Years ago, I was what you would call an audiophile hater. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine a universe in which paying extra for sound design could matter — I alreadyheardthe music and sound effects, so what more could audiophile gearreallydo?
Retrospectively, I was a bit ignorant of the way that gear and hardware worked. My conversion began when I didn’t share that same opinion with OLED monitors (and later, ultrawide, then super ultrawide monitors), which greatly affected how I viewed gaming and interacted with it as a whole.
I revisited my stance by taking a chance with the most expensive headphones I was willing to buy at the time: the Philips SHP9500. Priced at £70, this first pair went on to breed my obsession with high-grade audiophile gear for years to come.
I landed on the Philips SHP9500 for two reasons: it was affordable for a set of audiophile-grade headphones, and it was one of the most well-received ones in the price range. After all, I wasn’t willing to spend an arm and a leg for high-end headphone gear, given that, at the time, I barely even believed in the existence of such a thing as an “audiophile” experience.
My first time with the SHP9500 changed my mind forever, ingraining an audiophile passion for years to come.
I was never passionate about music or sound design, and high-grade headphones quickly cured me of that disease. Whether it’s listening to music, watching movies, or playing games, high-quality headphones have accompanied me (and my soon-to-be indoctrinated wife) through it all.
It’s hard to explain what exactly clicks about audiophile gear, as every person is slightly different, and different prices give you different experiences. For me, I opted for a type of headphone that allows the most room for sound to feel truly 3D: open-back headphones.
While these suffer from pretty severe noise bleed (which means that audio can be heard by others around you because it’s not built to trap sound inside), they gave the most true immersive experience regarding positioning. They offer the highest-quality surround-sound systems, truly helping you immerse in the experience and hear sounds that, frankly, I’d never heard in my favourite songs after years of listening to them.
Entry-level gear won’t be as mind-blowingly amazing — high-end headphones can even catch subtle sounds like the vibration of a genuine guitar string or the sound of skin rubbing against texture. But it creates an audio experience that’s unrivalled, bringing the sound design closest to the intended experience, with wide audio drivers that allow you to feel like at the centre of anything that you’re listening to.
If you’re looking for a recommendation for beginner gear — and you don’t mind noise bleed — then I heartily recommend the Philips SHP9500, and still stand by what I said inmy review years ago.Closed-back audiophile headphones exist, though I can’t give tried-and-true experiences with those, since I’ve been a loyal fan of open-back since the first day I tried them.
There’s no perfect price point and no perfect entry point. But if you’ve ever played games, love listening to music, or watch content, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by never trying entry-level audiophile gear.
Artura Dawn
Junior Editor
Read more articles by Artura Dawn
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