Hifiman Sundara vs Philips SHP9600

This is a planar magnetic over-ear open back headphone that comes in right at around $350. So let's take a look. This review unit was sourced through ...

So, all the different elements that compose the music that I listened to were extremely well defined and distinguished from each other. I never felt l...

Seriously? For me, however, the dealbreaker was comfort. The housings on these things are very large and the clamping force is substantial. No matter how much I adjusted them, the pads on the housings pressed hard on the back of my ears and the bottom rear of my jaw, and I found that I could wear them for much more than thirty minutes before I have to take them off. This may have to do with the fact that the ear cup housings do not rotate at all, they are fixed perpendicular to the headband, and thus there's no compensation for pressure differences from the front to the back of the ear cups against your head/ears

Another disclaimer: I returned the Phillips X2hr in favor of my 9500's. The X2's are better sounding and built well, but they're heavy and cost more. I should've kept the X2's to be honest. In the end, the 9500's sounded enjoyable to me and wonderfully close to the X2's sound, so it was an easy return decision to save some cash

Also these are some of the most open headphones ever. If you can hear your music someone 10 feet away can as well. As far as comfort goes they aren't the worst for me. Their pads are scratchy and slightly small, while the headband is just fine

Philips SHP9600 Wired, Over-Ear, Headphones, Comfort Fit, Open-Back 50 mm Neodymium Drivers (Black) + NeeGo Attachable Microphone for Headphones - Gaming and Communication

I’ve had no issues with “build quality” at all. Nothing has loosened and there are no “glued on” parts falling off. The non-swiveling cans are a non-issue to me. I’m using these to listen to music without waking someone down the hall or next door, not to be a DJ in a club somewhere

I love my apartment but it has a great amount of low level ambient noise. This motivated me to try headphones. I dove into researching what Amazon had to offer and settled on Phillips.