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JPS Labs Abyss - Page 6

post #76 of 205
10/13/12 at 1:44pm

It's been talked about jokingly in this thread already, but I seriously do think that a large portion of the price is due to the "value" of the cable. The justification being that folks spend many hundreds on top level aftermarket cables on their already expensive planar headphones from other brands... so they are just providing that benefit directly from the get-go.

 

I'm not saying I buy that argument but that's probably where they are coming from, being a cable company and all.

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post #77 of 205
10/13/12 at 6:50pm

Who has used a $4000 cable on their headphones, say, their HD800s? If this is "normal", then I guess it would make sense... a little.. :-p

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post #78 of 205
10/13/12 at 7:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by project86 View Post

It's been talked about jokingly in this thread already, but I seriously do think that a large portion of the price is due to the "value" of the cable. The justification being that folks spend many hundreds on top level aftermarket cables on their already expensive planar headphones from other brands... so they are just providing that benefit directly from the get-go.

I'm not saying I buy that argument but that's probably where they are coming from, being a cable company and all.

They're targetting the stax 009 and its price point, plain and simple. Audeze would have made a far more sensible target, though I'm afraid they'd fall behind in that comparison as well. I hasten to add that the version of the abyss i heard was a prototype and the jps reps were aware of the slight glare and indicated that the final version will sound better.
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post #79 of 205
10/13/12 at 7:36pm
I sure hope they can fix a treble glare issue because that's probably one of the only real design challenges with making a reasonably good sounding ortho. In other words, I have my reservations about 5k worth of R&D if you come up with glare like any of the 70's drivers.

There is risk with reinventing the wheel while falling in the typical pitfalls of a particular design type. It's fine by itself (I can only enjoy the fact that more companies are trying to design their own drivers) but not if the result is average end the price unreal.
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post #80 of 205
10/14/12 at 5:43am

I'm pretty sure the kinds of people who buy $4,000 cables would never be satisfied with what a manufacturer supplies them, no matter what it was made of. "This is only 42-stranded oxygen-free copper-core gold-plated plenum cable in a balanced XLR configuration? No wonder why it sounds like garbage, don't they know you have to put a plating of silver over the gold plating on the ground wires and twist the cables around a nylon core to prevent interference? And where's my rhodium!?!"

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by project86 View Post

It's been talked about jokingly in this thread already, but I seriously do think that a large portion of the price is due to the "value" of the cable. The justification being that folks spend many hundreds on top level aftermarket cables on their already expensive planar headphones from other brands... so they are just providing that benefit directly from the get-go.

 

I'm not saying I buy that argument but that's probably where they are coming from, being a cable company and all.

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post #81 of 205
10/14/12 at 6:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by soundstige View Post

I'm pretty sure the kinds of people who buy $4,000 cables would never be satisfied with what a manufacturer supplies them, no matter what it was made of. "This is only 42-stranded oxygen-free copper-core gold-plated plenum cable in a balanced XLR configuration? No wonder why it sounds like garbage, don't they know you have to put a plating of silver over the gold plating on the ground wires and twist the cables around a nylon core to prevent interference? And where's my rhodium!?!"

 

 

Well that's just what I mean. Most of these people would be disappointed with the "stock leash" (to borrow a phrase from Srajan at 6moons) no matter what. Even a nicer stock cable is not good enough. But this is JPS Labs we are talking about. The target market will possibly already swear by their interconnects and speaker cables. So they will be thrilled to have the high end stock cable on this thing. Again, I'm not saying it is right or it even makes a lick of sense - just trying to understand where they are coming from. 

 

I do look forward to more reports on the sound of these. Just out of curiosity. Despite all the wackiness and pricing, they could actually have a decent sounding headphone (as in $400 decent not $4K). 

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post #82 of 205
10/14/12 at 6:47am
...
Edited by Sandman65 - 10/14/12 at 7:49am
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post #83 of 205
10/14/12 at 7:48am
...
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post #84 of 205
10/14/12 at 11:33am
And we wonder where the idea audiophiles are nuts come from.
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post #85 of 205
10/14/12 at 2:44pm

I'm still waiting for some in-depth comparisons and listens from trusted sources here on Head-Fi. Most of what has been said on the thread is pure rhetoric, and no official figure has even been confirmed by the company.

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post #86 of 205
10/14/12 at 3:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ssrock64 View Post

I'm still waiting for some in-depth comparisons


 From the abyss?

 

It would look good on uncle Fester. I hope they do something to improve the styling...

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post #87 of 205
10/14/12 at 3:58pm

Yuck, at first I was excited because I thought these were being made by JDS Labs, not JPS Labs, and I figured they might be a $500 planar not a $5000.

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post #88 of 205
10/14/12 at 7:43pm

I don't know if any of you have experienced this before but something has been gnawing away at me trying to place the voicing of the abyss. It finally occured to me what it was and probably would never have happened had I not been reflecting on my experience of walking around RMAF and listening to some of these exotic systems that you can only ever imagine from images in magazine reviews.

 

For me, the Abyss is the horn or plasma tweeter of the headphone world. If you have had the opportunity to hear massively impractical horns that people love to drive off suitably ridiculous exotic tube rigs. There is an etched presentation which few other speakers achieve. This is what I could not place when I was listening to the Abyss. I hate trying to describe what I hear but for illustrative purposes .....when a drummer taps the side of his tom with the stick you get that TAK sound , most speakers represent this as thwak or tok but those horns give you a razor sharp edge that goes TAK.
 
These come to mind as I can still recall listening to the 1812 overture on them in 2008, nothing on this scale at this RMAF but a few of the horn systems present had a similar sound and the plasma tweeter is similar

 

 
This is a very distinctive sound and makes brass instruments sound like someone is playing right next to you. I know orthos well and some are "stat" like but not even stats sound like these horns.
 
..dB
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post #89 of 205
10/14/12 at 8:22pm
So the question is, that a good thing or a bad thing in a headphone?
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post #90 of 205
10/15/12 at 3:11pm

I guess we'll have to see what Jude and Tyll think if they get their hands on 'em.

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