Philips SHP9500 rant

[kokakolia]

I want to rant about the Philips SHP9500.

 

It's a good headphone from a purely technical price/performance standpoint. The SHP9500 is commonly sold for around $50~$60 on Newegg. But does that mean that they're any good? For the price, absolutely.

 

But subjectively, I can't really recommend these headphones. The overall sound of the SHP9500 just doesn't work well with most modern music. It's very treble/mid forward. The treble is also annoyingly grainy and rough on some indie/punk tunes. I always wish for more bass when I'm wearing the SHP9500. You see, most popular songs are built around some kind of beat. So having extra bass is very desirable. With the SHP9500, I find myself listening to acoustic music the most, with the occasional jazz or movie soundtrack. Because everything else sounds...meh (no bass). Eventually, I got used to this weird sound.

 

But I end up using my Bose Companion 2 (III) speakers more. I know that the audiophiles will have a knee-jerk-projectile-vomit reaction to the word "Bose", but I like the sound of the Bose more. I like having some extra bass and warmth to my music. I don't care about "pure sonic fidelity", just my personal enjoyment. I'll still use my SHP9500s for the occasional movie soundtrack or acoustic album. So having different headphones for different styles of music is nice.  

 

Recently, I purchased the AKG K92 and I fell in love with my music again. These headphones are more comparable to my Bose speakers (purely in terms of EQ) than the Philips SHP9500. I can feel the beat in my music again and that makes me happy. In that sense, I feel like Bose/Beats/Sony/AKG etc...are on to something. These companies are clearly tuning their products to make them more enjoyable to the masses who listen to popular music. It's more than just a V-shape tuning. Not all V-shaped headphones are good. For example, I consider V-shaped headphones from Superlux and KZ absolute garbage. But Beats and Bose are on the right track with their recent offerings. 

 

In conclusion, I don't want to blindly recommend the Philips SHP9500 to anyone anymore. We should recommend headphones based on personal tastes in music and other criteria. In my purely subjective opinion, I think that most people would not enjoy having the Philips SHP9500. 

Edited June 3, 2018 by kokakolia
missing info

[IgorM]

status update?

[vanished]

-moved to member reviews-

3 minutes ago, IgorM said:

status update?

no not really

[Max_Settings]

SHP9500 is what would classify as a neutral headphone. You need to want that in a headphone which is why I always say many people don't like flat headphones. HD600 has even less bass than the SHPs do.

[trowl42]

But a flat headphone is good because you can then EQ it no? You are not really restricted by any hardware and you can tune them to your liking.