The Philips Fidelio L4 is the newest pair of premium wi-fi over-ear headphones to hit the market with the intention of dethroning the Sony WH-1000XM5 as What Hello-Fi?’s high really useful pair.
They arrive throughout a busy time for the market with Bose having additionally unveiled its new flagship QuietComfort Extremely Headphones lower than every week in the past. This will go away some patrons questioning what the Fidelio L4 can provide to distinguish themselves from the competitors.
We have had a quick, preliminary pay attention and play with the wi-fi over-ears at a press occasion in Barcelona, and whereas it’s far too early to present our closing verdict, our expertise with them was optimistic. Listed below are our first impressions.
Worth
The Philips Fidelio L4 will go on sale in “early October” and can retail for £350 / $350. This places them squarely in the identical worth bracket because the Sony WH-1000XM5, which launched with a £380 / $399 / AU$549 price ticket.
Nevertheless, they are going to be considerably cheaper than the Bose QuietComfort Extremely Headphones, which is about to retail for £450 within the UK, $429 within the US and AU$649 in Australia once they debut on the identical time in October.
Construct and luxury
Visually, the Fidelio L4 look so much just like the older Fidelio L3 we reviewed all the best way again in 2021. This implies they’re barely completely different from the XM5 and Bose, that includes distinctly round, versus oval, ear cups.
Regardless of trying just like the L3 at first look, Philips has made some design adjustments. Particularly, they’re now 10 per cent lighter and barely smaller than their predecessors. In a bid to spice up consolation for folks with bigger ears, or earrings, Philips has additionally made the cups’ inside barely bigger, regardless of decreasing their exterior dimensions.
Philips claims the cans have been designed with the identical “no surprises” philosophy as different Fidelio merchandise, which implies all of the supplies are apparently precisely what they seem like. This implies the L4 have gentle, sustainably sourced leather-based design thrives across the outdoors they usually use steel for the hinge and headband’s structural parts. Nevertheless, the interior cushioning is artificial (faux) leather-based.
Choosing them up, they undeniably really feel premium with the hinges feeling suitably rugged to outlive use on the go. Philips additionally claims it’s decreased the L4’s clamping power in a bid to make them extra comfy to put on for extended durations. This made them initially really feel a bit unfastened on the top, although they did nonetheless provide respectable passive noise isolation and felt comfortable throughout our temporary time with them.
The bodily quantity, ANC/mic, Play/Pause, and energy controls additionally had a pleasant tactile click on to them and had been conveniently situated on the underside of the L4’s earcups alongside their USB-C and three.5mm inputs. In contrast to some trendy manufacturers, the L4 additionally comes with a USB cable bundled into their journey case.
The ultimate improve of notice right here is that Philips has elevated the L4’s quoted battery life, promising they’ll now provide 50 hours of playback with ANC off and 40 hours with it on. We didn’t get an opportunity to truly test this determine throughout our demo session, but when correct that might give the Fidelio L4 an edge on the Sony XM5, which gives 30 hours of listening with ANC on and 40 hours with it off, primarily based on our testing.
Options
Options-wise, the L4 ticks a lot of the bins you’d count on from a set of over-ear wi-fi headphones at this worth, plus just a few novel extras.
For starters, the L4 has been upgraded to make use of Bluetooth 5.3 with assist for Google Quick Pair. Based mostly on expertise with different Bluetooth 5.3-compatible headphones, this could make for smoother multipoint and extra seamless wi-fi switching throughout gadgets, although our group of knowledgeable testers might want to test this once we get them in for full assessment.
Assist for LC3 and Sony’s LDAC codec, alongside SBC and AAC, is one other welcome improve meaning they can stream higher-quality audio from supported sources. In addition they assist true hi-res should you plug in by way of the three.5mm headphone jack or USB-C to a suitable supply.
Philips has additionally executed some work to enhance their mic and ANC powers. On the first, Philips has added a brand new voice mic designed to assist eradicate wind noise.
For ANC, Philips has relocated the venting port for the mic that measures exterior noise to the rear of the earcup. This, in concept, ought to assist enhance its capability to fight wind noise, an space we have now discovered the L3 and lots of older wi-fi headphones battle.
I solely received to make use of the headphones in a demo room, which didn’t function any wind noise or particular ANC checks. As a substitute, I solely received to see how the ANC carried out with the background noise of audio journalists wandering in regards to the demo room, which is by all requirements fairly sedate. Nevertheless, the ANC carried out effectively throughout this temporary window, simply blocking out the background conversations occurring within the room.
Sound high quality
Philips made a whole lot of noise in regards to the work it’s executed to enhance the L4’s audio high quality, primarily based on a number of the points our testers had with the older L3. Particularly, the corporate focussed on the L4’s use of a brand new proprietary 40mm driver, with a graphene coating so as to add stiffness. Philips claims this can result in much less distortion and a typically cleaner sound within the midrange and better frequencies.
I solely received likelihood to hearken to a restricted variety of tracks with the Fidelio L4 related by way of Bluetooth to a hi-res FiiO M11S music participant as its supply.
I additionally didn’t have a pair of Sony XM5 or another wi-fi over-ears to do direct comparisons with, so it’s far too early to make any definitive statements on the L4’s audio high quality.
Nevertheless, early impressions had been optimistic. Kicking off our pay attention with David Bowie’s Moonage Daydream, the L4 supplied respectable tonal stability, with no a part of the frequency vary protruding of the gang.
Transferring onto guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani’s In My Pocket, the L4 supplied a properly dynamic sound that matches with the guitar’s energetic, joyful tone, retaining a suitably exact really feel.
Rocking out to Led Zepplin’s Complete Lotta Love, the L4 supplied what appeared like a rhythmically exact rendition that retained the observe’s excessive power. AC/DC’s Rock Or Bust was equally nice with the observe by no means affected by sibilance on the high finish, because it does on most of the cheaper headphones we check.
This left me desirous to get a pair of Fidelio L4 into our listening rooms to correctly check their efficiency compared with our class leaders.
Early verdict
The Philips Fidelio L4 targets a really aggressive section of the market that’s already filled with nice selections and is about to get much more full, due to the arrival of recent rivals such because the Bose QuietComfort Extremely Headphones.
Nevertheless, Philips appears to have taken heed of most of the criticisms we fabricated from its good, however not good, L3 and focussed on getting fundamentals like audio high quality, battery life, and luxury proper over flashy gimmicks. This makes them a reasonably thrilling product and I will be curious to see how they carry out with extra rigorous testing once we get them in for a full assessment.
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