Here's hoping Audeze might cook something up to compete against these when they are released officially and don't charge us $4k for it.

Abyss has a history of making ultra high end car audio amps in the past.

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rc10mike said:

Abyss has a history of making ultra high end car audio amps in the past.

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What was pricing on them like?

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rc10mike said:

Abyss has a history of making ultra high end car audio amps in the past.

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Different company from Korea.

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defqon said:

If you know anything about how ortho transducers work and I'm not implying I know all about them, they have issues of there own before they can even remotely come close to the transparency and speed of a normal stator.

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But you don't know anything about the technology or materials involved in the design of construction of them, therefore, you can't *know* anything about the sound quality or whether or not they adequately address any of the inherent design issues related to orthos. It's not like stats don't have tremendous, unique design challenges of their own. You can make educated guesses, and hedge your bets (I too *doubt* they sound as good as TOTL Stax), but you don't know until you've heard them. And also, there are other aspects of sound quality than transparency and speed. 

Heard the prototype version of these at RMAF.  My opinion seems to have matched the general consensus -- I would put them on par with the HE6 and LCD3 in terms of sound quality, with a somewhat different tonal balance than either.  A bit more of a treble lilt made them seem a bit clearer and more open than the other two planars, but they didn't quite match the HE6 in terms of bass or dynamics.
 
Comfort on the Abyss headphone was actually pretty decent -- better than the HE6 for me, and on par with the LCD3.
 
If price were no object, the HE6 would be my pick of the three planar headphones, based on tonal balance and dynamics.  But since price is always a factor, that just makes the HE6 look even better.
 
I got the chance to ask a couple of the JPS representatives at RMAF about how they justified such a high price tag for the Abyss headphones.  I was not convinced by their response.

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tintin220 said:

 
But you don't know anything about the technology or materials involved in the design of construction of them, therefore, you can't *know* anything about the sound quality or whether or not they adequately address any of the inherent design issues related to orthos. It's not like stats don't have tremendous, unique design challenges of their own. You can make educated guesses, and hedge your bets (I too *doubt* they sound as good as TOTL Stax), but you don't know until you've heard them. And also, there are other aspects of sound quality than transparency and speed. 

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Sigh...ignorance is bliss.

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sophonax said:

I got the chance to ask a couple of the JPS representatives at RMAF about how they justified such a high price tag for the Abyss headphones.  I don't recall their response, but I do recall them coming off as a bit high-handed and arrogant -- like they didn't think it was possible for other companies like Hifiman and Audeze to possess even half the engineering and design expertise that they do.  Suffice to say, I wasn't convinced.

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This made my day. Prime example of a company talking a down on its competitors like how MSB stated how there $40k DAC is easily better than any of the other competitors and talking down specifically on the Sabre chip used in the Weiss, yet the Weiss measures better. The irony. 

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defqon said:

If you know anything about how ortho transducers work and I'm not implying I know all about them, they have issues of there own before they can even remotely come close to the transparency and speed of a normal stator.

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I might not know much about ortho transducers, but i know not to make comments on how a pair of headphones sounds, if i've never heard them.
 
A while back, i was watching a car show were they were comparing a Camaro, a Challenger, and a Mustang. The Camaro and the Challenger both had independent suspension, vs the Mustang's solid axle, they also had Brembo brakes, while the Mustang had regular Ford brakes, the Camaro and the Challenger also had bigger wheels and tires. The verdict?, The Mustang outhandled and outbraked the Camaro and Challenger, go figure.

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stacker45 said:

 
I might not know much about ortho transducers, but i know not to make comments on how a pair of headphones sounds, if i've never heard them.
 

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Wish wualta would make a post here. That said it's not even worth dropping $5k on these headphones made by a cable company who are known to greedily charge people with a high price markup, you're going to let such as a company take advantage of you? That said you and tintin are missing the point, there's been 4 people that have posted there early impressions here from RMAF and not surprised they are similar sound to the other available orthos but not $5k good, maybe if you guys focused on reading the other posts rather than directly arguments at me where I stated my own 2c i.e. personal opinion then you wouldn't have responded with such crap.

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defqon said:

Sigh...ignorance is bliss.

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I hope you realize the tragic irony in your statement. 

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defqon said:

Wish wualta would make a post here. That said it's not even worth dropping $5k on these headphones made by a cable company who are known to greedily charge people with a high price markup, you're going to let such as a company take advantage of you? That said you and tintin are missing the point, there's been 4 people that have posted there early impressions here from RMAF and not surprised they are similar sound to the other available orthos but not $5k good, maybe if you guys focused on reading the other posts rather than directly arguments at me where I stated my own 2c i.e. personal opinion then you wouldn't have responded with such crap.

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Maybe you should reread all of my posts again so you know what I actually said before you respond. 
 
I never said they were worth the $5k. But I said they *might* be, or at the very least, have the potential to be comparable to TOTL orthos or even TOTL Stax. I also didn't even say it was likely for them to perform this well (in fact I said that I *doubt* they justify their price), but for you to say that there is no chance is an unfounded claim because you have zero knowledge of anything regarding this headphone. You have the authority to make your claims when you've actually heard the phones. Like I said before, I agree with your analysis, however, it is right now at best, an educated guess. Nothing more. I don't know what's so hard for you to understand about this. 
 
Besides, early impressions are just that -- early impressions. They are not conclusive, definitely, or taken under ideal circumstances. Plus, impressions are entirely subjective, and when you're talking TOTL phones such as these, people's individual tastes in terms of matching to sound signature matter a lot than the actual, extremely subtle differences device capability, especially under noisy, non-ideal circumstances. 
 
You're entitled to your opinions, which is cool. I'm just taking issue with your presentation of them as fact, rather than as your opinion. Your condescending attitude isn't necessary here.

Maybe you should go educate yourself on planars vs esl transducers. The reason why I said these aren't going to be in the realm of the TOTL Stax available be it the Omega's, 007 or 009 is because as single ended planar magnetics they have a limited drive range not only that they are also not balanced as only one side of the diaphragm is only driven. Stat's on the other hand are driven balanced across the whole membrane itself in a push pull type of effect this means lower distortion etc. Don't forget that if you eliminate any limitations of the planar magnetic transducers itself to achieve the speed, clarity and low distortion of the design itself to match that of esl you're going to head into other problems that could end up making the sound very woolly. My limited knowledge to this is due to the reason of heavy dampening being involved but I could be wrong. Single ended planar's have been used for a long time in speakers and within the same price range don't come close to properly engineered esl and ribbon speakers but again I could be wrong again.
 
On the other hand, this is JPS we are talking about. Quoting from the above person who posted earlier, when they say they have access to technology that Audeze and Hifiman don't have just makes me laugh at such a statement.

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defqon said:

Maybe you should go educate yourself on planars vs esl transducers. The reason why I said these aren't going to be in the realm of the TOTL Stax available be it the Omega's, 007 or 009 is because as single ended planar magnetics they have a limited drive range not only that they are also not balanced as only one side of the diaphragm is only driven. Stat's on the other hand are driven balanced across the whole stator itself in a push pull type of effect this means lower distortion etc. Don't forget that if you eliminate any limitations of the planar magnetic transducers itself to achieve the speed, clarity and low distortion of the design itself to match that of esl you're going to head into other problems that could end up making the sound very woolly. My limited knowledge to this is due to the reason of heavy dampening being involved but I could be wrong. Single ended planar's have been used for a long time in speakers and within the same price range don't come close to properly engineered esl and ribbon speakers but again I could be wrong again.
 
On the other hand, this is JPS we are talking about. Quoting from the above person who posted earlier, when they say they have access to technology that Audeze and Hifiman don't have just makes me laugh at such a statement.

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You haven't addressed my criticism of you, which is that you have a good opinion and good guess, more or less the same as mine in fact, on the performance of this phone, but you should not go around saying it's fact when you have neither heard the headphones nor have you an actual understanding of how they implemented it. If you want to discuss the technical details and engineering behind these types of devices, as this is in fact my background and education, feel free to PM me and we can keep the conversation there instead of diluting this thread with your rants. 

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tintin220 said:

.. feel free to PM me and we can keep the conversation there instead of diluting this thread with your rants. 

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If you had a problem with my "opinion" in the first place than you should've taken it up with a PM or so, rather then posting further things to cloud up this discussion. It's funny you're calling my posts rants as you've been doing this the last few posts you have on in this thread as I'm simply just rebutting on with what you're saying. On the other hand you sound like an ambassador for said product/company. I don't want to discuss anything further with you as you are obviously taking my own 2c a little too personal. kthnxbai