Fidelio L3 Hybrid Active Noise Canceling Wireless Headphones

These have the most solid and premium build quality of any headphone I've tested in this price range ($200-350). The leather is beautiful and supple, the metal arms seem bombproof, and the plastic used for the earcups is of the highest quality. I love that the leather is used for the earcups, which allows for a cool, very comfortable sensation against the head, as well as the headband. The Fidelio L3 logo is subtly embossed at the center of the headband. The earcups are perfect circles, giving the headphones an elegant and timeless design. In short, I love these headphones. Of course, in this category of high-end ANC headphones, the benchmark is the Sony XM4. I have been testing these Fidelios against my new (Dec 2021) Sony XM4s. In terms of build quality, these L3s *blow the Sony's out of the water.* By comparison, the Sony's feel cheap and like they'll crack at any moment - and, in fact, there are a number of reviewers who have ran into exactly that problem. (Take a look at the numerous images of cracked and useless XM4s on their Amazon page.) The Sony's seem to have a structural weakness at the pivot where the earcup connects to the headband, and too many people for me to feel comfortable with have reported the headphones snapping at that point. Sony customer service refuses to repair or replace these, even if it's within warranty, because they consider it "damage." This has practical consequences; if I want to take a nap with my headphones on, I always choose the Fidelios because the Sony's make me afraid that if I turn on my side and put pressure against the earcup, they will snap. At this price point, Sony should be doing much, much better. My opinion is that Sony has become accustomed to the fact that everyone seems to consider the XM4s the best-in-class, and, as a result, the company has become lazy, seeking to maximize their margins by using cheap plastics, fake leather, and generally neglecting the build quality. Can you imagine dropping $350 on your headphones, only to have them snap on you within a year? That's insane. So, in short, the Fidelios seem to me to offer the best build quality of any headphones in this price range. I think I'll be able to throw them into my bag when I'm rushing off to work or traveling for years to come and not worry about any damage. They are that solid. They are a pleasure to hold and look at. With all of that said, the Fidelios are not as excellent when it comes to the sound and ANC. I can tell that the XM4s have better noise cancelling than the Fidelios. Even worse, I have noticed a very subtle high pitched tone coming from the Fidelios at times, mostly when the volume is up high. I'm still testing to see whether it's a problem with my Bluetooth connection or audio player, but I think it may simply be a defect. The other issue I've noticed is that the mic on the Fidelios hasn't been super clear on my Zoom calls. (I'm on a 2018 Surface 6 Tablet, so that may have something to do with it.) That's a major drawback for me, but it's not an issue when they are plugged in. I also have about 5 or 6 Bluetooth connections going on at the same time and that's caused connectivity issues with the Sony's too, so I need to continue testing once I've reduced the number of Bluetooth connections. When I remove the other Bluetooth connections, I haven't had issues. (In case you run into the same issue, there is a reliable workaround: Get yourself a BT receiver, such as the TP-Link USB Bluetooth Receiver. The issue seems to stem from the BT connections interfering with each other.) This is the first year that the Fidelios have been out and I am confident that with the next iteration, Philips will get better at the ANC. I expect these headphones to quickly overtake the XM4s in the years to come. They just need to develop the audio quality. Philips has phenomenal sound quality on some of its other headphones, such as the open-backed Fidelio X2HRs, which I also love. (The soundstage and overall sound quality on these is noticeably better than the XM4s and Fidelio L3s.) The question is whether the headphone review industry will move on from its fixation on the XM4s, as far as public recognition goes. I highly recommend these headphones, but you will need to test them with your actual use-cases to figure out whether they match what matters most to you.

This is review for Philips Fidelio L3 (amazon somehow dumps different Philips headphones' reviews in the same page so beware...) Build The Philips Fidelio L3 is the most luxurious headphones I've ever seen - the build quality and attention to details is through the roof... Earpieces are made soft leather and just hug your ears even if you are wearing glasses. Top metal enforced frame is also wrapped into real leather and nicely cushioned at the bottom - you can feel that those will last long-long time. Comfort The headphones are a bit heavier than others but they are quite comfortable on my head. Watching a movie for couple of hours - my ears didn't get warm and I didn't feel any discomfort. Ergonomics The buttons are placed on both cups. Power button is slow - need to press it for 3+ seconds to turn them on/off or 5+ seconds to start Bluetooth pairing. Taking them off automatically pauses the music and than they start playing when you put them on - great. If I try to adjust/extend the headphones when they are on my head they stop playing the music too for a second of so which is odd - I think they are trying to switch to the awareness mode... Sound I think sound is very close ideologically to Sony XM4 - both have the very extended bass range which sounds fantastic first few minutes of listening... But then it somehow muffles the mids and highs for me... And yes this is very personal and age dependent - with the years our perception of sound changes a lot so different people do hear different things. My sons absolutely loved the sound of the L3s - they can hear super crisp everything - highs, mids, and lows. They both agreed these are one of the best headphones they ever tried (like me they listened to wide variety of Audiotechnicas, AKG, Sennheiser, Sony, Philips headphones over the years...) But for me the Philips L2 (semiopen) and Philips 9505 (Bluetooth) are by far better headphones for all kinds of music... They are both lighter on the lows and more clear on mids and highs... Bluetooth/Wired/ActiveNoiseCancelling The L3 headphones sound the best when running with the ANC-on. The ActiveNoiseCancelling is great and it doesn't feel like applies any pressure or causes any tiredness over periods of time. The wired mode is big disappointment for me - when wired there is no sound if the L3 headphones are not turned ON... I listen to my Philips 9505 most of the time in the wired mode and they sound absolutely fantastic when power OFF so why did Philips disabled the feature on the top headphones is not quite clear to me...

el audio es muy bueno, el sonido es mas bien calido con buenos bajos, no tan exagerados como los de sony pero hacen su jale bien, el anc funciona genial, no se escucha un siseo como en los prmeros audifonos de sony con anc ni tampoco se siente presion como con los bose quiet comfort mas bien algo similar a ruido blanco muy poco perseptible, la calidad de los materiales es muy muy buena, estoy satisfecho con mi compra definitivamente.

Very good timing thank you

These arrived a day earlier than expected and I was so excited to test them out. So far, the L3s perform very well for the price, noise cancellation is very effective, and it sounds really good with all the songs I've tested on it, it also works quite well for gaming which is sort of a given, however my only complaints thus far is that I can't seem to use these plugged into my PC via both USB-C and the included audio jack, both of which are fairly thin cables, overall though I would recommend these just for their performance alone.

Literally fell apart after a couple weeks of use. Poor sound quality, and also not great for noise cancellation. Don't recommend

Noise cancellation good sound is good battery not that good