Philips Fidelio Primo DS9000 - Curvaceous and Spacious

Philips Fidelio Primo DS9000

We first saw Philips’ flagship Fidelio Primo DS9000 at a and based on first impressions, we were impressed by its clarity and spaciousness, and not to mention its curvaceous form and elegant looks.

As one of Philip’s six new “hero” products, the Fidelio Primo DS9000 is one of the key products spearheading Philip’s new "Obsessed with Sound" campaign, which seeks to reaffirm the company’s passion in delivering top-class audio solutions.

Designed after intensive research in Philips’ Advance Technology Labs in Leuven, Belgium (less than 30km away from Brussels), the Fidelio Primo DS9000 is a premium audio dock speaker system with four drivers, passive crossover for a more accurate audio spectrum reproduction, Philips’ PureDigital sound processing technology and much more.

More tellingly, however, Philips wasn’t shy when it said that it has Bowers & Wilkins’ revered Zeppelin iPod dock in its sights, and this should give a clear indication of the target audience of the Fidelio Primo DS9000. But can it deliver? Read on for our assessment.

The Philips Fidelio Primo DS9000

The Philips Fidelio Primo DS9000 makes an impression with its fairly large size and classy, good looks. Like most premium speakers, the Fidelio has a simplistic design and follows the mantra of less is more. As such, all you will find is the docking connector and a single bar that lets you adjust the volume; there’s no display of any sort. The bar is backlit and it features a proximity sensor so it lights up only if you senses your hand near it.

That said, it is also worth pointing out that the Fidelio Primo DS9000’s curved wooden back was made using a process called “veneer lamination”, which pieces together multiple layer of lacquered wood to form a stiff structure to withstand unwanted vibrations. Likewise, the gap in the center is strategically placed to reduce interference between the left and right channels.

In all, although the Philips Fidelio Primo DS9000 is certainly no slouch in the looks department, it is still no match for the timeless and iconic beauty of the Zeppelin dock.

The remote control is shaped like a pod-like object and has all controls you’d want and need to navigate through the iPod functions. The only thing we didn’t like was that the Fidelio is quite slow to respond to the inputs on the remote.

Philips has also included a free Fidelio app which you can download off the App Store. The app doesn’t do much, but it does allow users to customize the equalizer settings, or pick from five presets (flat, pop, rock, classical, jazz), and also lets users enable and adjust the Dynamic Bass Boost function. Incidentally, these functions are accessible only via the Fidelio app, so iPod classic and iPod nano owners take heed. By default, the Fidelio uses the flat equalizer preset and has Dynamic Bass Boost turned off.

Test Setup

If you are familiar with our audio reviews, we usually test speakers across four categories, but since the Philips Fidelio Primo DS9000 was designed primarily for use with iPods/iPhones, we’ll be restricting our tests to CD audio and MP3 testing, with the CD tracks ripped to a lossless format and then synced to our iPhone test mule. 

Basically, we want to look out for the Fidelio Primo DS9000’s musical sensibilities. Hence, we’ll be playing a variety of different tracks to see how the speakers would perform across different genres such as acoustic, jazz, orchestral and trance.

Of course, different people have different musical and sonic tastes. Some are bassheads while others are treble freaks, so your preferences with speakers may vary.

The complete list of testing material is as follows:

CD Audio Testing:

• Pod Race Scene from The Phantom Menace
• ?Tyrannosaurus Rex Sound Effects from Jurassic Park?
• Theme from Jurassic Park?
• Apollo 13 Lift-off Sound Effects?
• Theme from Cutthroat Island
• ?Fanfare for Louis, performed by the Dallas Wind Symphony

MP3 Audio Testing:

• Hotel California - Eagles?
• Sail on Soothsayer - Buckethead
• ?Melt My Heart to Stone - Adele?
• Elements of Life - Tiesto

Report Card

We begin our testing by putting the Fidelio Primo DS9000 through our selection of CD audio tracks, which contains materials ranging from sound effects to full-on orchestral pieces. This, we reckon, will pose a good test of the speakers’ abilities.

As we begin with the Pod Race Scene from The Phantom Menace, we were impressed with the spaciousness of the sound and the convincing stereo effects. The Fidelio Primo DS9000 is not as spacious as dedicated speakers, of course, but its one of the best we’ve heard from docking speaker systems. Also, the amount of oomph and bass from the system is amazing, giving the pod racers’ engines a fantastic burble and roar.

The spaciousness of the Fidelio also lends itself well to the two orchestral tracks - Theme from Jurassic Park and Morgan’s Ride from Cutthroat Island - as both tracks sounded bright and majestic. In our opinion, the Fidelio sounded slightly better playing Morgan’s Ride as there was a greater sense of grandiosity and better overall sound staging.

Where the Fidelio impressed us most, however, was handling the T-rex sound effects from Jurassic Park. In the beginning, there was a good sense of subtlety as we could clearly make out the sounds of the jogging and the foot steps of the T-rex as it approaches; and then it all builds up into a thunderous and ferocious roar. It was satisfying to say the least, as the Fidelio had ample lungs and bass to power the sound effects.

And on to our MP3 tracks, the Fidelio Primo DS9000 put up one of the best performances on Hotel California we’ve heard. It sounded sparkling clear, and the guitars had great clarity, while the bongo drums sounded powerful yet precise and never muddy.

The Fidelio handled Adele’s Melt My Heart to Stone and Tiesto’s Elements of Life wonderfully too. Adele sounded warm and intimate, while Tiesto’s Elements of Life almost brought the roof down with the Fidelio laying out generous amounts of bass that was accurate and pacey.

Where the Fidelio faltered slightly was on Buckethead’s soulful Sail on Soothsayer. While the Fidelio exhibited startling clarity and precision, it also sounded a little too 'steely' for our liking on on the high notes.

Overall, the Fidelio Primo DS9000 sounds exceptionally clear, sparkly, and has one of the best sound staging of any docks we’ve heard. This lets it excel on slower materials, but that’s not to say the Fidelio can’t handle fast tracks. In fact it's far from that, because the fantastic bass of the Fidelio makes it a joy to play hip-hop and dance tracks too. Where audio performance is concerned, the Fidelio ranks as one of the best sounding docks we’ve heard.

A Keen Contender

For some time now, B&W’s iconic Zeppelin has widely been regarded as the best sounding iPod dock - it covers all bases and has little weaknesses. So how does the Fidelio Primo DS9000 compare against its targeted rival? Before we share our overall analysis, here’s a quick summary of its audio performance from the detailed breakdown a  page earlier.

As our scores show, the Fidelio Primo DS9000 is by no means a shoddy sounding docking speaker, but if we were to compare it to the Zeppelin, it misses out just a little. For one, we noticed that the Fidelio’s treble hardens slightly as we increase the volume, making the Fidelio sound harsher than it would have been had it been playing on a lower volume. Luckily, this anomaly is not painfully apparent. And while the Fidelio excels in its crystal clear rendition of sounds, the clarity of it is so extreme that it sounds a bit artificial, especially when closely comparing with the Zeppelin, which has a more natural, relaxed voice.

Nevertheless, the Fidelio Primo DS9000 is an impressive sounding docking speaker especially when you consider that it costs much less than the Zeppelin - S$699 for the Fidelio compared to the Zeppelin’s S$1200.

That aside, we were a bit miffed at the fact that there were no other ways of accessing the dock’s equalizer and dynamic bass boost settings other than using the Fidelio app. This means that iPod classic and iPod nanos users will be deprived of these settings.

Also, the remote control was too unresponsive for our liking, and because there are no display or indicators of any sort on the Fidelio, we couldn’t be sure if our inputs were properly registered. Fortunately, in the grander scheme of things, these are minor niggles in comparison to the simply sublime audio performance.

Having said that, while the Zeppelin still retains its appeal as the kingpin of iPod docks with its combination of stunning looks and sound, you’d have to be a stubborn badge snob to dismiss the Fidelio Primo DS9000, because it comes very close aurally and offers much more bang for buck.

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