PHILIPS Fidelio L3 Flagship
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| Price history for Philips Fidelio L3 Flagship Over-Ear Wireless Headphones with Active Noise Ca... | |
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$180.02
PHILIPS Fidelio L3 Flagship Price comparison
PHILIPS Fidelio L3 Flagship Price History
Statistics
| Current Price | $145.00 | May 19, 2024 |
| Highest Price | $168.75 | November 28, 2023 |
| Lowest Price | $144.99 | December 22, 2023 |
Last price changes
| $145.00 | January 2, 2024 |
| $144.99 | December 22, 2023 |
| $150.00 | December 18, 2023 |
| $153.80 | December 16, 2023 |
| $153.81 | December 15, 2023 |
PHILIPS Fidelio L3 Flagship Description
Ultra-Efficient ANC Pro And Balanced Audio
When it comes to taking your tunes everywhere, nothing beats the ease of wireless headphones. Now, Philips Fidelio L3 Flagship Over-Ear Wireless Headphones with Active Noise Cancellation Pro feature groundbreaking ANC Pro technology, so you can easily enjoy music with no cables and no disturbing noise in your environment. These headphones are engineered with patented drivers, enabling superior sound clarity and balance. They come with a dedicated amplifier that supports both balanced and ultra-efficient audio performance in your environment. Designed with dual microphones and digital signal processing, this ANC Pro technology provides you with a powerful and immersive experience.
All-Day Comfort & Ease Of Use
The Philips Fidelio L3 Flagship Headphones are designed to provide all-day comfort. The ear-cups are made with premium soft memory foam, providing you with optimum fit and cushioning. An adjustable headband and an ergonomic design gives you greater flexibility and sure fit. With Bluetooth 5.0 and multipoint connection, you can connect to your device easily and switch between two devices seamlessly. Thanks to its Quick Attention Mode, you can adjust your music levels without taking your headphones off, just by simply touching your right earcup. Enjoy your music with great ease and convenience.
Understated Elegance
The Philips Fidelio L3 Flagship Headphones exude an air of subtle sophistication. Its metallic matte finish blends perfectly with any outfit. On top of its understated elegance, the headphones come with LED indicators that indicate the battery status so you can easily keep track of battery life. Equipped with touch controls, they are easy to use and quickly respond to your touch. With up to 25 hours of play time on a single charge, you can always enjoy your music for longer.
Highlights
• Ultra-efficient ANC Pro technology
• Dual-mic, digital signal processing
• Soft memory foam ear-cups
• Bluetooth 5.0 & Multi-Point Connection
• LED indicators
• Touch controls
• Quick Attention Mode
• Up to 25 hours of playtime
• Ergonomic design and adjustable headband
• Patented drivers
• Metallic Matte finish
PHILIPS Fidelio L3 Flagship Specification
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PHILIPS Fidelio L3 Flagship Videos
PHILIPS Fidelio L3 Flagship Reviews (4)
4 reviews
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Sheldon –
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.
Andrew –
First the good. Sound is very good, I like the “Awareness On” mode so I can hear people talking to me, and it is comfortable and has a long battery life.
Ok, construction materials for the headband – fire the engineer who selected a brittle spring material. Mine broke in 2 audible cracks right in the middle after a few months. Fortunately it still holds ok on my head, but honestly, they did zero durability testing on this. That is not what I expected from Philips.
Now there is a software app that you need to download to get to some of the options. No one from Phillips did any product testing with any significant cross section of real users.
1. On-headset buttons don’t always work. For example the button turning awareness on, or more frequently the TouchPad sensor does not pause or raise volume etc. To fix this I need the software interface on my Samsung S20 FE phone and toggle touchpad sensor on/off switch. This software sometimes will not boot up, and I need to close and reopen the software. Then every time it takes at least 24 seconds to start.
Philips is proud of their “wear sensor”. This is supposed to pause whenever you remove the headset. That would be great, but mine also pauses if I tip my head forward or move my head too fast, and then it doesn’t resume. I have to hold my hand over the TouchPad sensor as a hack to resue play, but at this point it is even more sensitive and pauses for very minor movements. Way too sensitive. So I usually turn off the wear sensor – which doesn’t always work right away.
But headphones are forgetful you see, and so next time you turn them on, it assumes it knows what you want – which is its default settings. NC on -not awareness on as I last used, wear sensor on – not off like I prefer, so I will fiddle with the buttons to get what I want. Honestly, does 8 bits of memory cost too much or did no one consider users would like to save their last settings?
Nathan –
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.
Colin M. –
I wanted something that wasn’t the standard airpods max/XM4/bose trio, they all felt rather muddy and mediocre sounding to me, despite their excellent ANC. I was hoping these would trade a bit of the ANC for that much more grown-up Philips sound and premium build quality. In a way, it absolutely delivers. But it has a few small issues that are serious potential deal-breakers and really do inhibit them.
If you can find them for $200 or under, I can easily recommend them. But over that, they’re just not competitive anymore.
Firstly, the ANC is pretty good. My commute is a literal torture test for ANC, including two ferries, wind, and a train. A little hissy/pressure inducing in a quiet room, not quiet the same reduction overall as the big boys. They can struggle with smooth ANC delivery on some fluctuating noises that I’ve found problematic for some other ANC devices, particularly the slow, large vibrations caused by boat engines. It’s not bad compared to some other I’ve used, but it’s not super smooth like some I’ve used as well. It didn’t struggle with the light rail, something that has stumped other ANC products I’ve used. Transparency is adequate, it does have the thing the XM4 does where if you place a hand (gotta touch the cup) over the right earcup it will pause music and enable, but i don’t find it does the job fast enough to really be useful, it’s easier to just move the cup off your ear, which also does a great job of reliably pausing the music. Ear detection is a little hit or miss, it can be a bit too sensitive when you’re just readjusting them on your head.
Build quality is very excellent. everything you touch feels and looks premium, from the metal rings that hold the earcups to the suede and leather headband and unbelievably nice smelling muirhead leather pads. Clamp force is a little higher than I like, but I can still wear it for several hours comfortably. The cups swivel to lay flat, but I do wish they folded. It really is a huge downside to a lot of us being unable to just ball our headphones up, laying flat takes up a lot of backpack space. They’re fine with glasses and as well.
Sound is also pretty good. I was honestly hoping for a little more technical performance and soundstage, but their tuning is decidedly more grownup and articulate than the XM4, bose QC35 or airpods max. Bass is clean and articulate, not boomy or overpowering. Technicals are very good compared to the mainstream boys and there is far less claustrophobia as well, though they really still aren’t up to “audiophile” quality. Not a lot of “in front/behind/above/below” soundstage, but the separation and layering between instruments and vocals is quite good. They can be EQ’d for more bass (which I did, I like a little more sub-bass shelf), but I found the stock tuning surprisingly great. Relatively neutral while still engaging. I know they’re not LDAC, but as far as wireless cans go, they’re doing a lot with the bitrate they’re getting. They don’t become sibilant or fatiguing, but I’m someone who loves the bright sound of Grados, so maybe I’m not the best judge there, but I do know that “Snail’s House” glitch hop can get EXHAUSTING very quickly, and I didn’t notice it with these.
They did REALLY wake up when I plugged them into my desktop tube amp via the 2.5-3.5 (same kinda cord bose uses, so if you want a longer cord, look for a replacement for the bose) and I was pleased to find that the ANC still works when they’re wired and doesn’t cause a ton of weird EMF (looking at you, skull candy crusher evo’s) they suddenly felt “bigger” when I played “arrival of the birds” by the london philharmonic – a really challenging piece for many headphones.
So sound wise, they’re nearly there, ANC wise, they’re good enough, they’re built very nicely and smell downright sinfully nice with all that leather. Why don’t I love them?
For starters, their wireless device functionality is just… mediocre. Really mediocre. Mediocre enough that I find it more frustrating to use than just find an alternative – the “cover the ear to pause/transparency” thing is an example, but basically every interaction you have with them has this little “delay” that’s just a bit obnoxious. I also hate the robot voice. I’ve heard worse, but seriously, why do so many headphones still do that? I even prefer the passive-aggressive woman that skullcandy uses. Just use little chimes and sounds. Drop Pandas had that down. God I wish those were built properly and had ANC, they were so close to perfection. They really do need to fold. That’s also a failing of many other ANC cans, basically only the older XM4’s and QC35’s do that, the new bose and sony offerings are stuck with that idiotic swivel-only as well. All portable headphones should fold up like Sony MDR7506’s.
The multi-point advertised sucks. Don’t use it. These things are NOT agile enough to switch between a phone and laptop, they’ll stutter and freak out.
Even that would all be excusable if the app wasn’t just a hair’s breadth away from being completely unusable. It has like 1.5 stars on the Play Store, and many people say it flat out doesn’t work at all for them, only crashing. It works for me, but I can tell that Philips farmed the app out to someone that is not up to their own in-house standards, and that’s just unacceptable. The app may work for me, but it can take 10-30 seconds to load. Once you’re in, it’s very barebones. The EQ adjustment is nice (a little more granularity would be nice, 6 sliders is not enough) and stores the EQ on the headphones, the firmware update works fine, but I would like it to 1.) work properly and load quickly, possibly with a widget like samsung does with their galaxy buds, 2.) give us more granular control over the ANC and transparency. It’s either “on” or “off.” Most products these days have at least low/high modes.
Overall, these are good headphones with outstanding build quality (seriously, these will trade punches with anyone under a grand here) very good sound that I’d put as better than anything Apple, Sony and Bose produce, held back by a wildly sub-par experience on the convenience side of things, which when we’re talking about bluetooth headphones, matters.
To be honest, these are being resolved to travel only. My daily commute consists of the superb sounding, solid ANC and wireless functionality 1more Evo’s (with an added bonus of a wind-specific mode that demolishes every other brand on the market) for commuting due to the convenience, and when I get to school, I switch to wired headphones with a fiio BTR5 bluetooth dac/amp.
I will say that if you can find them for under $200 like I paid, I do recommend them. You can live with the lame convenience featureset for this quality of sound, comfort, and build at that. But for any more than that, a refurbished pair of XM4’s is probably where I’d point you.
It’s a shame. I’d really like to see a revision of these that folds, has LDAC, better ANC, and an app that Philips put some real quality control into. There is a big gap in the market for some sub-$400 ANC headphones that don’t just try to be plastic bass cannons.