PHILIPS Over Ear Open Back Stereo Headphones Wired with Detachable Audio Jack, Studio Monitor Headphones for Recording Podcast DJ Music Piano Guitar (SHP9600)

When I first did my digging into the great world of audiophile headphones, I thought I'd start my journey on the low-end range of things. The Philips SHP9500 (Predecessor to this model) are sung far and wide as being *the best* headphones, punching above their weight-class, sounding as well as headphones that cost triple or even quadruple its price. However, I soon heard many mixed reviews about it's successor, this here SHP9600 model. Let's get into the nitty gritty.Philips made a followup to once of the most glowing, and might I add, quite unwarranted audiophile headphones for those stepping into the realm of a more "luxurious" listening experience. The only catch being that the legendary SHP9500 had a price of around $80, with the new SHP9600 retailing at $180 originally. From what you'll hear the upgrades (or some say lack of) that this model presents at its increased price point make it a pointless, fruitless endeavor to wear these headphones. Now perhaps I would agree, the SHP9500 is a hard lightweight headphone to beat. Worth $180? It's subjective. However, if you can get these on sale or with a coupon? Oh boy, there ain't nothing to lose.Before I get into the pros and cons I'll give a TL;DR. The sound? Amazing. These offer an incredible crisp, yet slightly warm and rich sound, much unlike typical headphones that kill the mids or up the lows and highs. The build quality is good, the aesthetics are great, I'm particularly fond of the bronze ring on the ears, and the comfort is astounding. Is it enough to warrant a $180 purchase over a $80 purchase, assuming you get these off sale, well, they might just be. If you're unsure which team to swing for, do your research but bear in mind, these are still an amazing pair of headphones for the price. With that out of the way, it's deep dive time.PROS- Sound quality. As with the SHP9500, the audio coming out of this particular model is exquisite. The lows, great, the mids, extremely discernable, the highs, almost always don't become uncomfortable. These are the "flattest" headphones I own to boot. When I listen to a track it almost always sounds like I'm listening to it the way the artist intended, no EQ mixing needed. It's definitely a slightly warm sounding pair of headphones, but they still ring true and can handle any genre I throw at them, be it quiet or noisy.- Build quality. A funny thing to preface this with is that these headphones are quite light. At a quick grab and glance these might not immediately register as particularly sturdy headphones. However, after using these for half a year now I can tell you that their durability is that of a snappy and whippy stick, that bends back into shape if it is ever forced to bear pressure. I've accidentally dropped these a couple times and they have a bit of bounce to them depending on how they fall, yet they have not bent or even scuffed. Furthermore, I've, rather sheepishly, put a little stress on them and purposefully stretched the headphones apart from each other to see if they bend or crack, yet here they remain, in mint condition still. Deceptively strong headphones, they can most certainly withstand reasonable punishment without suffering any failures.- Aesthetics. Subjective, sure, but I must admit, these just *look* like nice headphones. Big ear cups with a bronze ring on them, nice sleek, black finish? Love them, they look just as well in a studio as they do with at home listening.- Comfort. My goodness, I've owned my fair share of "over-ear" headphones and I must say, these truly are "over-ear." The padding is soft and remarkably thick, making it so these truly don't press the drivers up against your ears. I feel it evdn aids in the listening comfort to, the sound doesn't feel as though it's shot straight into your ear, the distance from the drivers plus the open-ear design really helps music sound like it's happening around you than directly in your ear.- Aux adapter. Included with the headphones is a wonderful 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable of impressive length, which even comes with an aux adapter. A very nice addition!- The soundstage. Music truly feels like it's happening around you with these on. The open-ear headphone experience is one I can never go back on. Music is no longer a sterile bit of sound blasted at my ears, it unfolds around me and envelopes me in listening bliss.MIXED- Clamp force. Don't get me wrong, the clamp force is perfectly, perfectly serviceable. Yet it must be noted that I have a rather big noggin, and still these still fall on the more medium, bordering on the medium-light side of clamp force. This could potentially be a problem for people with small heads, but it probably wouldn't hinder wearability to any extreme degree, just don't expect them to hug your head too tight if your head is indeed small when you engage in a bit of overzealous headbanging when listening to your favorite tracks. Light, even medium headbanging with these on and they still do hesitate to move, so this is a "your mileage may vary" point.- The bass. This is more of a headsup than a proper Mixed note on my part. If you're the type to listen to exclusively bass heavy tracks and/or the type to boost the bass on your music be mindful that these are open-ear headphones. These offer a more impressive soundstage than closed-ear but as such bass is less punchy, again, aiding in the more neutral "flat" sound that most audiophiles would prefer. That being said, bass is still very noticeable, but it won't rattle your brain.- Swivel ears. The ears have a fair bit of degrees of swivel to them. This is only a personal gripe, I just am not a big fan of swivel ears on headphones. They do not effect the comfort, but I just prefer a more rigid feel to my headphones, and it's just a nitpick of mine.CONS- Sound leak. This is just a byproduct of being open-ear headphones. Sound *will* leak out of these headphones, people around you will hear what you're listening to, so if you're concerned with interfering with others around you then it could be a problem. However if you've got your own place or room to vibe in or people who don't mind it then it isn't a concern.- The... price? The thing is, these headphones are WELL worth the original retail value of $180. If there didn't exist the SHP9500 these wouldn't even be noted. That being said, in spite of its minor upgrades it just depends on how much you're willing to shill out on your beginner pair of audiophile headphones. The SHP9500 model is fantastic, but these are *just that bit* better to me personally and makes it worth it.Look, when all is said and done, I can't help putting my experiences up front to help punch for this model. I love these headphones so much that I've put off on upgrading to much more expensive audiophile headphones. $180 is more than the $80 model, sure, but these have provided such a listening experience comfort that I've found myself not getting that itch to upgrade, and I think that says a lot about the quality of the SHP9600. They make me truly feel like I'm bopping with $500 headphones on my head, and my personal bit of advice (since you're still reading my review) that you need to pick these up. These are a safe horse to bet on. I unashamedly champion the SHP9600 model, they're my favorite pair of headphones I've ever owned, and I reckon it'll be years before I find a pair of headphones I favor over these.

TL;DR: These headphones are very good for the price I got them, which was 70 bucks. The build, though it feels rattly in the hands, never does when it's on the head, and they are very comfortable. They sound very warm, from the bass to the mids, everything sounds extra thick, but didn't lose too much in the clarity department for this range of headphone. This is a really chilled out, lay back and enjoy the music/game/movie headphone.Okay, now time to give the full story of why I even tried these headphones.So I wanted to fill a very specific role. I actually have gone through my own audiophile journey for a while now. I got into the hobby about a decade ago, and got into open back headphones with the superlux hd681 evo, so very budget at the time. I think I paid like 35 bucks for those, so even half what I paid for the SHP 9600. Then after having those for a while, I upgraded to the SHP9500 (Yeah, I'll compare them a little later on), and then went to the HD6XX. So pretty standard, but after that I went a little off the beaten path and got the Monolith M1070. And then another couple years down the road got the Arya V3, or the Arya stealth. Couple all this with a few variations on Dacs and Amps, and I've had some experience with many tiers above the SHP9600.So why even bother with them? Well, headphones are just fun to play around with. But really, I started to put together a secondary setup in my home, and wanted a open back headphone that was also easy to drive with a ps5 controller, and one that of course sounded good enough. I didn't want to move the Arya around, and the dac amp set up that I have is not so portable from my main desk.Honestly the SHP9600 fit the bill very well. I ended up returning them in favor of something else that suited my fancy a little better after some thought. But as a guy who has listened to what were originally $1600 headphone(Though the Arya stealth now go for $650, I thought I got them for a good deal at $1000, but damn), the SHP9600 were still fun to listen to. I wouldn't pay more than $100 for them, but anything less and this is a very fine headphone.The bassThese are a budget open back headphone, so the sub bass isn't very great, but the bass otherwise is a little elevated and makes the entire headphone feel warm. This bleeds into the mids too, but not in a super offensive way. It's enjoyable. You do lose some forwardness in the clarity department, I wouldn't say the bass is super detailed, but it doesn't feel particularly muddy either. The bass is decently textured.MidsKind of mentioned it in the bass section, but the mids are very warm. It's relaxed, smoothed out, sounds thick and kind of honey like. This is where the most muddiness comes in, and its not a whole lot, because vocals still are forward. The timbre, the characteristics of the sound, are just fuller. It is not what I would call bloated exactly. I guess I am surprised by how thick sounding these are without having to sacrifice much clarity and not introducing a lot of muddiness is pretty impressive. So, somehow, I think this will be the make or break of this headphone. If you want a very clean sound, like a little more accurate, then the original SHP9500 might be a little better. But if you just want to enjoy without trying to analyze, the SHP9600 is just more fun. If I personally had to choose, I would actually pick the SHP9600, but that's partially because I have the Arya, which are very neutral.Treble:Another factor that changed alot. It's less sibilant than the SHP9600, but that means the imagine suffers a TINY bit. Honestly, I felt the SHP9600 still retrieves details just like the SHP9500, it's just two steps back. The timbre between the SHP9500 and 9600 in this range was basically identical. But the treble is just smoothed out more on the SHP9600. The treble extension is not that far, but good enough.Soundstage:These headphones are pretty darn wide. To my ears, they were actually wider than the SHP9500. The imaging is good on them too. Very solid. I'm honestly not the greatest judge on this honestly. I play games, but not competitively, just a single player game enjoyer. But the imaging sounded correct. Not razer focused, but accurate.Conclusion: For 70 dollars, you could do a lot worse. I liked them a lot, and if I had to choose only one headphone to have within a budget, I would feel good about these. I ended up returning them, because I decided that I wanted to push my budge a tier higher and get something that is just ridiculously fun, and not neutral, because I already have that. So I got the X2HR. Those headphones aren't perfect, and honestly I think some would find the SHP9600 to sound better than the X2HR. But for me, they did enough cool things, while being enough of a departure from the neutral that I already have at my main desk.Oh, I don't have the SHP9500 anymore. After many years of use, one of the drivers got a little weaker, so some channel imbalance. I don't think it is normal for the headphones to do that, but I did have them for like 5 years.Yep, long winded, but if you made it down here, congrats! Hope I offered some insight, or at least some entertainment. Good luck in your audio journey!

I have purchased them twice. The sound quality is great. They are very comfortable. Other headphones in this price range come with a leathery material that will degrade over time and likely be hot/uncomfortable on your ears. The mesh on these is very comfortable.The right side has lost sound for me in both pairs after ~1.5 years of use maybe 4-14 hours a day every day.If you are ok with replacing these every so often depending on how much you use them then they are an excellent budget headphone option.