My review (sent them back since):
The mid-low tones have been heavily boosted with these headphones (perhaps to compensate for a lack of ‘real’ deep bass), creating a very ‘warm’ sound. Some may like this, but it sounds very unnatural.
Furthermore, despite the open back, there is no spaciousness to the sound at all. If you want accurate positioning of instruments (or for video games), avoid these.
However, the fit and comfort of the ear cushions and the band were excellent.
If the SHP9500 has a “similarly performing successor, the Philips SHP9600”, then I’d like to leave my review here:
The mid-bass is heavily ‘boosted’ with these headphones potentially to compensate for the lack of ‘true’ deep bass. This creates a very warm sound.
Some may like that but it sounds very unnatural.
Despite the open-back the sound lacks spaciousness (difficult to position instruments or objects in video games).
The best thing about this are the fit and the confort of the pads and the band.
Today I saw the LG C5, LG G5 and the Samsung S95D at a store, in close proximity of each other.
What immediately stood out to me was how good the Samsung S95D’s reflection handling was compared to the LG TVs. This also meant it had the best blacks, because there were no reflections disturbing the content. Including at angles (slight and extreme), which cannot be said about QLED TVs like The Frame. The Samsung S93D (apparently this is a rebadged S90D) was also good.
The anti-reflective properties of the LG OLED TVs on the other hand were nothing special. I didn’t notice a difference compared to for example the HiSense TVs that were also in the store. I wouldn’t use them close to a window or if you have bright objects in your room (like white wallpaper) as they will be reflected. Even with their high brightness, the reflections were very distracting.
I highly recommend that you go to a store in person to check out the TVs in person.
The downsides are no Dolby Vision (IQ) which is unfortunate as there’s a lot of content for that, but LG also lacks that. And no DTS (not even passthrough), but LG also lacks that. A shame if you have Blu Rays.
Since Sony has already announced that despite using a Samsung panel, the Bravia 8 II will not have a matte screen, I am waiting to see if Philips, Panasonic or other brands will try to compete with Samsung in displaying content instead of the room.
I am a little confused about the matte finish screen, I saw some people saying that even on a completely dark room you can see problems with the matte finish, they said that you loose depth on the picture and have a little blooming too, so even in a dark room the tv doesn’t get that perfect blacks like LG OLEDs? also, my room is totally dark but my walls are white, so even the brightness of the TV itself could bounce back from the white wall to the TV, this wouldn’t raise my contrast even on a dark room?
Today I saw the LG C5, LG G5 and the Samsung S95D at a store, in close proximity of each other.
The Samsung S95D had, without a doubt, the best reflection handling. This also meant it had the best blacks, because there were no reflections disturbing the content. Including at slight and extreme angles.
The anti-reflective properties of the LG OLED TVs on the other hand were nothing special. I wouldn’t use them close to a window or if you have bright objects in your room as they will be reflected. Even with their high brightness, the reflections were very distracting.
I highly recommend that you go to a store in person to check out the Samsung 2024 OLED TVs, even if you are also considering a glossy TV like the LG. Depending on your use case and room, the effective black levels of the S95D may be better.
The downsides are no Dolby Vision (IQ) which is unfortunate as there’s a lot of content for that. And no DTS (not even passthrough), but LG also lacks that. A shame if you have Blu Rays.
Thanks for the feedback and I fully agree with you, it shouldn’t get a passing grade. We have a new methodology update for TVs coming later this week, and I can tell you now that this TV no longer gets a passing grade on the new methodology and scoring, mixed usage drops to a 5.9, for example.
As for the eye health, we can’t really comment on that. Hisense releases different models in different regions, so there’s a possibility that that certification only applies to EU/UK models, since you’re linking to the UK Hisense page.
So happy to hear about your new methodology.
Will you also re-assess the Samsung The Frame getting a 9.9 rating for flickering? Only only one mode is more or less ‘flicker free’ (movie mode, which gives 67.5 ms input lag), the rest is flickering at 120 Hz or even 60 Hz, which is plainly visible.
It flickers at a very fast 960Hz in the ‘Movie’ Picture Mode, but all other picture modes, including Game Mode, flicker at a much slower 120Hz, which can cause image duplications or headaches if you’re sensitive to flicker. With ‘LED Clear Motion’ enabled, the TV only flickers at 60Hz.
The review correctly states “its SDR accuracy is abysmal”, so how can this get a passing grade or even higher (7.3) for mixed usage, TV shows (7.2), and a high grade (8.1) for PC monitor use?
“This TV’s pre-calibration accuracy is terrible. It’s way too cold even on its warmest setting, and blues are extremely overrepresented in almost all shades of gray (…)”
For the described use cases, where most of the content is in SDR, this product is basically insufficient unless you spend money and effort to calibrate it yourself.
At least it doesn’t flicker like hell, which Samsung The Frame does (despite strangely getting a 9.9 rating for this from RTINGS, only one mode works properly).
The timeline is normal as we receive new TVs faster than we can test them. We’re getting through our backlog now but we have limited testing resources.
Maybe best to change the wording from “Unpacking” to just “Product received” or something. What OP means is that it’s strange to write that one spends 3 weeks on ‘unboxing’.
Comparison with this, Samsung frame, and the Hisense competitor all at once would be great too. Particularly interested in which is best for gaming. Wife really wants a TV like this but I’m skeptical.
I eagerly await the TCL NXTFRAME review as the competition is not of acceptable quality.
“This TV’s pre-calibration accuracy is terrible. It’s way too cold even on its warmest setting, and blues are extremely overrepresented in almost all shades of gray (…)”
At least it doesn’t flicker like hell, which Samsung The Frame does (despite strangely getting a 9.9 rating for this from RTINGS, only one mode works properly):
“It flickers at a very fast 960Hz in the ‘Movie’ Picture Mode, butall other picture modes, including Game Mode, flicker at a much slower 120Hz, which can cause image duplications or headaches if you’re sensitive to flicker. With ‘LED Clear Motion’ enabled, the TV only flickers at 60Hz.”
I mean Game Mode is pretty much essential on that TV to get acceptable input lag:
1080p @ 60Hz: 10.5 ms
1080p @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode: 95.8 ms
So then the TV flickers.
With a TV that flickers at 120 Hz almost everyone is bound to get headaches when playing video games on that thing.
The 24p judder results seem to be copied from the Samsung The Frame review:
“The Samsung The Frame 2024 automatically removes judder from all sources when watching movies or shows that are in 24p, even if they’re in a 60Hz signal, as long as you have the ‘Motion Enhancement’ settings set to ‘Film’.”
why are TV brands doing this? terrible scores, categorically [i.e. HDR movies], are occurring more and more as we get deeper in the 2023 TV season. just why? why? hope things get better next year. and also, it’s a TV question, but not related to TCL – where is 2023’s LG QNED85 successor for North America? it’s available just about everywhere, but not here.
The switch to IPS may be for gaming performance (VA usually has worse response times, and with overdrive it gets ghosting sooner), or for color gamut reasons. Just speculation though.
My review (sent them back since): The mid-low tones have been heavily boosted with these headphones (perhaps to compensate for a lack of ‘real’ deep bass), creating a very ‘warm’ sound. Some may like this, but it sounds very unnatural. Furthermore, despite the open back, there is no spaciousness to the sound at all. If you want accurate positioning of instruments (or for video games), avoid these. However, the fit and comfort of the ear cushions and the band were excellent.
If the SHP9500 has a “similarly performing successor, the Philips SHP9600”, then I’d like to leave my review here: The mid-bass is heavily ‘boosted’ with these headphones potentially to compensate for the lack of ‘true’ deep bass. This creates a very warm sound. Some may like that but it sounds very unnatural. Despite the open-back the sound lacks spaciousness (difficult to position instruments or objects in video games). The best thing about this are the fit and the confort of the pads and the band.
Today I saw the LG C5, LG G5 and the Samsung S95D at a store, in close proximity of each other. What immediately stood out to me was how good the Samsung S95D’s reflection handling was compared to the LG TVs. This also meant it had the best blacks, because there were no reflections disturbing the content. Including at angles (slight and extreme), which cannot be said about QLED TVs like The Frame. The Samsung S93D (apparently this is a rebadged S90D) was also good.
The anti-reflective properties of the LG OLED TVs on the other hand were nothing special. I didn’t notice a difference compared to for example the HiSense TVs that were also in the store. I wouldn’t use them close to a window or if you have bright objects in your room (like white wallpaper) as they will be reflected. Even with their high brightness, the reflections were very distracting.
I highly recommend that you go to a store in person to check out the TVs in person. The downsides are no Dolby Vision (IQ) which is unfortunate as there’s a lot of content for that, but LG also lacks that. And no DTS (not even passthrough), but LG also lacks that. A shame if you have Blu Rays.
Since Sony has already announced that despite using a Samsung panel, the Bravia 8 II will not have a matte screen, I am waiting to see if Philips, Panasonic or other brands will try to compete with Samsung in displaying content instead of the room.
According to the review by Tweakers.net, the green tint on the C4 is not present on the C5: https://tweakers.net/reviews/13174/5/lg-oled-evo-c5-en-g5-een-grote-stap-dankzij-4-stack-paneel-en-beeldverwerking.html
Today I saw the LG C5, LG G5 and the Samsung S95D at a store, in close proximity of each other. The Samsung S95D had, without a doubt, the best reflection handling. This also meant it had the best blacks, because there were no reflections disturbing the content. Including at slight and extreme angles. The anti-reflective properties of the LG OLED TVs on the other hand were nothing special. I wouldn’t use them close to a window or if you have bright objects in your room as they will be reflected. Even with their high brightness, the reflections were very distracting.
I highly recommend that you go to a store in person to check out the Samsung 2024 OLED TVs, even if you are also considering a glossy TV like the LG. Depending on your use case and room, the effective black levels of the S95D may be better. The downsides are no Dolby Vision (IQ) which is unfortunate as there’s a lot of content for that. And no DTS (not even passthrough), but LG also lacks that. A shame if you have Blu Rays.
So happy to hear about your new methodology. Will you also re-assess the Samsung The Frame getting a 9.9 rating for flickering? Only only one mode is more or less ‘flicker free’ (movie mode, which gives 67.5 ms input lag), the rest is flickering at 120 Hz or even 60 Hz, which is plainly visible.
The review correctly states “its SDR accuracy is abysmal”, so how can this get a passing grade or even higher (7.3) for mixed usage, TV shows (7.2), and a high grade (8.1) for PC monitor use?
“This TV’s pre-calibration accuracy is terrible. It’s way too cold even on its warmest setting, and blues are extremely overrepresented in almost all shades of gray (…)”
For the described use cases, where most of the content is in SDR, this product is basically insufficient unless you spend money and effort to calibrate it yourself.
This has also got to pose some sort of risk to eye health. And it means what HiSense write on their website must be wrong: “all of our TV’s are low blue light certified so will be kinder on your eyes”- https://uk.hisense.com/blog/which-hisense-tv-is-perfect-for-binge-watching-and-why
At least it doesn’t flicker like hell, which Samsung The Frame does (despite strangely getting a 9.9 rating for this from RTINGS, only one mode works properly).
Maybe best to change the wording from “Unpacking” to just “Product received” or something. What OP means is that it’s strange to write that one spends 3 weeks on ‘unboxing’.
I eagerly await the TCL NXTFRAME review as the competition is not of acceptable quality.
The HiSense CanvasTV has such terrible calibration that it’d be strange to recommend it: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/hisense/canvastv-qled-2024
“This TV’s pre-calibration accuracy is terrible. It’s way too cold even on its warmest setting, and blues are extremely overrepresented in almost all shades of gray (…)”
This has got to pose some sort of risk to eye health. And it means what they write on their website must be wrong: “all of our TV’s are low blue light certified so will be kinder on your eyes”- https://uk.hisense.com/blog/which-hisense-tv-is-perfect-for-binge-watching-and-why
At least it doesn’t flicker like hell, which Samsung The Frame does (despite strangely getting a 9.9 rating for this from RTINGS, only one mode works properly): “It flickers at a very fast 960Hz in the ‘Movie’ Picture Mode, butall other picture modes, including Game Mode, flicker at a much slower 120Hz, which can cause image duplications or headaches if you’re sensitive to flicker. With ‘LED Clear Motion’ enabled, the TV only flickers at 60Hz.” I mean Game Mode is pretty much essential on that TV to get acceptable input lag: 1080p @ 60Hz: 10.5 ms 1080p @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode: 95.8 ms So then the TV flickers. With a TV that flickers at 120 Hz almost everyone is bound to get headaches when playing video games on that thing.
And with the HiSense CanvasTV https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/hisense/canvastv-qled-2024
The 24p judder results seem to be copied from the Samsung The Frame review: “The Samsung The Frame 2024 automatically removes judder from all sources when watching movies or shows that are in 24p, even if they’re in a 60Hz signal, as long as you have the ‘Motion Enhancement’ settings set to ‘Film’.”
The switch to IPS may be for gaming performance (VA usually has worse response times, and with overdrive it gets ghosting sooner), or for color gamut reasons. Just speculation though.
Got to agree with OP. That 5db ‘bass’ boost and whatever else they did sounds too unnatural.
You’re not alone, this YouTuber says the Jabra Elite 3 has some of the worst audio hiss of all time: https://youtu.be/bBumig7rCOQ?t=547