Philips SHP9500  Headphones Review

These headphones have a flat sound signature that rolls off the bass range, while maintaining clarity and detail in the mid and treble ranges.

We've created a downloadable folder of EQ settings you can use to align these headphones with some of the target curves in our graphing tool.

The frequency response consistency is good. They're prone to slight inconsistencies in treble and bass delivery due to positioning and fit. However, once you take the time to ensure a good fit, you'll get consistent audio delivery each time you use them, regardless of your facial characteristics.

Their bass profile's target compliance is passable. They lack a lot of low bass, which is normal from open-back headphones, so mixes are light on thump and rumble. However, their high bass matches our curve well, adding warmth and boom to kick drums without overwhelming vocals and instruments.

These cans have an outstanding mid-range target compliance. The range is very even, ensuring that vocals and instruments sound natural and clear in mixes. In songs like Pruitt Igoe by Philip Glass, the cascading strings and piano halfway into the track are smooth and accurate.

These over-ears have excellent treble target compliance. The mid-treble is slightly over-emphasized, adding a touch of sharpness to sibilant sounds (S and T). Besides a couple of small dips, the rest of the range is relatively smooth, with little noticeable harshness that can impact your listening experience.

The peaks and dips performance is good, which indicates the headphones control their sound profile well. The low bass is very balanced, with little deviation from the over sound profile. Similarly, the mid-range is very even for a balanced voicing. A small dip where the high-mids transition to the low-treble hurts the intelligibility of vocals a touch. The rest of the low treble is a bit over-emphasized, adding extra brightness to vocals. The headphones' slightly uneven mid-treble can make sibilants like cymbals alternatingly piercing or slightly dulled.

The stereo mismatch performance is good, indicating that these headphones' L/R drivers have tight tolerances. While there are minor fluctuations in amplitude between the left and right channels across the frequency range, they're not noticeable with everyday audio content. Similarly, while there's a peak in the phase response in the high-treble, it happens in a range that we lose sensitivity to over time, so it won't be noticeable.

The Philips SHP9500 have an okay group delay performance. There are some peaks in the group delay in the low-bass region that are unlikely to translate to loose bass notes, as the headphones' frequency response doesn't extend that low anyway. Group delay is low across the rest of the frequency range, though, resulting in transparent audio reproduction.

The Philips SHP9500 are able to create a decent perception of distance and space in your audio. While their PRTF response differs quite a bit from that of an angled loudspeaker, they're still able to add an immersive quality to recordings or video games.

The harmonic distortion performance is great. While distortion is somewhat elevated in the bass range at both regular and loud listening levels, our ears aren't very sensitive to audio coloration in this band and distortion is low across the rest of the frequency range. As a result, audio reproduction is clean and pure regardless of the volume you listen to music at.

You won't need an amp or DAC to drive these headphones—they're capable of reaching high listening levels while connected to mobile end devices, like phones or laptops.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Philips SHP9500 have a utilitarian design that looks good without being too flashy. They come in a matte black color scheme highlighted by the metal frame and Philips branding on the ear cups and headband. They're well-padded and look more premium than other headphones above their price range. The ear cup padding is soft. However, it's not the best and looks a little cheaper than the rest of the build quality. For headphones with a slightly sleeker look, see the Philips SHP9600.

These over-ears are very comfortable. They have large ear cups that easily fit around most sizes of ears, and their fit isn't too tight or heavy on the head. The headband and ear cups are well-padded, making them great for long listening sessions. However, the padding is made from a slightly rough fabric, which can irritate the skin.

These headphones aren't designed to be portable. They're quite large and don't fold into a more compact format. The ear cups also don't lay flat to save space, so they're bulky if you want to put them into a backpack. However, this won't be much of a problem since they're intended for use at your desk.

These headphones are decently well-built. They're mostly made of plastic with a thin metal headband to help reinforce their frame. However, the fabric padding seems to tear easily and will show wear faster than leather padding. The swiveling ear cups also feel like a weak point since they can break under moderate stress. If you want something that looks and feels a bit more premium and durable, check out the similarly-performing Philips Fidelio X2HR or the Philips Fidelio X3.

These headphones have a fairly stable fit. They'll stay in place if you're listening to audio at your desk. However, they're still big and bulky, so if you move your head a lot, the headphones can easily slip off your head. Luckily, the audio cable is detachable, so it'll disconnect from the headphones if you accidentally hook them on something.

• Philips SHP9500 headphones
• 1/8" to 1/4" adapter

The Philips SHP9500 aren't designed to block out background noise. Their open-back design allows the environment's ambient sound to mix with your audio, helping to create a more immersive audio experience. They slightly block very high frequencies. If you're looking for audiophile headphones that block background noise, check out closed-back headphones, like the Sony MDR-7506 instead.

As expected of open-back headphones, these have terrible noise isolation in common scenarios. You're best off using them in quiet spaces because environmental sounds like people chatting and the general racket associated with transportation will all reach your ears virtually unaffected.

These headphones have an open-back design meant to leak audio so sound can interact with your environment and create a more immersive sound. As a result, people around you can hear your audio, even at moderate volume.

These headphones come with a long, detachable 1/8" TRS cable and a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter so you can connect them to standard-sized headphone outputs. Thanks to their low impedance and somewhat high sensitivity, you can also use them without an amp, and because these are analog headphones, their latency is imperceptible.

You can connect these headphones to your PC via analog, but you can only receive audio since they don't have a mic.

You can plug their analog cable into your PlayStation console's AUX port for audio support. However, they're audiophile headphones and don't have a mic.

You can plug these headphones into your Xbox controller's AUX port and receive audio. Since they don't have a mic, you can't chat with others.