I agree with everything Chu said, except for the bit about tube amps
The R10s are/were expensive to buy, but expensive to make as well. R&D alone must have cost a pretty penny. I pulled these quotes from Sony out of markl's fine review of the R10s from 2001:
“Hangers made of magnesium that attach the housings to the head-band reduce resonance. Magnesium was chosen because of its excellent vibration attenuation and absorption qualities. To prevent mechanical vibration, such as those of the cord or headband, a housing insulator was placed between the ear pad and the baffle plate.”
“After extensive testing of materials from all over the world, the heart-wood of mature Zelkova trees was selected as most suitable for the housing of the MDR-R1O. Evaluation was made in terms of hardness, timbre, weight, and overall sound-transferability characteristics. In order to overcome the problem of designing housing that could produce a natural, distortion-free sound, engineers used the FRESDAM (Freeform Shape Design and Manufacture) computer-aided design system. A delicate waveform was carved out of the interior wall, achieving sound expansion and acoustics equivalent to that of a concert hall.”
I believe the R10s were first brought out in 1989 and though I don't know exactly when they were discontinued (now I'm curious and will find out), I know that they were still available in 2002. If you think about it, the mass popularity of headphones, outside professional use, is fairly recent, but mostly due to the influx of portable devices. I would say that half, if not more of the threads in the headphone forum reflect that. Although there's also an increased market for home use, I think companies have accurately guaged the price-point most consumers will pay for quality home headphones ($200-$500). If you were Sony, with your headphone share being minimal at best, would you rather market millions of inexpensive portable phones and hundred of thousands of mid-priced home phones, or mere hundreds of top-of-the-line headphones per year. I've also been told that individual craftsman were responsible for creating each housing, and part of the reason the R10s disappeared were due to the expense of their expertise as well (I don't know if that's true, but that seems a side shot at best). Whatever the underlying reasons, it was a business decision I understand, but it still makes me sad.
I am hopeful, however, that there may be a resurgence in developments. As more people become interested in hi-end headphones, companies may become more interested in meeting that interest. The demand for better quality iems is growing, and people are willing to spend the money to get what they want. Those same consumers, who may have started out wanting only a great portable, may become equally interested and demanding of higher quality home headphones. We'll see. We'll see.
You're going to post your impressions, right? Are they stock CD3000's?
