Philips SHP9600 Headphones Review

Better in almost every way

Photo taken by the author.

The Philips SHP9600 is the long-awaited followup to the SHP9500, a model that I and many others heralded many years ago as an excellent choice for both its performance and incredible value.

This new model fixes the small problems the original had…but that comes alongside a significant price increase. For years the classic 9500 has sold for well below its MSRP of $99, dropping as low as the ~$50 mark and most often hovering around $70. It provides an astounding value for that price and as of this writing, it is still on the market.

The SHP9600 has an MSRP of $129.99, and as it’s such a new pair, it hasn’t received any major discounts yet. That’s nearly double the common price of its predecessor, and although I’ll argue that it isn’t “double” the headphone in terms of raw performance, it is still an improvement in every way. The 9600 could even be considered aggressively priced in a hypothetical vacuum where the earlier pair never existed.

After four days of straightening, the cable is still rather springy. Photo taken by the author.

Philips’ official page for this new headphone is right here, and you can find it at a few retail partners as well. I bought mine from Amazon. In the box, you get…