drez
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2009
- Posts
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- 185
Quote:
I strongly expect them to be rubbish. Very strongly. Even if they somehow aren't...$8k? We don't need a company trying to make headphones more ridiculous than the ED-10s.
If these sound better than a SR-009 I will personally eat a pair - no kidding, as long as someone else buys them. This company though has a history though of making headphones that sound slightly better in some areas than headphones costing a fraction of the cost. This is not to say that I expect this headphone to be anywhere near the SR-009, or even the HD800 - it is simply far too insensible to expect this level of serious, no fooling around engineering.
This is probably another pointless critique but with 16 Ohm impedance you would need almost 0 output impedance amplifier to get tight bass response. Very sensible yet again... But...
Still I can't help but admire the obstinate resistance of all common sense and reasoning which Final Audio Design stand for - it is actually quite compelling and in a certain manner reminds me of certain examples of Japanese modern architecture such as Tadao Ando's Azuma House, and Ryue Nishizawa's Moriyama House in terms of the single minded rigor applied in the pursuit of very specific corporeal relationships. These headphones are perhaps best understood as pieces of Japenese contemporary conceptual art expressed in the field of industrial design. There is also something quite immodest and down right kinky about these headphones in their fetishistic pursuit of extravagance and raw materiality that liberates this product above the mundane world of consumer, mass produced industrial design. I would also go so far to say that this headphone is the clearest expression of FAD's design philosophy to date - it is a hero product by which all their other products will be better understood, it demonstrates a renewed design conviction that seems to have filtered to the Piano IEM range as well - silicone eartips are simply not fit for a FAD piece of high industrial design-art.
Without a doubt I am glad that FAD produce such outlandish and strangely compelling products, but I just don't see myself buying a pair - in the same way as I would like to be a patron of the arts but not a life-drawing model. Maybe after I buy some 100% stainless steel slippers and trousers...