But what makes the Fidelio L1 so special? Clearly: The sum! The Philips is not a specialist, but an all-rounder for all music genres - and especially all areas of application.
The workmanship and materials used are top quality! This can simply talk no evil in mind. The noble appearance makes a very strong impression (aluminum), but would like to be treated as such (leather). After really intensive use, my copy still really looks like new - but I am also very carefully dealt with it.
Since I have a rather narrow head, I find comfort great. Big heads will want a lower pressure, but even then the soft cushion can increase the tolerance limit. Worth mentioning, I find that the sound changed only slightly with pressure. In closed models from Ultrasone, or the AKG K550, the bass volume and tone color varies considerably with changed spacing for drivers.
The Fidelio incidentally falls into the category semi-open (see DT-880), but isolated substantially better than the Beyerdynamic Denon AH-D2000 or my Ultrasone PRO 900. Who however would completely insulate themselves from the outside world, which I rate equal to In-Ear Monitors grab. Isolated for noisy environments the Fidelio never good enough.
But we come to the sound: Compliant and intelligently designed - warm, smooth highs, prominent voices and absolutely homogeneous.
Those who come from the AKG K701, will scold the L1 as a bass spinner, compared to the amount of spin DT-880, the heights appear swallowed, Sennheiser fans will miss the full mid-range and the angled driver of Philips can not compete with the immense space depth of Ultrasone. Praise but that Philips makes mediocrity and my opinion roundest and most homogeneous appearance offers.
Illustrates Technically offers the Philips a clean frequency response, which is, however, tilted warm, so he of the highest emphasis on bass at 40 Hz (impressive!) Drops to Superhochton at 20 kHz. Initially, the bass appears thus striking, but for something Listen-notice that the clean line forms the supposed emphasis on the bass and the sound does not distort or even swallowed details. The presence range of voices at about 2kHz was raised, bringing this space forward. The highs are never sharp and not nervous, but exist. The most impressive is the clean bass that competition trumps loosely by the variety. He provides Punch, fast subsided and good texture.
However, if you actually work in the studio and want to hear error, which is the sound not be bright and thin enough - analytically and sterile of Philips never appears, even if he has a good resolution. The intended use should already be pure music enjoyment on elevated level.
What the Fidelio again apart from the competition is not about the iOS headset (also works beautifully with a Thinkpad), but the fact that an iPhone as a music source has been breathtaking sound. Anyone who has tried a DT-990, HD-650 PRO 900 or to operate with a mobile phone will soon notice that you may not expect a clean interaction. A good headphone amplifier is indispensable in the hi-fi world, but in the middle class can now even without get along well. Although I also have a home DIY headphone amp, but for convenience I put the L1 like simple in the Yamaha speaker amplifier. The gain on KHV is marginal and does not weigh on the simplicity.
For business trips the Philips will long remain my undisputed number one, because currently gives me no other headphone feel that I have here in the hotel room or in a small ICE stereo system.
Finally, I can reiterate that the Fidelio L1 a great success has been possible only - even for EIA! Chance everyone will have a different preference and find an even more suitable model for the competition. But should the measure currently probably no other headphones offer a better and more attractive overall package.
Who still his money is wasted on technically disastrous Beats Studio own fault!
