Announcement: The Edition 6 is Dead
Mar 16, 2017 at 6:10 PM Post #17 of 314
New name....new price too?
 
Mar 16, 2017 at 7:15 PM Post #22 of 314
Let's not turn this into a nasty thread and let the details come in. Maybe they have switched things around, starting with the name. There's no point fueling a fire unnecessarily.
 
Mar 16, 2017 at 8:58 PM Post #26 of 314
I wish they would put a bit more time into things before they release them.

A couple of years ago, the HE6 was the flagship and how many headphones have they released since then? I can see why consumers might be hesitant to purchase a high end Hifiman product - there's just no confidence that there won't be something better out in 6 months time which makes your headphone purchase obsolete. And to say that this is the 4th prototype since it's announcement and that is way better than the first is just crazy - just work on it until it's as good as you can get it and THEN release it. I may be biased toward Abyss because I own one, but that's what they did - worked on it until they couldn't make it any better. I can understand if they can do better 5 years later, but not every couple of months. If someone's going to shell out that sort of cash, they want to be very sure there is no compromises.
 
Mar 16, 2017 at 10:07 PM Post #27 of 314
The prices have gotten so crazy I have stopped buying new headphones.  I'll wait for the next generation of $10,000 headphones to come out and then purchase the two year old $4,000 headphones for $999.  I also started wondering if my ears could really tell the difference between the $1,500 headphones and those in the $3,000+ range.  If I could, would the delta between them be worth the thousands of dollars?
 
Mar 16, 2017 at 10:45 PM Post #28 of 314
  The prices have gotten so crazy I have stopped buying new headphones.  I'll wait for the next generation of $10,000 headphones to come out and then purchase the two year old $4,000 headphones for $999.  I also started wondering if my ears could really tell the difference between the $1,500 headphones and those in the $3,000+ range.  If I could, would the delta between them be worth the thousands of dollars?

 
I can't necessarily tell the difference with a $999 dac to a $3000 dac.  But the difference between headphones in that price bracket is huge by comparison.  I've got no problem with them making a $6k headphone - if it's better than $5k headphones then great.  But the continual release of a newer better product just devalues the whole brand because people who buy them will lose so much money in such a small amount of time if they want to keep upgrading to the latest and greatest.  If you want to make the world's best planar and charge the world's highest planar prices, then put a bit more time into it.  From the reactions I have seen to this product, it looks like people are becoming tired of their purchases continually becoming obsolete.  I can't think of any other company that comes out with an endgame product this often.
 
Mar 17, 2017 at 12:35 AM Post #29 of 314
 
  The prices have gotten so crazy I have stopped buying new headphones.  I'll wait for the next generation of $10,000 headphones to come out and then purchase the two year old $4,000 headphones for $999.  I also started wondering if my ears could really tell the difference between the $1,500 headphones and those in the $3,000+ range.  If I could, would the delta between them be worth the thousands of dollars?

 
I can't necessarily tell the difference with a $999 dac to a $3000 dac.  But the difference between headphones in that price bracket is huge by comparison.  I've got no problem with them making a $6k headphone - if it's better than $5k headphones then great.  But the continual release of a newer better product just devalues the whole brand because people who buy them will lose so much money in such a small amount of time if they want to keep upgrading to the latest and greatest.  If you want to make the world's best planar and charge the world's highest planar prices, then put a bit more time into it.  From the reactions I have seen to this product, it looks like people are becoming tired of their purchases continually becoming obsolete.  I can't think of any other company that comes out with an endgame product this often.


well, the hd800 is still sennheiser's top headphone (he-1, we ll just ignore that one a little), 2009, since it was released, soon 10 years, and we still didn't hear about a successor. Now, why is that? Because sennheiser will not make a successor that's just a hd800-S and name it hd1000 and pretend it's 3x better, and back the fact with 3x the asking price, instead of, with a meaningful technical/design improvement. They instead made the he-1, a no compromise, statement product, $55k, which is clearly in it's own category, by design and technically.
 
But sennheiser doesn't make $$$ on the hd800 (% compared to their whole revenue) and they can just chill out 10 years, also cos they have poured all their technical expertise in the hd800, and that's it. You may not like the sound, but that's as far as dynamic driver headphones have evolved/perfected technically, everything else is just a matter of taste (hd800-S is not 'better', but a different sound/taste).
 
It's clear something like that can work only for a huge company with huge resources. A lot of technicians, experts, working on a headphone for years. That's not something an average head-fi company can afford.
 
However this doesn't answer/justify why are most head-fi companies charging 2x/3x/10x the price, for basically the same piece of technology, as their previous iterations, that's effectively the same product!?! In case of the edition 6, and that is what hifiman stated so far,  when the only change is a differently shaped magnet array? No technological breakthrough here, it's just a 'he1000-S' for $6k (drawing the parallel with the hd800/hd800-S). It may sound more to your taste, and therefore be worth the $6k for you, however i didn't see sennheiser price the hd800-S double the original hd800 price.
 
I'm not blaming or derogating hifiman, they just learned that... that's how it works, from their american counterparts (audeze, mr speakers which seems saw the light, aka COGS, recently http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/mrspeakers-introduces-aeon-over-ear-sealed-headphone#FcqLCMssC556Kqe9.97 , and many more), and they learned from their customers that it works, hype works.
 
They can sell u a he1000-S for $6k, because it sounds $3k more different than a he1000.
 
As long as you are happy.
 
Are you happy?
 

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