[pieapple]

I think this headphone will make its owner looks funny when wearing it.

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

 
I'd say most negative comments were aimed at their looks.
 
 

Nope there price mainly and the fact that modern orthos have design issues of there own if any company are striving to achieve an ortho to sound close to a stat. That said, me think's it is pretty ballsy for this company to come up with an ortho at an introductory price of $5k and I know "not from listening to it" or anything that it isn't going to be remotely close to any of the TOTL Stax let alone the 009's. Sure it could be a good sidegrade with a different type of sound sig and tonality but the thing is and I was notified by radio_head that prices of 009 run along the lines of less than $4k in Japan. I don't know about anyone else here but I'd take that drop another 1.5k on a SRM-717 or modded 323S and call it a day as it will most likely 90% sound better than the Abyss and will be break even in cost.
 
My 2c.
 
Oh yeah I forgot, at least the 009's somehow look decent and not some type of bear trap looking torture device on your head.

 

[livewire]

Ha-Haaa! 

 
I like that post!

 

[Frihed89]

They fried my brain in the 4-5 seconds I used them at RMAF.  I couldn't get them off fast enough.

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

They fried my brain in the 4-5 seconds I used them at RMAF.  I couldn't get them off fast enough.

They that bad?

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

They that bad?

I seriously doubt it.
 
Most impressions I've read from around the time of RMAF have been more or less "good but not $5k good." Usual meet caveats apply: noisy environment, unfamiliar tracks, short audition. Also JPS seemed intent on running these from a fairly mediocre setup until The Cable Co. display at the NY Audio Show.
 
I'm no fan of JPS. I've expended more than enough energy describing why their approach to all this irks me though, so I'll save it this time. Plus other folks in this thread seem to be doing more than enough to pick up the slack. When it comes to the actual headphones themselves however, I think theres some damn impressive engineering behind them. There's a reason why some of the biggest ortho geeks I know are giddy with excitement over this thing.
 
I know it's more fun to speak in extremes and predict the Abyss to be some kind of catastrophic failure. Especially given the ballsiness of JPS: I think folks want to see them get their comeuppance. Based on the impressions of people I know and trust however, my expectations tend to the less dramatic: I suspect the Abyss will be "good but not $5k good."

 

[wink]

So, the concensus is that they won't be abyssmal...?

 

[rhythm is life]

Quote:

So, the concensus is that they won't be abyssmal...?

 
Haha, I'm sure those lucky enough to afford these headphones will welcome them with open arms, if only to say "I have a $5500 pair of headphones". Lamborghini is coming out with an ultra-limited edition $4 million supercar based on their own Aventador, which costs a tenth of that amount. Why so expensive? Because the top .00001% can afford it, and they will pay $4 million for it just to say they have a $4 million car in their garage. Same thing with $100k+ watches, Louis this, Gucci that. It's all status. When you get to the highest of the high end of any market, price has no bearing on performance.
 
I got the chance to listen to the Abyss headphones at the NY audio show. I was surprised with the low bass output, but they were also a bit trebly. Which means the mids are the "loser" in the frequency response equation. Honestly, my ATH-M50's sounded like they had more forward mids, although the differences in soundstage depth and width are also a factor in this. The Abyss had a reasonably wide soundstage, not so wide like earspeakers where the sound can be distant, but wide enough to provide good instrument separation. I thought the $300 MrSpeakers Mad Dogs had better overall sound quality.

 

[Operakid]

You are so right about the price making them more appealing to some folk.  "Nothing stirs the heart, quickens the pulse, and inspires the imagination so much as the unobtainable."
 
I can name several high end components that this phenomenon is working very well for right now.  More so than the actual sound quality.  

 

[arnaud]

Except this does not quite have the appeal of a lamborghini lol .

When people buy gear for the price tag, looks is typically as important as the (high) price. Unfortunately, I can't say the abyss is about to win a beauty contest...

 

[stacker45]

Quote:

Nope there price mainly and the fact that modern orthos have design issues of there own if any company are striving to achieve an ortho to sound close to a stat. That said, me think's it is pretty ballsy for this company to come up with an ortho at an introductory price of $5k and I know "not from listening to it" or anything that it isn't going to be remotely close to any of the TOTL Stax let alone the 009's. Sure it could be a good sidegrade with a different type of sound sig and tonality but the thing is and I was notified by radio_head that prices of 009 run along the lines of less than $4k in Japan. I don't know about anyone else here but I'd take that drop another 1.5k on a SRM-717 or modded 323S and call it a day as it will most likely 90% sound better than the Abyss and will be break even in cost.
 
My 2c.
 
Oh yeah I forgot, at least the 009's somehow look decent and not some type of bear trap looking torture device on your head.

 
Spoken like a true fanboy, i didn't hear them, but i ''KNOW'' they're not ''remotely'' as good as Stax.

 
Here's the way i see things, its a simple concept, if i see, X headphones, i'll comment on how they look. If i touch, X headphones, i'll comment on how they're built. If i HEAR, X headphones, i'll comment on how they sound.

 

[El_Doug]

i KNOW that having single-ended magnetic drive, and a heavier transducer than a stat, these will have higher distortion.  no fanboyism involved
 
my fanboyism kicks in with, "damn, those things are hideous - and i'm not even afraid of wearing lambdas in public"
 
Quote:

 
Spoken like a true fanboy, i didn't hear them, but i ''KNOW'' they're not ''remotely'' as good as Stax.

 
Here's the way i see things, its a simple concept, if i see, X headphones, i'll comment on how they look. If i touch, X headphones, i'll comment on how they're built. If i HEAR, X headphones, i'll comment on how they sound.

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

 
Spoken like a true fanboy, i didn't hear them, but i ''KNOW'' they're not ''remotely'' as good as Stax.

 
Here's the way i see things, its a simple concept, if i see, X headphones, i'll comment on how they look. If i touch, X headphones, i'll comment on how they're built. If i HEAR, X headphones, i'll comment on how they sound.

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.

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

 
Most impressions I've read from around the time of RMAF have been more or less "good but not $5k good." Usual meet caveats apply: noisy environment, unfamiliar tracks, short audition. Also JPS seemed intent on running these from a fairly mediocre setup until The Cable Co. display at the NY Audio Show.
 
 I suspect the Abyss will be "good but not $5k good."

Exactly what I was thinking as well. I'm sure these won't be a sucker in the sound department but with better options at the mentioned price point, there is no reason to consider these, but all the power to those with money.

 

[n3rdling]

I'm pretty sure they'll have pretty high distortion for an ortho, but I'm also pretty sure they'll sound a lot more open than the suffocating type sound of many orthos due to less backwave interference.  I might actually like them.  However, if I ever wanted a set I'd only buy used since this manufacturer really rubs me the wrong way.