Philips Citiscape Uptown Headphone

Philips introduced a few series of headphones targeted at different segment of the market and i got myself the Philips Citiscape Uptown headphone. The segment of market as defined by Philips

The Philips CitiScape Uptown over-ear headset combines premium sound quality and street-savvy style with a comfortable, durable design to deliver a truly immersive sound experience. Inspired by vintage motorcycle gear, these stylish headphones feature noise-isolating memory foam ear cushions and MusicSeal technology to provide complete musical privacy. A quilted leather headband adds to your comfort.

Glossary

Warm:                  

Concerning the tonal balance, lowend, midrange emphasis and neutral to dark sounding highs which leads to a more thick/fullier/meaty or "fun" sound. 

Cold:                   

Concerning the tonal balance, highs emphasis and neutral to dark / recessed lowend (doesn't necessarily have to be) and midrange, especially recession in the upper-bass to lower-midrange. Thin/edgy/sharp analytical sound.

Forward:              

Up-front/in-your-face/powerful/engaging sound. Often results in smaller soundstage and more smeared instrument separation (instruments flows into each other creating a more united sound).

Laid-back:            

Relaxed/distant sound. Often results in bigger soundstage and clearer instrument separation.

(Tonal) balance:  

The relevance/emphasis of the different frequencies compared to each other across the whole sonic spectrum. Results in various amount of clarity or detail and brightness or darkness in the sound etc.

To give a gauge of what I have been listening, my current collection of headphones are :-
1) Ultrasone HFI-780 (closed-backed) - Forward and Cold
2) Sennheiser HD518 (open-backed) - Laid back and Warm
3) Superlux 668B (open-backed) - Forward and Cold
4) Creative Aurvana Live! (closed-backed) - Laid back and Warm
5) AKG Q701 (open-backed)  - Forward and Cold


 
Below comparison will be with respect to all my 5 headphones.

Design
i) Sound Isolation :- 9/10
Ambient noise is not as audible as compared to the closed-backed headphones I have, let alone the open-backed ones.

ii) Build quality :- 10/10
I would say at the given price point, it has excellent build quality with a very psuedo-luxurious look and feel to it. All my other headphones look cheap in comparison to this one. The headband is supposedly air-filled. I would forsee in the near feature a problem with these as air might leak out. In any case, we can always buy a Downtown headband wrapper for our Uptown. The feel I get is akin to getting an iPad instead of an Android Tablet.

iii) Comfort :- 9/10
Comparable to the Creative Aurvana Live! in comfort as it has very soft and plush pleather pads(looks like pleather similar to those on the Creative). The pads cover your ear without problem unlike the HFI-780 and Creative, which has some parts of the pads touching the tip of my ears. Clamping force is a little bit more than the Creative, but not as excessive as any of the other phones.


Sound Signature
i) Soundstage :- 6/10
Very similar in width to the other closed-backed phones. Definitely the open-backed ones has more width to it. Depth-wise, the Citiscape Uptown actually is not very good. I cannot hear the layering of instruments, it is very congested on a straight line. The Creatives has a better depth and width than Citiscape Uptown.

ii) Tonal Balance :- 9/10
I must say everything just blends in together nicely. The tonal balance is so soothing and laidback with enough bass, forward mids and rolled-off trebles. Everything just gels and you are listening to music, not analyzing it. So, like the niche market targeted by philips for the uptown, this is more for casual listener who want to upgrade to mid-fi (I would say very entry-level mid-fi quality). For critical listener, the Philips Uptown just does not cut it. The clarity and details are actually not as good as any of the headphones I owned. If you think Sennheiser's are like listening to music from behind a veil, this one sounds like you are listening to it from behind a curtain. lol. BUT, I still loved it. It's just so soothing and less fatiguing.


Conclusion
I have bought the Citiscape Uptown and I think I will hold on to this headphones. A value-for-money purchase based on the overall package. I got it for usd$120, but that's the max I would pay as the sound feels like a $90 phones but luxurious feel of it is like a $400-500 phones. This would be a SELLOUT if it was priced below usd$90. They are very comfortable and it sound just right for those lazy days and casual listening. No ear fatigue for this one when compared to my Forward and Cold sets of headphones. I guess I like warm and laid-back most days and only the forward and cold when i'm in the mood for some critical listening.

You can get more reviews from Amazon.

Bugbears that might deter you from buying :-
1) Headphone cable that looks filmsy and cannot be unplugged.
2) Ear pads that are GLUED to the headset itself. No option to change again.
3) The air-quilted headband. If air leaks out, how do you change the headband.
4) No 1/4 inch jack.
It seems either Philips are very confident of their quality or they intend to get you to change headphones frequently. In which case, why would I buy a Philips again if i know it will get damaged and I have no option to swop the minor accessories on it.