, which can be useful. The 'stage' of these is again, simply incredible... Wearing these you can get a real sense of direction of sounds and find yourself fully immersed. Whether you're listening to say, the Doors and listening to Jim Morrison's whisper track, clear as day during riders on the storm, or using them for gaming, if the sound profile suits you I am sure you will be blown away, at least I was. If you are looking for a gaming headset, or do VR and want immersive sound, look no further. Forget all these poor quality gaming headset s and myths over 5.1 and 7.1 headphone units, this will have better quality and all you need is a Vmoda mic or modmic to make it into a super-decent gaming headset. Personally I can't see the point in multiple driver headphone units because you only have two microphones in your head (your ears). What gives sound 'direction' is actually how the sound waves are manipulated by the direction and your ear itself (hence why our ears are not just flat dishes, evolution of ear shape was not simply accidental, lol). I have worn a number of headphones that are more expensive even, yet have not performed like this. Now they seem to have fixed initial quality issues from a couple of years back these are simply great, highly recommended!!!

So there's a lot of pro's to these headphones. They're well made, not too heavy, comfy to wear with nice cushioned pads, and feel durable. Fits my head fine with glasses, which is good as some headphones can dig your frames into your temple. As they're fully open back, they function well as you can still hear sounds outside the headphones just fine, which may be needed depending on your circumstances. Sound quality is really good overall. I use the Dolby Access app on Windows, and with that, extends the already big soundstage of the headphones even further. So for getting into movies, games, they're great. Certain sounds have a good distance, as opposed to everything sounding likes its going direct into your head. Anywhooo, the con. The pads on these things attract absolutely everything. Dust, fluff, hair. I don't even know where this comes from as my rooms always clean. You can take the pads off easily to wash them, but still. I would also recommend lint rolling them often as they need it.

By far the worst headphones I've ever heard. 5 stars because its very detailed above 180k and fun. I'll burn these in for a while and reevaluate. Basically if you need more high frequencies as I do, then you can't really go wrong. construction wise , not too heavy, easy on the ear like a physio.

I've been buying headphones for over 40 years. I've owned all kinds of them. One thing I've learned, is that headphones are just as personal as the music choose to play on them. That is, what are great headphones for one person, are awful for others. Just as NIN is a delicious hot cup of coffee for one person, whilst they are a rancid cup of tea for another. I'm not going to go into some boring long winded insecure list of what headphones are the best, simply I'm going to say that 'I' like these headphones, and give a brief reason why. * I got them on sale. * They are extremely well built * I enjoy the oversized comical nature of their size. I find it extremely whimsical. * I got them for gaming primarily, at which they excel at. * I discovered by chance they are great for certain genres of music that I like. I wasn't expecting that. * They have detachable audio cables (meaning they can be replaced easily when they break) * For my head size and shape, they are extremely comfortable, with no discernible pressure on my ears. * They do not make my ears sweat * They have good bass, despite being open backed. * They have great stereo separation and sound stage Things I would improve; * The inherent v shaped EQ curve is a tad too aggressive on the highs (I fixed this with a simple EQ curve on my PC) * The mids are somewhat muted. (Again, I fixed this with a simple EQ curve on my PC) * The bass seems loose compared to my closed back headphones (To be expected, because, physics) * They are poor with listening to certain genres of music (because of the above) You'll hear a lot of comments about how these headphones aren't 'flat' headphones. I know. As they should be I believe. I do a lot of music production, and I have headphones tailored specifically for that. It always makes me chuckle when I read comments about people turning their noses up because of this. As the vast majority of consumers don't have studio grade flat response headphones. Any music producer who doesn't comprehend the implications of this, and only produces music tailored for other studio grade headphone wearers simply isn't a very good music producer. These are ideal for the purpose I bought them (gaming), and I will be adding them to my collection of 'reference' headphones that I listen to my mixes on. In fact, I have a few mixes that I've listened to whilst wearing them that has highlighted some obvious issues that wasn't apparent on my studios. And given that most people don't have studios. This can only be a good thing. Ultimately, it's for you to decide if you like these headphones. It's no fault of this product if you don't. It's simply means they are not to your liking. I've been there. And if they're not, then I wish you nothing but good luck on your quest to find a set of headphones you do like. I have a wall full of ones I don't. Such is the nature of the beast. For me, I think they are great, fun, well built, reasonably priced headphones.

Open backed headphones always face a challenge of both adequately representing the bass sounds and not being too bright on the treble. The headphone manufacturers have traditionally dealt with this by having their cheaper sets generally closed back where it is easier to provide a bass heavy but closed in sound, or by complex engineering that results in open backed headphones retailing over £1,000 a piece. The challenge is to provide an open backed headphone (which is the high end audiophiles preferred format as evidenced by a review of the number of open verses closed back headphones over £1,000) at a lower price point. The reason why audiophiles prefer open back is because it provides the most realistic sound repesentation, similar to listening to speakers in a room. They don't block out sounds around you, so your environment is mixed with the sound you hear from the headphones. This makes it easier for headphone designers to create a realistic sound environment, which in turn can provide better dynamic seperation and sound stage. Sennheiser have probably come closest to producing a balanced, cost effective open backed headphone by most accounts, Beyerdynamic have tried and although they are the firm favourite for studio units, for the home market their products are generally regarded as too treble biased, you will see a similar consensus on these Amazon reviews too. Of course whether the sound is balanced or not to you is a matter for each person and although there are ways of measuring the sound output from headphones to quantify this, in the end you just have to try it yourself to be sure. Knowing this Harmon about ten years ago tried to quantify scientifically what a prefered sound might be like and came up with the Harmon target curve. This elevates the bass sounds, also the lower treble but drops off significantly for the higher treble to create a simulated enhanced version of reality but without the sharpness of high frequencies. So we now have a reference point to quantify headphone performance against. If you search on line you will find lists comparing headphones to this standard and although this is no guarentee that they will sound right to you it provides a common measuring point for analysis. So how do these Philips headphones measure up? Well they are one of the closest on the market in this price range to the Harmon curve, the hd560s being slightly closer still. They match well in the bass but do not fall off fast enough in the treble. This is why they are slightly treble focused, in other words the first impression that you get when you put these headphones on is in the treble, the treble is very clear, the midrange is very detailed, usually not the case in cheaper units, the bass is deep but not pronounced, so behind the other sounds. I find these are excellent for classical music, live bands, slightly less so for rock and not for movies. Having spent a lifetime enjoying home cinema systems which are bass heavy with subwoofers, these headphones for me do not have enough bass, however I am enjoying the sound realism that open backed headphones provide and recognise that my sort of bass is unlikely to come out of open back design, Which brings me to my final comment. The more you chase the sound dragon, the more you realise that one headphone like one car is not going to be able to do everthing for you without some compromises. I bought some headphones on here for my son, they are from Oneodio, lots of treble and lots of bass, not much detail in between, great for Skrillex, Scooter and AC/DC LIVE, make you want to turn them up, but now I can't hear my car's turn signals. In short buy these, excellent, superb build quality, cost effective, open backed headphones for natural sound, classical music, accoustic, jazz, but for movies or the club sound buy some different pairs as well.

Was lucky enough to get a pair of these during the Black Friday sale for just 67 quid. They were bought to use with a Fiio portable CD player (to get the best out of a ridiculously large CD collection). I have to say they are incredible value for money -even at the higher price point. Very comfortable to wear, the treble is fantastic & the bass surprisingly powerful for Open backed headphones. Highly recommended

I paid 68 quid for these, reviews sounded good, I wanted a pair for wearing around the house with my fiio amp which I also use on my senh ovation 600 but they are lovely but bulky I also have Sony in ear xm4 things, I don't really get on with them so if out I have bowers Wilkins px7se great sounding, when the Phillips arrived I thought god that's a big box, I didn't realise how big these cans were yep as big as my ovations.... Bugger... But for the amount I paid I thought we'll it not that expensive mistake, let's give them a blast, WOW they are amazing even at full price about 150, I think, there fabulous at this price but at under 70 I am blown away. Fantastic sound, spacious and open, build quality top notch. I cannot recommend enough, brilliant kit. OK this is an update of my review, I've have been really giving these headphones a hard time over the last 4 months, bashing them up, out in rain OK not hammering it down but just general abuse, I reckoned under 70 quid just use and abuse them, man there good, still look unmarked, sound great, just a total pleasure to use and so comfortable, I really wish I bought 3 or 4 pairs at that price.

I have had a few pairs of headphones from Beyerdynamic, Sony, Sennheiser and Audio-Technica over the years ranging at different price points from £100-£1000+. I now use these headphones replacing all the previous (same price range) headphones. In other words you will find it difficult to get any headphones that have the clarity and soundstage of the Phillips X2HRs at the same price point. These are really good headphones when you compare them to £500-1000+ headphones. I would completely recommend these headphones they have a wide soundstage and are very "warm/dark feeling" if you are a bass head you will like these headphones! However, if you prefer a wider mid-high range soundstage then I would suggest that you look at other options before purchasing these headphones. I saw a few reviews mentioning the clamping force of the headphones. It put me off quite a bit before purchasing however, I went ahead with the purchase. The clamping force doesn't seem too tight at all to me, so not sure what they're on about. Maybe a larger head size may effect the clamping pressure? I have a pretty average head size so come to your own conclusion about this lol. I personally don't think it's an issue - I could wear these for hours without a problem! Being very picky now, they are a bit on the heavy side. However, this is compensated by their build quality. They're clearly built to last, you'll have to look hard to find a piece of plastic on these headphones they're mostly constructed from metal! You will notice the shear quality as soon as you take them out of the box "perfection". * NOTE: * I know for a fact that you can run these headphones without a DAC or AMP: But I found that they were way too quiet without one, due to having a lower end motherboard in my PC. I would personally recommend buying a DAC-AMP for these headphones, if you have a lower end motherboard that doesn't support HiFi audio headsets. If anyone is looking for a decent DAC-AMP "on a budget", for these headphones I use the SoundBlaster X3 DAC-AMP which is a perfect fit and allows for future headphone upgrades it is around £100-ish. Conclusion: Don't look anywhere else unless you're willing to add another £200-400 to your budget or you want more clarity in the mid-high ranges.