[musicinmymind]

 

  Holy crap - I never said OLD = BAD.   Vintage amplifiers, hell yes.  Vintage speakers (with their original drivers), hell no.  
 
My headphone amp has 1930s US military tubes.  My speaker amp, recently expanded to headphone duties with a speaker tap-XLR4 connector, is from 1993 and I plan to keep that 26kg baby forever (unless I finally get one of the vintage Luxman monsters).   But speaker drivers are moving parts and like all moving parts, over time degrade.  And anyway, my main point is that none of us knows what the Orpheus actaully sound like, so there is no point in even talking about them, other than wistful speculation.  

You would be very surprised by how many people actually own Orpheus. I saw someone that owned 3 Orpheuses trying to sell all 3 of them in the Trade/Sale section couple months ago. Two friends that I know in real life own them, and one of them is active at Golden Ears. Despite its limited quantity, Orpheus is actually not rare at all if you know where to look, or simply look closely. I saw one for sale on Ebay last week too.
 
However, I agree with you. Well, kind of. Almost all vintage or rare collectors headphones are overrated in Head-Fi. Orpheus is not an exception. My mother is a huge Sony fan, so naturally she owned Qualia 005, Qualia 007, Qualia 010, Qualia 017, and Sony R10 Bass Light Version. My mother bought the Qualia 010 for 3,000,000 KRW, which is about 2,800 USD. Sound? Garbage. Slightly better than most $200 headphones today. I actually think the Sony SA5000 (mass production version of Qualia 010) sounds better. I prefer the new Beats Solo 2 over Sony Qualia 010, and spending $2,800 on Beats Solo 2 makes more sense to me than spending $2,800 on Sony Qualia 010. Sony R10 actually sounds amazing. But is it worth +$5,000 price tag? Absolutely not. HD800 and LCD 3 are both in the same league at more than a third of the price of R10.
 
Now let's go back to Orpheus. Like I said, two friends of mine own it and I have tried it. How does it sound? It's in the same league as HD800, LCD 3, and R10. In fact, I personally think HD800 does many things better than Orpheus, so one can make a solid case stating that HD800 is superior than Orpheus. How much does Orpheus cost nowadays? I live in South Korea at the moment, and the prices here are anywhere between 40,000,000-60,000,000 KRW, which is roughly 38,000-58,000 USD. We can conclude one of two things from my experience with Orpheus and their price. 1: Orpheus is an outright scam, and it is no different than Lil Wayne's 1 million dollar Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. 2: It is not a headphone, but a luxury. Audiophiles enjoy high fidelity sound, so they invest money on good headphones. Sennheiser Orpheus, in my opinion, is not a headphone that was created for audiophiles, nor meant to be used by audiophiles. It was created for those who are so rich, to the point where they worry about whether they will be able to spend all their money before they die. It's a luxury.
 
My point? It is stupid to compare HE-1000 to Sennheiser Orpheus, because 1: Sennheiser Orpheus doesn't even sound that great to begin with, 2: HE-1000 is almost certainly going to be a better purchase regarding price/performance wise, and finally 3: Most owners of Sennheiser Orpheus from what I know are not audiophiles. The other friend of mine that owns the Orpheus owns it, because he had way too much money in his pocket, and had to get rid of some of them. He much prefers his Bose QC25, for he enjoys its noise cancelling feature that is very handy when he boards his Dad's Asiana Airlines' airplanes. 

 
Awesome post dude, bang on the point.

 

[Armaegis]

  You would be very surprised by how many people actually own Orpheus. I saw someone that owned 3 Orpheuses trying to sell all 3 of them in the Trade/Sale section couple months ago. Two friends that I know in real life own them, and one of them is active at Golden Ears. Despite its limited quantity, Orpheus is actually not rare at all if you know where to look, or simply look closely. I saw one for sale on Ebay last week too.

 
As always though, exercise due caution. Fake Orpheus listings come up quite often. Beyond seller feedback, a reverse image search is a good way to check if the images were stolen from older listings.
 
 

Many would disagree on the lyr being a bad match for Hifiman headphones. Myself included.

 
I tried the Lyr with the HE-6 for a while it had plenty of juice on tap it simply wasn't my cup 'o tea. . I'm sure many people disagree. I thought it was a good match for the LCD2 however.
 
 

   
he probably subscribes to the adage, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all..."
that's my guess.

 
Tyll has said on several occasions that the Hifiman series have a bit of bite to them that doesn't really care for. But he also says that he prefers a downturned treble.
 
 

   
There are at least three options...

 
More actually, but those other ones are usually unwelcome and leave a rash...
 
 
 

 

[XVampireX]

1. Where do I pre-order?
 
2. I'm-a make my bank loan for it after I get Ragnarok with the money I do have

 

[Beagle]

They look pretty. Also look like they leak sound like a sieve.

 

[XVampireX]

  They look pretty. Also look like they leak sound like a sieve.

 
I've noticed this too from the video EdWood posted, but who cares?

 

[Nankai]

I will stay in Trump SOHO Hotel in NYC for a few days after CES. I will show off HE1000 and EF1000 in my hotel room in the next two weeks. Basicly I will be available in night time or later afternoon around 5:30pm or 6pm. If you guys like to stop by and try them out, please send me PM so that I can work on my schedule.

Fang

 

[jerg]

  They look pretty. Also look like they leak sound like a sieve.

I dunno how much experience you have with planar magnetics, but the "leak sound like a sieve" trait is universal with all open planars, just because of how their drivers work.

 

[wuwhere]

I will stay in Trump SOHO Hotel in NYC for a few days after CES. I will show off HE1000 and EF1000 in my hotel room in the next two weeks. Basicly I will be available in night time or later afternoon around 5:30pm or 6pm. If you guys like to stop by and try them out, please send me PM so that I can work on my schedule.

 
Nice!!!

 

[DarknightDK]

Was about to pick up a pair of HE6 but I'll wait to see the final pricing and more impressions of the HE1000 when these finally get out to market. these headphones are beautiful and look very promising indeed.

 

[Beagle]

  I dunno how much experience you have with planar magnetics, but the "leak sound like a sieve" trait is universal with all open planars, just because of how their drivers work.

 
Experience with planars? I have 12 of them. Some leak much more than others, vide the Oppo PM-1 or Fostex TH500RP vs the HE-500/560.

 

[MacedonianHero]

   
Experience with planars? I have 12 of them. Some leak much more than others, vide the Oppo PM-1 or Fostex TH500RP vs the HE-500/560.

 

  Impressive Dave! 

 

[jelt2359]

New Yorkers... Please bring your Amps and modded he6 to go meet fang asap!

 

[screwdriver]

cradon and the other guys from ny need to meet up with fang , bring the f1j and he6 with u

 

[Boffy]

 
Do you mean this thread where this guy is selling two Orpheuses and three baby Orpheuses, not to mention a whole cartload of Summit-Fi gear that most of us can only dream about? (Am I the only one who thinks it funny that is says $1 or best offer? He doesn't really mean that, but still.):
http://www.head-fi.org/t/740711/fs-stuff

Yeah, I apologize. He was selling 2, not 3. My mistake.
 
 
 

   
 
Actually, no I wouldn`t be surprised.  300 were made.  So I am guess less than 300 people own an orpheus.  

 
It's kind of sad, but unfortunately there are very few audiophiles in this world. Only 500 Aedle VK-1Limited Edition were made, but they are being sold on Amazon and at the local headphone shop that takes 10 minutes for me to walk to. 250 units of Grado PS1 were made, but I see reviews and discussions of them everywhere on Head-fi and Google. My mother bought all her Sony Qualia series and Sony R10 at a local Sony store that is also 10 minutes away from our house by walking.  Audio Technica ATH L3000 Green Version is an ultra rare headphone, and only 50 were ever made. But again, I have seen them numerous of times in the For Sale/Trade section. Not to mention Head-Fi isn't the only big audiophile community around the world.
 
I am sure there are more examples, but I think one of the biggest reasons why headphone is such a niche hobby is because if you have the money to spend several thousands, or maybe even tens of thousands on a headphone, why not invest into speakers instead? If you have that much money, you are most likely going to be very wealthy, so it's better for you to collect speaker systems with higher fidelity for your big house. Or, you can just visit live concerts. 

 

[wuwhere]

New Yorkers... Please bring your Amps and modded he6 to go meet fang asap!

 
This is like a private audition. Yes, bring your music, source, interconnects, amps, and power conditioner.