Philips Fidelio M1

[dalethorn]

I received the Philips Fidelio M1 today, and I am astounded at the sound. Whereas the L1 has a high fidelity treble response (despite a rather emphasized bass), the M1 has essentially no treble. I compared the M1 to the L1, and then I compared the M1 to the v-moda M-80 which has a recessed treble compared to all of my best headphones. The M1 sounds like its treble is 20 db down compared to the M80, and far worse compared to the L1 and Shure 1840, to name a couple of hi-fi headphones. I've seen a couple of frequency response curves on the M1 that suggest the treble isn't that bad, so perhaps this is a quality control issue? The drivers are perfectly matched in output and there's no indication that they're not working correctly.

 

[quadpatch]

Oh wow, that's dissapointing! They were starting to appear on a few audiophile radars with the L1 so I wonder if it was a fluke. Keep us posted with your findings Dale.

 

[dalethorn]

Listening at greater length, there's no question the highs are extremely suppressed. The term "High Fidelity" is written all over the box, and high fidelity it is not. Mid-fi would not apply either. I would say that it sounds slightly better than the worst $250 USD headphone I've ever heard, i.e. the Pioneer SE-MJ591. The 591 sounded completely lifeless, whereas the M1 merely sounds very, very dull.

 

[quadpatch]

Wow, thanks Dale, given how similar our tastes are I am going to give this one a wide birth.

 

[dalethorn]

I was anticipating doing a major text review and youtube video review of the M1, but not now. I had planned to lead off the text review with some notes about my experience with Philips and their rep on Facebook. I asked them several months ago why the M1 was available in Europe in April but not until August in the U.S. He didn't answer directly, just kept saying "wait until August". So I posted questions like "Is the M1 being re-voiced for Americans, with big boosted bass and/or rolled-off highs, and is that the reason for the delay?" To those questions I got dead silence. And of course, now I have my answer. So since Philips was generally dissed on the hi-fi forums for having a "mid-fi" headphone in the L1, with boosted bass that colored the mids somewhat, and nobody wanted to try bass reduction as I suggested, now they've taken a big step backward sonically with the M1. This may be a serious miscalculation on their part, because the Beats for example don't have near the treble suppression that the M1 has. The closest I can think of to the M1's treble (ignoring the Pioneer) is the Bose OE2. The OE2 isn't as bad, and the other portables I have like the B&W P3 and the Harman/Kardon CL are much better. And the M80, somewhat treble shy, is better than those two.

 

[dalethorn]

I finally decided to do a full-on review, with some speculation about a possible source of hearing loss.

http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/forum/headphone-reviews/1737-philips-fidelio-m1-stereo-headphone-full-review.html#post5568

And the Youtube video review:

http://youtu.be/cImnB7QI-e4