[trellus]

Any news on when there will be any early impressions of the new R-10's? Was a release date announced?

 

[Fegefeuer]

Excellent point. The Edition 6 thread got a lot of undeserved hate. If you make the best product, then you may charge whatever you like. The market will then decide if it's worth it. Susvara has succeeded. Susvara is still the best planar (to my ears) and it's a Hifiman original. Hifiman had a good legacy and were making improvements all the time.

This HE-R10 release has unquestionably damaged their reputation and credibility. I think Fang doesn't understand Western markets at all, or has no desire to. I believe this product launch will be studied by other companies as a marketing case study on what NOT to do.

Agree.

There was no need for this comedy. Susvara, HE-1000SE, HE-6, Arya etc. are all oustanding headphones. Hifiman has such a great portfolio and then these things happen.
There is no need to reference any other legacy or product in a way like this. Theirs is good enough. I don't own a lot Hifiman headphones for no reason.

 

[headwig]

Behringer managed to clone many vintage synthesizers without damaging the reputation of their company or provoking a reaction against their Chinese-made knockoff synthesizers. One difference from Hifiman is that they accompanied it with an onslaught of "fun", humorous marketing. Another is that they priced their clones much cheaper than the originals and made them hard for musicians on a budget to resist. A third is that Behringer's reputation for quality was already low but people were pleasantly surprised by the apparent quality of the synthesizers.

Hifiman might want to study this case. One factor they can't change though is that people didn't immediately think "Chinese" when they heard the name Behringer, even if their hardware is in fact manufactured in China.

 

[HipHopScribe]

I really think Hifiman doing an R10 homage could have worked out ok, they just went about it all wrong.

If for example they'd released a headphone called the Hifiman Susvara Closed, following their own design language and made that the focus of their announcement, I think they could have released a special edition called, for example, the Hifiman Susvara R10 edition, with the knockoff cups.

Call it a limited edition celebrating the R10, praise the R10, but make the Susvara Closed the focus. There would still be detractors but I bet that would have gone over much better.

 

[Sherwood]

I've known Fang for a decade. He understands the Western market just fine. We will see how these sell, but I predict it will be another success.

 

[headwig]

I've known Fang for a decade. He understands the Western market just fine. We will see how these sell, but I predict it will be another success.

If it sounds good and doesn't fall apart, it will succeed. Other companies' wood-cupped closed backs are popular when they sound good.

But I don't really understand the point of the R10 styling and naming. Well, perhaps the styling if it serves an acoustic purpose. But is it even supposed to sound like the Sony original? If so, why are they making a planar version when the original was (I think) a biocellulose dynamic driver? And if not, why give it this distracting name rather than simply introducing it as a new closed-back Hifiman model (actually, two new models)? Unless the name is just supposed to be humorous because of the obvious superficial resemblance.

Seems like confusing marketing, but it has got people talking so perhaps it works.

 

[viewcart]

Honestly, I don't know if this reads like a bad joke, but HiFiMan releases a headphone that looks exactly like the legendary Sony R10, and prices its planar version at a cost that is 4 times that of the regular dynamic model? It's already a blatant design rip-off, but that price tag is just ridiculous.

 

[GREQ]

Honestly, I don't know if this reads like a bad joke, but HiFiMan releases a headphone that looks exactly like the legendary Sony R10,

"exactly" is giving it too much credit.

 

[elvergun]

"exactly" is giving it too much credit.

I would not pay that much money for that headphone even if it did not look like the Sony. It just does not look like a $4000 headphone.

I read some impressions of the Deva and the 400i 2020 and it seems that those models feel flimsy. One thing is to pay $300 for a flimsy headphone...but $4000 is just to much money for a new, unproven design by a manufacturer with a history of build issues (even if it is the best sounding headphone ever).

 

[Articnoise]

If it sounds good and doesn't fall apart, it will succeed. Other companies' wood-cupped closed backs are popular when they sound good.

But I don't really understand the point of the R10 styling and naming. Well, perhaps the styling if it serves an acoustic purpose. But is it even supposed to sound like the Sony original? If so, why are they making a planar version when the original was (I think) a biocellulose dynamic driver? And if not, why give it this distracting name rather than simply introducing it as a new closed-back Hifiman model (well, two new models)? Unless the name is just supposed to be humorous because of the obvious superficial resemblance.

Seems like confusing marketing, but it has got people talking so perhaps it works.

I have no idea about this and are just speculating. But let's assume for a moment that Hifiman has come to the conclusion that the Sony R10 has the perfect cup shape acoustically for a closed headphone. Would it then be best to pretend they did not copy Sony or to do as they did?

Food for thoughts .

 

[Malevolent]

Has there been any information about a release date? The proof is in the pudding, as they always say.

 

[Fegefeuer]

@TeamHiFiMAN Will there be an EU loaner for this headphone?

 

[doyouknowSBmean]

This thing is exactly the same as Asian replicas of vintage western electric horns. Countless companies launched 'improved' WE speakers in the beginning but the most successful ones later on are claiming 100% replicas..

Oh, forget to mention, there was a pair of original WE speaker sold for around half million in early 2010.

Above two things are clearly not correlated.

 

[Xenonism]

I think SONY should release the new MDR-R1000 for new flagship.

 

[Whitigir]

This is the next level of funny .... I guess