HeadphoneOverreview

Philips SHP9500

Name: Philips SHP9500
Brand: Philips

The comfort king of budget open-backs, measured eight ways and argued over for a decade: airy and honest, or thin, bright and grainy.

92 sourcesUpdated 2026-09-21

$85Typical US price

Score aggregates reviewer opinions across topics.

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The short version

What to know.

A very light, very open budget headphone with almost no clamp, an airy presentation and an easy 32 Ω load, whose measured response is the same on every rig: sub-bass rolling off from about 100 Hz (−4 to −14 dB at 20 Hz against target), an on-target midrange, a 3–8 dB dip around 2–2.5 kHz and a 3–9 dB peak around 6 kHz. Nearly everyone agrees on the comfort, the open soundstage, the good-for-gaming imaging, the light bass, the lack of slam and — for most of its life — the value. From the same graph the sources then split four ways: an honest, neutral-leaning tuning (RTINGS, most owners) versus an intensely bright, cold one (Crinacle, the Reddit critics); mids that are natural and present versus withdrawn and lacking body; a treble that is bright but never fatiguing versus peaky, sibilant and grainy; and detail that impresses for the money versus below-average resolution dressed up by the treble tilt. It EQs and pad-swaps well (a thicker pad adds 3–4 dB of bass and takes 3–4 dB out of the presence region), a fifth of the recent Amazon complaints are a channel dying within months, and whether $85 is still a bargain depends on the sale price and on the HD 560S, HE400se and FiiO rivals that now sit beside it.

About this product

Open-back over-ear with a 50 mm dynamic driver, 32 Ω / 101 dB, about 320 g, cloth pads that are glued on (a pad swap means pulling them off), and a detachable single-sided 3.5 mm cable — 3 m in the box. The SHP9500S (2016–19) is the same headphone with a 1.5 m cable, no pouch and no 6.3 mm adapter; the SHP9600 (2021) is the official successor and measures warmer, with about 2 dB more bass and 3–4 dB less presence. Philips's own US page now calls the SHP9500 discontinued, but a new production run is on sale in 2026 — through third-party sellers on Amazon at $85 against a $99.99 list, on AliExpress and Taobao for $30–50, and officially in India — with different cup printing and, by one owner's account, stiffer pads and a firmer clamp than the original. Not the closed SHP-series models.

The SHP9500 is the headphone that a 2015 Z Reviews video turned into the internet's default answer to 'cheap open-back?' — a big, featherlight Philips with cloth pads, a standard 3.5 mm socket that takes a V-MODA BoomPro boom-mic cable, and a price that spent years bouncing between $50 and $100. It became the budget gaming headset of a generation and, for many people, their first taste of open-back space.

A decade later it is also one of the hobby's favourite arguments. Eight measurement rigs agree on exactly what it does — a rolled-off sub-bass, a 2 kHz dip and a sharp 6 kHz peak — and the reviews then split on what that sounds like: a clean, neutral gateway or a cold, grainy one that newer $60–100 headphones have passed. This rebuild draws on 89 sources: the rigs, every Head-Fi review, a 2,000-post owner thread, a dozen Reddit arguments and 9,000 Amazon ratings.

A good fit for

First-open-back buyers who want a comfortable, easy-to-drive gateway that runs off anything
Gamers who want a light, spacious open-back with reliable directional cues and a standard socket for a boom-mic cable
Listeners who like a bright, airy, detail-forward presentation and do not need much bass
Long-session wearers who prize featherweight comfort and near-zero clamp above everything
Tinkerers happy to run oratory1990's EQ or swap pads to add bass and calm the 6 kHz peak

Think twice if

You want sub-bass rumble, weight or slam — it is deliberately lean and distorts if you force the lowest octave
You are treble-sensitive or hate sibilance and grain — the 6 kHz peak is on all eight rigs and some owners could not EQ it away
You need isolation, share a room, or record with a microphone nearby
You have a small head or large ears — the clamp is too loose for some and the cups too shallow for others
You want a warm, rich or 'fun' signature out of the box — look at the SHP9600, X2HR or a pad swap instead

The reviewer consensus

Agreement &
disagreement.

4 / 12topics divide opinion

2 Strong agreement6 Mostly agree4 Divided opinions

Common ground9

Exceptionally light (~320 g) with a very low clamp and huge cups — the single most repeated praise across a decade of reviews.
Bass is light: every rig shows sub-bass rolling off below ~100 Hz with no mid-bass hump; what remains is tight and clean.
The tuning is bright of neutral, with a measured 2–2.5 kHz dip and a 6 kHz peak that every fixture sees.
A big, open, airy presentation with imaging good enough that gamers have relied on it for footsteps for ten years.
Not a punchy headphone — slam and impact are missing, and pushing the sub-bass with EQ runs into distortion.
Open-back: no isolation, heavy leakage, home use only.
Trivially easy to drive (32 Ω, 101 dB) — a phone or motherboard jack is enough, though several owners say it tightens up with a real source.
Responds well to EQ (oratory1990's preset is the standard fix) and to pad swaps, which add bass and take out presence.
Cheap to keep alive: standard 3.5 mm cable, pads and headband replacements are easy to find, and many units have lasted 5–10 years.

Points of contention8

Tonality: a flat, honest neutral-leaning gateway to some; cold, thin and intensely bright to others.
Mids: natural and present vocals to one camp; slightly withdrawn, light on body and grainy to the other.
Treble: bright but never fatiguing (RTINGS, Alex Rowe, treble-sensitive owners) versus peaky, sibilant and grainy (Crinacle, DIY-Audio-Heaven, most critics).
Detail: impressive clarity and separation for the money, or below-average resolution that the treble peak dresses up as detail.
Soundstage size: a huge, immersive stage to most; merely average for an open-back, wide not deep, to a steady minority.
Comfort for smaller heads and larger ears: 'vanishes on the head' versus slides off, shallow cups and itchy, hot cloth pads.
Durability: five-to-ten-year units versus a recent run of channels dying within months.
Value in 2026: still the budget open-back to beat at $50–65, or a $85 headphone that the HE400se, HD 560S and FiiO have passed.

A closer listen.

12 topics · 4 divided

Left: criticalRight: positiveTighter lines: more agreement

Choose a topic

Tonality

Leans criticalDivided opinions

Reviewer sentiment31 supporting sources

CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Sources split on the same graph. One camp — RTINGS, DIY-Audio-Heaven, Home Studio Basics and most long-term owners — hears a flat, honest, neutral-leaning tuning that is refreshingly free of bass bloat and a good first 'audiophile' sound. The other — Crinacle, Earmass, Headphonesty and the sharper Reddit and Head-Fi critics — hears the rolled-off bass and the 6 kHz peak as a cold, thin, intensely bright signature that does not deserve its HD 600 comparisons. Both agree it is bright of neutral and that a bass shelf plus a treble cut brings it a long way.

Measured

Eight rigs draw the same curve: on-target from 100 Hz to 1.5 kHz, a 3–8 dB dip centred at 2.0–2.5 kHz, and a 3–9 dB peak at 5.9–6.5 kHz (oratory1990 GRAS: −2.9 dB at 2.1 kHz, +6.9 dB at 6.2 kHz against Harman 2018; Crinacle KEMAR: −4.3 dB at 2.5 kHz, +9.4 dB at 6.3 kHz). Against an HD 600 on the same rig it sits 2–3 dB lower at 2–3 kHz and 2–9 dB higher at 5–8 kHz — the physical basis of both 'neutral' and 'bright'. RTINGS scores the signature 'Flat' with treble 'Balanced'; Crinacle labels it 'Bright' with a C tone grade.

vs. listeners — The graph supports both readings: the midrange really is neutral, and the top end really is elevated. Which one dominates depends on listening level (Earmass hears it turn 'really bright' as the volume goes up), on how sensitive your ears are to a 6 kHz peak, and on the reference — owners upgrading to an R70x or Edition XS come back describing it as thinner and more sibilant than they remembered.

Where it splits

Flat, honest and neutral-leaning — a clean gateway sound.45%

“If you want to get into the audiophile sphere, these cans are a good start, thanks to their flat and neutral sound.”
RTINGS (Sam Vafaei, Vanessa McCuaig)

Cold, thin and intensely bright — not the HD 600 it was sold as.55%

“Decent imaging chops held back by its intensely bright presentation and below-average resolution.”
Crinacle (headphone ranking list)

Link to this topic

The hardware

Specifications.

Checked 2026-09-22

Design

Type: Open-back over-ear
Drivers: 1 × 50 mm driver

Electrical

Impedance: 32 Ω
Frequency response: 12 Hz – 35 kHz

Connection

Cable: Detachable, single-entry
Plugs supplied: 3.5 mm, 6.35 mm

Physical

Weight: 320 g
Dimensions: 170 × 100 × 200 mm

Manufacturer-published figures, not measurements · from documents.philips.com.

Follow the evidence

Sources 92

Read with context

Limitations & method.

As of 2026-09-21

What to keep in mind 8

A read of where the reviews land in September 2026. The SHP9500 has been discontinued, revived and re-launched more than once since 2014, so the price swings a lot — $30 to $100 depending on where and when you buy — and 'is it still worth it?' really depends on today's number and what the HD 560S, HE400se and FiiO's JT1 cost that week.
The pairs on sale in 2026 come from a new production run with different printing on the cups, and at least one owner replacing an old pair found the new pads stiffer and the clamp firmer. All of the measurements and most of the impressions here are of the original run.
The SHP9500 and SHP9500S are the same headphone with a different cable and box; the SHP9600 is a warmer successor, so impressions of the three blur together in forums.
How bright, grainy or sibilant the treble sounds depends heavily on your volume, your ears and your music — the 6 kHz peak reads at +3 dB on one rig and +9 dB on another, and treble-sensitive owners land on both sides.
It responds strongly to EQ and to pad swaps, and a large share of long-term owners run oratory1990's preset or thicker pads, so their impressions describe a different headphone from the stock one.
Owner star ratings skew positive, since they mostly come from people who chose to buy it; the Head-Fi average is a self-selected enthusiast score from 14 reviews, most of them a decade old.
It is open-back, so it leaks and blocks nothing — all of this assumes a quiet room.
Reviewers constantly compare it to the HD 600, HD 598/599, Fidelio X2HR and budget planars, so some takes are relative to those rather than standalone.

Where to buy Product & retailer links

Philips SHP9500 Amazon

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