(NEW) Philips H5209 Over-Ear Headphones

On paper these show so much promise. I'll get this out of the way right now: I don't care about ANC. I've owned one pair of ANC headphones and only found them helpful on airplanes. Otherwise it's not a feature I have ever prioritized. The ANC worked well enough for me on transit and I'm sure it would be helpful with the constant hum of a jet engine. I got these specifically so I ~wouldn't~ have to invest in ulta-lux ANC features like what Sony or Bose have to offer. All review and comparison sites indicated that these headphones offered good sound with absolutely no other frills, which is right up my alley.More on my needs and expectations: I have some premium cabled equipment that I use sitting at home or will commute with if it isn't raining. Otherwise, if I'm at the gym or the weather is wet, I will typically use my bluetooth gym earbuds - JBL Endurance Race. They are a party vibe and have enough clarity and separation. They don't distinctly excel in those realms. That's not why I bought them. I bought them to sweat and/or wake up for work, and my expectations of them are realistic. What I am looking for is a more mature, well-balanced sound from an over-hear headphone now that the weather is getting cold again and I have some long flights booked for next year. My Crusher Evos are extremely fun, but again I'm ready for something more refined that will treat bass as a place to find detail, not just as a place for energy. The Crushers also bleed WAY too much to use on commutes. I did not go into this expecting the same quality as my at-home-only open-backs.I make it a point to listen to new devices in the morning. I don't listen to any devices until I'm out the door and starting my commute. Too distracting, but this means my ears are not precooked with any particular sound profile and well rested from yesterday's adventures.7hz-40khz on neodymium magnets is always a promising foundation. They did indeed deliver on that promise. The bass was rather well textured and had a compelling amount of depth. Punchy in the right places, but not overdone. Good sub-bass rumble. The heartbeat drums at the beginning of Ascension by Big Wild had such good concussion in the ears. On the high end, these really shine with brilliance in the high treble regions. I was able to hear fine details at very high pitches on these headphones. These headphones accomplish this without sounding sibilant. These weren't "airy" at all, but where they excelled, their performance was more than fair. I was shocked by these qualities coming from such a modestly priced product.These headphones really flew off the rails at the mids. The vocal range is bloated and instrumentation is crowded. That effect where it sounds like the vocalist is singing into a box... it was especially boxy with KD Lang and Marisa Monte - the kinds of female vocals that are somewhat deeper and more resonant. Even a sandy-textured voice like Adele had this weird timbre like she was singing through a foam cup. Jesse Rutherford was unlistenable. Look how they massacred my boy. I had to use the equalizer in the app to pull the 1khz slider down at least five decibels to reign in the boxy sound, but then when I moved on to Stevie Nicks and Ann Wilson, their vocals were shoved behind the energetic treble and bass. The upper and lower harmonics of the mids were however still present... it was just a pileup. I don't want to have to EQ between every song.The qualizer app is cool and useful, but it took a long time to create a profile could stand across multiple genres and sound like a train wreck in the mids. Not everyone has spent as much time as I have playing with these things. Less tech savvy users will rip these headphones off immediately and not look back. If it took me this long to find the right sound, there's not much hope for anyone less experienced than I am who had the same problem.Touch controls are simple and very effective. I had to get used to where I put my fingers when adjusting them or taking them on or off, but that comes with the territory of touch controls. The "hand over ear" gesture to temporarily allow for listening was a great addition. The fit is pretty comfortable. I am rather short and have a smaverage-sized head and smallish ears. I didn't find them tight but not exceptionally tight for such new headphones, but could understand why a larger person may find them uncomfortable. The cups fit completely around my ears. I think a person with a bigger head or ears than mine might have their ears pressed down by the padding. I don't know how that may influence their sound experience.I am ultimately disappointed. TAH8506s did the high and low ends with so much grace and detail, but the mids just... ruined the experience. Sad to see so much wasted potential from the high and low ends. Were these just tuned awkwardly or did I get a lemon? I soooo want to love them as an unglamorous underdog that punches above its weight on the high and low end, but the mids just don't cut it. Uuugh.