| Originally Posted by mypasswordis No offense, but you mixed company names with car model names like a headphone noob mixes up detail with brightness. And the Ferrari would most likely cost more than all the other things you listed. |
| Originally Posted by jpelg Now you can go to a meet, and have four or five HE90's!!! Some members own more than one pair! That was but a pipedream only a few years ago. [...] Secondly, I also think the HE90's scale up with better equipment, beyond even what the O2's are capable. Only a few years ago, a top source around here might have been a Meridian 588, or maybe a Cary 306/200. Now those honors include names like Meitner, etc. [...] I had heard the HE90's pitted against the O2's in the past. Always using a Gilmore e-stat amp (KGSS or Blue Hawaii). My usual opin was that both headphones were stellar, but the HE90 was a bit light in bass compared the top-of-the-line Stax offering. That is, until I finally heard the Orpheus system all together. |
| Originally Posted by mypasswordis No offense, but you mixed company names with car model names like a headphone noob mixes up detail with brightness. And the Ferrari would most likely cost more than all the other things you listed. |
| Originally Posted by ken36 My recent discussion, with a long time member and very respected head-fier, indicated that 5 years ago, when this forum was in its infancy, electrostatic sentiment was the flip version of what it is today. At that time, according to my confidant, the Omega 2 would have won a similar poll handily by popular acclaim. |
| Originally Posted by ken36 Thank you very much head-fiers. I meant for this thread to be provocative and it certainly stirred some very passionate and learned information. Now I can proceed to enjoy what I have and save my pennies. |
| Originally Posted by jpelg ...The interesting thing to me is that with all of the supposed subjectiveness of audio, including headphone-dom, there seem to be far fewer deviations in opinion of these top-of-the-line models, such as the HE90's, than with lower-end models. Why is this so? ... |
| Originally Posted by Mastergill I've said that before, mostly because HE90 is always paired with high-end amp costing no less than $4,000. Try it with HEV70 and that would be another story. |
| Originally Posted by smeggy Maybe another factor is the people. Maybe the Germans are better at designing stats but not at getting a long term sales strategy in place to make money. Who knows. What I do know is that it is somewhat unfair to compare the two given their target goals and retail prices. Stax cannot easily devote the tons of cash and resources necessary to go all out on a signature model as these invariably lose money and are never designed to be more than an exercise in excellence regardless of cost. (like the Qualia series). Stax went bankrupt once and are a small-scale manufacturer. If they had the funding and people I'm sure thy could make something that was at least the equal of the orphy and maybe better. |
| Originally Posted by Nomad Actually, they did that with the Omega SR-1 (and they went bankrupt, BTW). They were several magazines at the time that preferred the Omega to the Orpheus (Stereophile and The Absolute Sound among then). And then I saw in Headwize people preferring the Omega II to the Omega I. I'm not saying that the Omega is better. Or worse. But I can't but feel a bit skeptical about this. Once certain level of performance is reached, this hobby starts to be about tastes and personal preferences. One could expect something like 60%/40%, or 70%/30%. Hell, even 80%/20%. But 95/99 of 100 preferring the Orpheus over the OmegaII? I wonder how many people think it is better because it has to be better. I myself I'm guilty of this. I got a pair of R10s around a week ago (new production one, 2003). I'm trying HARD to like them, because they have to be good. I can almost see an aura surrounding them. I'm not listening to anything else in order to get used to the sound. Call it mental burn-in. I almost fooled myself thinking that if they are not the best, they are just there. But the truth is that coming back to my setups, the K1000 from the V20 is at least two Tiers better (IMHO, for my tastes). And I even prefer the L3000/PS-1 for most of the music. One could blame to my dynamic amps but the EMP AE and DHA3000, without being an SDS, should be decent enough in order to get an idea of what the R10s are capable of. I'm not saying the R10s are crap. I might ending preferring them in the long run, who knows? I'll give them a chance. But one thing is clear. Right now, I prefer the V20-K1000 (by far, far, far) or the L3000, or the PS1. And I would say that even the Baby Orpheus by memory (I don't have it at home right now). But the important thing is that (even knowing deep inside that I prefer my actual phones) I realized I was trying to fooling myself and trying HARD to like the R10s more than my remaining phones. Because they have to be better. Everyone say they are Tier 1. They must be. They must be. Hey! I'm starting to like them. They must be. They must be. Please don't get me wrong. I might end liking them more that anything else. All I'm saying is that I found myself trying REALLY HARD to like the R10s just because I should. I wonder if some people does the same with the Orpheus. And again, I'm not saying they are not the best. I'm just saying that a 95/99% of 100 is strange when we reach this level of performance and when personal preferences start to kick in. Cheers |
