Badge snobbery at its worse.

Philips is just one of those names that many ‘enthusiasts’ wouldn’t even think about, and that included me until a few weeks ago. Visit Amazon.com or EBay and you’ll see the new line of Philips headphones selling for next to nothing, which indicates to me that they’re not selling. In the past I could have understood this. The pair that I tried in Prague were a joke. But now Philips are producing stunning, well-built headphones. I bought a pair of SHP5400, and they rock, quite literally.

Read the full Philips SHP5400 review here

I mean, these Philips SHL9500 (below) are going for an absolutely disgustingly low price. In the UK they’re 4-5 times the price. That’s in the Sennheiser PX200 territory. So for those of you in the U. S. (once again) you’ve got a bargain on your hands!

As I’ve written in my review, the neckband headphones destroy the Sennheiser at the same price. Don’t be a badge snob, give Philips a go. I did, and I have no regrets! But stay away from the old SHP2500 headphones, they suck!

Hi Neal,

Sorry for the late reply, last week was a bit hectic, but I did promise and I forgot, so sorry. Anyway, about the amp situation, I had a go in my wife Mercedes and the results were interesting. As we discussed, on its own with the 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable that I got from who knows where, my Nano struggles to produce any real volume. As for my system, I’ve got a Blaupunkt Velocity 2Go 5, so I’m good to go.

Blaupunkt Velocity 2Go 5 speaker system for both in and outside of the car. Brilliant!

Belkin cable upgrade

The first thing I did was to switch the rubbish cable for my Belkin 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, and the results were surprising. The difference was very noticeable, and the sound was as clean cut as the design of the cable. There was also an increase in volume.

The “Royal” Amp

iPod, C&C mini crystal 6″ mini-to-mini cable into the amp, Belkin mini to mini cable from the amp into the Mercedes jack. There was an increase in the depth of bass, and the volume, however I feel it was “overkill”. The amp can pump out more than the standard speakers can handle, even with the bass switch turned to the lowest settings if you’re not careful the speakers will wave a white flag. The speakers can handle the Belkin upgrade well enough.

FiiO E5 amp

Sorry no pics the battery ran out.

The FiiO E5 amp was another good choice, but again, the speakers began to show that they’d had enough, not as much as the Royal amp.

Conclusion

The Royal amp will provide a decent increase in volume. I didn’t analyse the sound to the standard set up. All I’d say is; if you want clean bass at a reasonable level, the Royal amp will do it. Personally, the Belkin cable will be a good way to clean the sound up and add a touch more volume.

Welcome To Our New Shop, headphonedeals.com

It’s the new headphonedeals shop. Headphones, amps, earphones, IEMs, cables, software, downloads, speakers, yes speakers and headphone modifications. It’s all there. plus links to headphone modifications.

Serious sound upgrade for the price of a happy meal!

Simple, but serious sound upgrade for your MP, laptop or PC.

For those of you who’ve never even contemplating buying an amp, or if you just want a quick and easy boost for your headphones and earphones, there’s nothing cheaper or better (for the price) than the Fiio E3 amp! I’ve just been burning in the Klipsch Custom 1 earphones, and I’ve plugged them into the Fiio E3 and the difference in weight and scale is very noticeable.

Starting from $3.99, I’ll slap you if you don’t buy one!

I also bough some rechargeable AAA batteries to go with them. I’m listening to Enya’s new album “And Winter Came” - White Is In The Winter Night (the best song from the album) with the Klipsch are far more happier with the Fiio than without. The Fiio amp, is a nice booster. The sound is more forward, but and fairly even across the frequency range. But for $3.99 it’s a deal of the decade. Just buy one!

10 Minutes in….

The Shure’s seem to want to show you their sonic skills and talents, whereas the UE’s feel as though they want you to enjoy yourself with the music, you know, really get involved, have you singing and dancing around the room.

I just want you to know that, I’m only 10 minutes in with the Shure SE110 Monitors, and yes these do need to burn in. I’m currently listening to Play With The Changes album by 4 Hero, Enya - A Day Without Rain. OK, here’s what I think so far;

Good:

• They sound a bit more involved than your standard ipod earphones
• The carrying pouch is good, not that I’ve ever used a carrying pouch for any of my headphones/earphones though!
  
• Flat frequency response. No exaggeration in the highs or lows. Reminds me of the Roland RH50 headphones
• Full and well-selected complement of ear buds as standard
• They slipped into my ears with the standard ear buds, with no problem. And they’ve stuck there.

Not So Good: here goes!

• No memory wire (flexible wire that goes over your ears)
• I know they’re a fair size, but they need to be an over-the-ear cable design. Try them without hanging the wire over your ears in a normal position, and you’ll loose performance
• The over-ear wire is uncomfortable
• Push the volume with the wrong music, and they’ll wave a white flag
• Better suited to vocal and instrumental music, rather than fast, hard beat-driven music
• With so much interaction with the cable, it’s no wonder people complain of cable failure

The first brief conclusion is that they’re not bad things really, provided you’re in the right frame of mind and you have the right music. The Roland RH50 headphones (which I love) also have a flat response, yet they also respond better to different music. Unfortunately, the SE110 monitors are a bit fussy.

Fitting & Comfort

Nothing bad to report really. Fitting is a very personal issue when it comes to IEMs, but I’m fine. Comfort, …well it’s an over-the-ear design, so what do you expect. Yeah, the cable is noticeable when you wear them.

Bass

You know the feeling. The song starts, then 10-20 seconds into it the bass line kicks in. …Kicks! With the SE110’s it just doesn’t happen. For example Haddaway - What Is Love, the bass line never quite arrives.

It’s bass that you hear, whereas the UE Metro.fi have bass you can feel. Sometimes you want to think “the bass line is coming, I’m going to get a nice thump.” but it never really happens like that. Coming from the Metro.fi, it’s a bit of a letdown at first, but you will get used to it.

SQ

A quick listen to Lisa Stanfield’s - What did I do to you? these perform well. Sound staging is better than the dance tracks I’ve been playing. The cymbals are coming in on the far bottom left hand corner, with a nice percussion piece in the top right hand corner. All is well really.

Shure vs. UE

The Shure sound more natural and neutral, but only with vocal and instrumental music. I read a review where it says something like, ‘Shure puts the music around you, whereas UE puts you in the music’. I think I know what they mean. The Shure seem to want to show you their sonic skills and talents, whereas the UE feel as though they want you to enjoy yourself with the music, you know, really get involved, have you singing and dancing around the room.

The UE feel very commercial, with the midrange losing ground to the bass and treble. The Shure are even, but the UE will get your feet tapping more! The UE simply put a bigger smile on your face.

As an overall package, both have faults. The Shure cable hurts, and the Metro.fi cables are stiffer than my Nan’s dead parrot! Ask me which ones I’d take home, and the answer will depend on what mood I’m in.

Conclusion

I don’t believe there’s one headphone manufacturer that caters for all musical tastes 100% of the time. Sometimes I want a bit of bass slam, so I turn to my UE, Bose or the AKG, sometimes I want to relax with my Roland’s. The Shure aren’t particularly bad, but these are headphones that I’d have to be in the mood for. The Metro.fi I want 90% of the time, but when I want to lie back and relax, then I’d pick the Shure.

If you’re into vocal and instrumental music, then these will perform well, but there again, the UE will do just as well. So;

• Good if you want to relax
  
• Good if you like vocal and instrumental music
• But don’t discount the UE Metro.fi 2 (now Metro.fi 200)
• If you want to relax, what’s wrong with the Roland RH50?

Deals & A Big Warning!

There are loads of deals going on right now for the Shure SE110, especially on ebay.co.uk. Retailing at £50, I’ve seen them for as low as £29.99 with free shipping. BUT BEWARE! Shure earphones do have a reputation for unreliability, especially with the cables. Shure will exchange them if there’s a fault, but word on the street is, that they’re tightening up on their warranty and now they’ll only exchange them if you’ve bought from an authorised dealer, and you need a proof of purchase. As far as I can see, that doesn’t include EBay. Amazon it is then. And buy from Amazon, not from the vendors on Amazon.

Over an hour in now…

RP-21, JBL 410, iGrado, Yuin and now Kam.

These are new headphones that we’ll be banging on about until you get the message!

The Kam KHP 1500 are gob smackingly good headphones. But right now you can grab a bargain care of its baby brother, the KHP 1000 headphones. Bound to be far better than the usual sub £20 headphones! So get in there, and yes, I’ll probably be bidding as well. I simply think, these will be the best sub £20 headphones, you’ll buy, before 2008 ends! So get these in and enjoy Christmas with some decent sound.

Thinking about my first impressions of the Goldring GX200 earphones, I said that basically they weren’t that good. Looking back, I’ve noticed that the frequency response is fairly flat. On reflection, flat response is a good thing, not a bad thing.

we’re all used to commercial sound

There are many different types of headphones and earphones. Studio, DJ, open, closed, portable etc, etc, and each manufacturer put their interpretation of how music should sound. Some manufacturers are fairly even on the products they produce. Sennheiser are safe and warm, Ultimate Ears lean towards bass, Sony are rubbish, Bose lean towards bass.

Roland RH50

On comparison with the Sennheiser HD212, AKG K518 and Kam KHP 1500, the Roland RH50 sound flat and boring. There are no peaks in the frequency range. No exaggerated bass, no tinny highs. Because most of us are used to commercial headphones where some frequencies are exaggerated, experiencing flat response headphones will lead to heavy criticism.

So was I too hard on the GX200?

Maybe I was, however the DR range headphones lean towards the shrill side of being detailed, the earphones lean towards a warm flat response. Even with that said, I still go for the Metro.fi 2 earphones.

New Denon AH-C252. A few pictures for you.

Click the image to enlarge, but you already knew that didn’t you!

The new entry level Denon AH-C252 are very good on first impressions. However, I’ve had them burning in for less than 30 minutes (listening to Michael Jackson ‘Man In The Mirror’ at the moment). In the UK, these are less than a pair of replacement ipod earphones.

Denon AH-C252 vs Ultimate Ears Metro.fi 100

Quickly ’cause I’ve got to see a man about a dog. The Denon’s are forward sounding compared to the UE’s. The UE’s sound more grounded, the bass is firmer. Listening to Public Enemy - Bring The Noise, which is a fairly fast track, the vocals are very enhanced compared to the Metro.fi 100’s. However the highs are rolled off with the Denon’s where as the Metro.fi’s are more generous. The bass is also slightly deeper than the 252’s.

Gotta go, but I’m gonna let the Denon’s burn in for a few days, then later, you’ll get a full run down. As for now, its the Ultimate Ears Metro.fi 100 is where my money would go on.

Oh, final thing, The AH-C252’s have the most secure felling of any IEM I’ve ever had! Maybe that’s something to thing about for all you joggers out there!

What do you get, if you cross the openness of the great pair of headphones like the Grado iGrado’s, with the bass weight of the AKG K81 DJ (518) headphones and the design similar to the Ultrasone DJ headphones or the Equation Audio RP21 headphones?

You Get the Amazing Kam KHP 1500 Pro Headphones.

And you need to be aware of these headphones. Another hidden treasure has been found!

After the mildly disappointing Creative Aurvana DJ headphones, I really thought that would be it, with me and DJ headphones. However I braved the DJ headphone world again, and put my trust in the Kam KHP 1500 headphones, and I haven’t been disappointed.

The best thing is that they’ve just comes straight out of the box and they sound brilliant. Usually when you get a pair of headphones, brand new headphones, they take a bit of warming up. With the Stax SR-001 MKII headphones, I could have easily sent them back in the first hour, but with the Kam’, they sound really, really impressive.

Yes I’m going to let them burn in (and we at headphonedeals believe in burn-in), but they’re already making an impression on me already. The midrange is quite forward, and the bass is well controlled and defined. These aren’t flat response headphones like the Roland RH50 headphones, but being classed as ‘DJ‘ headphones, you wouldn’t expect them to be.

In short, the Kam KHP 1500 headphones are winners, despite the weight and bulkiness that you would usually associate with DJ headphones.

I have to go out now, that’s why this is a quick post, but I can’t wait to get back to them tonight.

Full review coming, and expect to hear a lot more about these headphones in the future, and better pictures!

Over 65% price slash for Denon AH-D501 (left) and Denon AH-d301 (right) headphones. This price cut is huge and I mean huge. This is your chance to get a great sound for almost a third of the retail price. This is a big headphone deal!

I got mine, where’s yours? This is a chance to get away from the usual names and go for some decent sound at a very affordable price. The sound (taking my 301’s into consideration) is nothing but first class. Very detailed, but they are a touch light when it comes to bass.

£13.53 - Denon AH-D301 - Currently. Hurry!

The headband is the only downside to these headphones, but the sound is crystal clear, and I mean crystal clear for the price. And at the new price deal, you’ll struggle to do better.

£18.97 - Denon AH-D501 - Please Hurry!

Here are some views on the Denon AH-D501

http://headphonedeals.org/2008/03/04/denon-ah-d501-quick-review/

http://headphonedeals.org/q-review/denon-ah-d501-review/

http://headphonedeals.org/2008/03/01/denon-ah-d501-the-not-a-review/

Do The Denon AH-P372 headphones represent good value for money?

Denon AH-D1000 coming down sharply in price, I’m wondering if the new Denon AH-P372 are worth it. The new(ish) AH-P372 are still going for a very high price. On EBay they’re going to set you nearly $70. In Europe (UK) you’ll pay around £45-50 (around $90 USD). But with the original D1000’s starting from $72.90AH-P372’s going to look a little over priced? Well, I know where my money would be going!<p

Spot the difference?

Well, there is a fair bit of difference, or is there? They do look like they’ve both been cut from the same clothe. Obviously its the ear cups that look remarkably similar. Separated at birth? The ear cups are.

Sony MDR-F1

Pro studio Stereo Audio Mix DJ Headphone Earphone 980

Graham Slee Bargains

As I can see there are two Graham Slee amps that we all should be ‘chomping at the bit’ for. The Solo and the Voyager portable amp (going for a very reasonable starting bid I hasten to add). The Voyager in particular, is staring at £90.00, which is nearly half the retail price….. and there’s no one biding yet, which is a surprise to me. “Get in there!” I say.

As for the Solo, That retails for £333.49 and the offer starts at £250.00. In Graham Slee terms, an absolute bargain!

I’ve always been curious about the Project head box amp. On the seen long before the flood of amps came on the market, it’s a clean looking amp for those seriously wanting to upgrade their headphone system. When it comes to home amps, I’ve always considered this the be the baby of the bunch, but not in terms of sound. I’m sure it’ll give many portable amps a good run for their money!

Anyway, this should be a fairly modest bid.

Click the image for more info.