sahmen
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2014
- Posts
- 2,970
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- 2,586
About the 2 $50,000+ elephants in the room...
It strikes me as a bit ironical that we have been discussing the "pinnacle of personal audio," and the possibility of going beyond that pinnacle, and yet no-one has even mentioned the two leading candidates (at least, in my view) that the industry itself seems to have gone all out to create as the no-holds-barred "statement" technologies of headphone listening at its finest, namely,
the Sennheiser He-1 :
and...
the hifiman Shangri-la :
i mean, I literally find it to be a little strange that neither of these two beasts has been mentioned, in a discussion involving what one might possibly get if one wants to move beyond the Susvara: The discussion seems to have stalled around the face-off between the Susvara itself, and the Abyss TC, as if either one or the other represented the last word in headphone listening pleasure, without any possible exceptions:
@MacedonianHero 's bold statement seems to sum up this position best:
From what I am seeing, it seems most subsequent posters agree with that sentiment. But why should there be no moving on beyond the Susvara and the Abyss TC, when the He-1 and the Shangri-la seem very deliberately, and very loudly, designed to make the very opposite claim?
It seems to me, very weirdly, I might add, that posters on this forum have deemed these two candidates to be off-limits in the discussion, by some unannounced consensus, but why? :
1. Is it because they're considered to be too expensive to be affordable by most posters, and to be therefore irrelevant in such discussions? Or...
2. Is it because they are considered to be overhyped, overrated, and over-produced, "white elephant," products whose cosmetic looks and price points exaggerate or misrepresent the quality of their actual. performance? or, to put it more bluntly,
3. Is it because posters think that they both sound inferior to the Susvara and Abyss TC, in spite of all the exaggerated fanfare of their "production values"? ...
4. Or is it because too few posters here have actually auditioned these two, and hence, know too little to say anything meaningful about them, and especially, about how they might compare with either the Susvara or the Abyss TC...?
But if you have never heard enough of these to make an informed judgement, why maintain or insist so obstinately on the absolute or unsurpassable superiority of the Susvara and/or the Abyss TC?
In short, what gives?
I am sure I can generate even more puzzling questions about the weird absence of these two "elephants" in this discussion, but they're, at least, no longer absent, so I shall stop here and listen to what posters think about their previous omissions.
My smiley' s here, although I am not necessarily kidding
It strikes me as a bit ironical that we have been discussing the "pinnacle of personal audio," and the possibility of going beyond that pinnacle, and yet no-one has even mentioned the two leading candidates (at least, in my view) that the industry itself seems to have gone all out to create as the no-holds-barred "statement" technologies of headphone listening at its finest, namely,
the Sennheiser He-1 :
and...
the hifiman Shangri-la :
i mean, I literally find it to be a little strange that neither of these two beasts has been mentioned, in a discussion involving what one might possibly get if one wants to move beyond the Susvara: The discussion seems to have stalled around the face-off between the Susvara itself, and the Abyss TC, as if either one or the other represented the last word in headphone listening pleasure, without any possible exceptions:
@MacedonianHero 's bold statement seems to sum up this position best:
There is no moving on beyond these headphones...they are at the pinnacle of personal audio IMO.
From what I am seeing, it seems most subsequent posters agree with that sentiment. But why should there be no moving on beyond the Susvara and the Abyss TC, when the He-1 and the Shangri-la seem very deliberately, and very loudly, designed to make the very opposite claim?
It seems to me, very weirdly, I might add, that posters on this forum have deemed these two candidates to be off-limits in the discussion, by some unannounced consensus, but why? :
1. Is it because they're considered to be too expensive to be affordable by most posters, and to be therefore irrelevant in such discussions? Or...
2. Is it because they are considered to be overhyped, overrated, and over-produced, "white elephant," products whose cosmetic looks and price points exaggerate or misrepresent the quality of their actual. performance? or, to put it more bluntly,
3. Is it because posters think that they both sound inferior to the Susvara and Abyss TC, in spite of all the exaggerated fanfare of their "production values"? ...
4. Or is it because too few posters here have actually auditioned these two, and hence, know too little to say anything meaningful about them, and especially, about how they might compare with either the Susvara or the Abyss TC...?
But if you have never heard enough of these to make an informed judgement, why maintain or insist so obstinately on the absolute or unsurpassable superiority of the Susvara and/or the Abyss TC?
In short, what gives?
I am sure I can generate even more puzzling questions about the weird absence of these two "elephants" in this discussion, but they're, at least, no longer absent, so I shall stop here and listen to what posters think about their previous omissions.
My smiley' s here, although I am not necessarily kidding
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