[protoss]

@Sennheiser
@ericpalonen

The ultimate headphone is a modular one. I asked @RAAL to create multiple drivers for their headset. But it seemed too demanding for them. A missed opportunity. Foolish in not understanding what I asked of them.

What if a headphone is similar to a DSLR Camera? A based model. Lets take the HD800. A based HD800 shell. That you can swap drivers in and out easily. Different signatures. From bright to Warm.

Lets simplify it.

1. A based HD800 shell or any headphone you like.
2. A access slot or section with clicks or twist or pull, that the driver is easily replaced and swap out with a different tuning one.
3. A selection of dozens of sound signatures to choose from. From reference to V shape.
4. Swap out drivers, earpads, and cables to your likening by the customer in seconds.
5. Headphones must be lightweight. Less than 500g

This is not only revolutionary, but future proof. Every year you, @Sennhesier can release a new improve driver. A Summit-fi driver that can easily be installed in the based shell. Instead of re-creating a brand new headphone with base and driver and earpads.

You can just create drivers. From $1000 to $3000 to $5000 drivers. Just like camera lens.

Modular headphones is what I consider the ultimate futuristic headphone. Whoever dose this wins the battle.

All credit goes to protoss

 

[Unseen Aura]

@Sennheiser
@ericpalonen

The ultimate headphone is a modular one. I asked @RAAL to create multiple drivers for their headset. But it seemed too demanding for them. A missed opportunity. Foolish in not understanding what I asked of them.

What if a headphone is similar to a DSLR Camera? A based model. Lets take the HD800. A based HD800 shell. That you can swap drivers in and out easily. Different signatures. From bright to Warm.

Lets simplify it.

1. A based HD800 shell or any headphone you like.
2. A access slot or section with clicks or twist or pull, that the driver is easily replaced and swap out with a different tuning one.
3. Swap out drivers, earpads, and cables to your likening by the customer in seconds.

This is not only revolutionary, but future proof. Every year you, @Sennhesier can release a new improve driver. A Summit-fi driver that can easily be installed in the based shell. Instead of re-creating a brand new headphone with base and driver and earpads.

You can just create drivers. From $1000 to $3000 to $5000 drivers. Just like camera lens.

Modular headphones is what I consider the ultimate futuristic headphone. Whoever dose this wins the battle.

All credit goes to protoss

Inspired by Antonio Meze, I have wanted to get into headphone something or the other. While the probability of it happening officially is closer to zero, I think similar to you. In that I want to make a headphone of sorts that is a shell for DIY or your own stuff you wanna put it. Also got the idea from some YT vids talking about 3D printing a cheaper set for planars over dunking more cash into newer ones. Their drawback was needing the guts of a planar headset plus 3D printer and respective materials plus knowledge of how to work it all. Their Classics are customizable in an out (if you can figure it out) which make them pretty close in a certain light. I know some DAP's are modular, upon discovery I found that pretty clever.

 

[protoss]

a shell for DIY or your own stuff you wanna put it.

You just enhanced the project now

Yes, why only rely on Sennheiser to make the drivers for us. There should be a manual they create that helps DIY enthusiast to make their own drivers to install on their shell!

Instead of we get these cable companies. I want to see Sennheiser driver third party companies. We can have multiple colorful sound signatures from so many places.

Back to the drivers

The installation should be easy and simple and fast.

1. connection with magnets
2. slot into place with pins
3. Snap on and off.
4. USB-C connected or 4.4mm connected.
5. Also add-on like mini amps and dacs should be optional.

 

[CT007]

From memory = LCD-3.
From recent use = Mobius, Erupt, FD5(IEM).
Most wanted to hear = 009, 007, Verite Open, ADX5000.

 

[MayaTlab]

For me, any pair of headphones that can deliver an exact FR curve at the eardrum for a start. Active ANC headphones with a robust feedback mechanism and a proper headband / yoke / earcup / pad design can already deliver that in real time below 800-1000Hz or so. First step towards holy grail would be for me to break the "1kHz barrier" and find ways to get a similarly predictable response at any listener's DRP past that frequency.
Then comes the question of what that curve should be, by which point next holy grail step would be for me for ways to personalise the response based on my anatomy. Difficult to know how that would be convincingly achieved for now. But basically the idea would be, for stereo recordings, if I were to be placed in Harman's "decent room with decent speakers", what the FR at my own eardrums would look like ? And with object-based formats something that takes into account my personal HRTF.
And finally package all that in a portable, comfortable, wireless pair of HPs with a novel way to transmit lots of two-way data with very low latency.

 

[ThanatosVI]

My Holy grail would have Abyss TC Bass, maybe even a few db more quantity.
Some creamy seductive mids, something like a Meze Empyrean or LCD-4 has.
And non fatiguing highs like the T+A Solitaire P.

Comfort wise the Empyrean chassis is unbeaten, I personally really like the LCD chassis as well.

Pads would be easily swapable like on the Empyrean.

From existing headphones I hope the Meze Elite will come closest to my desired attributes

 

[oakparkmusicguy]

Physical design / shell / comfort of Dan Clark Audio Aeon.
Then:
Planar sub bass
Sennheiser bass
Mid bass combination
Sennheiser mids
Then above that a combination

 

[musicday]

Pioneer SE Master 1 for me with genuine leather earpads, better connectors and high quality pure copper cable.

 

[Death_Block]

Senn in a couple of years 'ok guys, this what you asked for!'

 

[Vamp898]

Endgame. Desert Island. The Big Kahuna. Holy Grail. Regardless of what you call it, we have all dreamed of the perfect headphone. Is it a headphone that already exists, and you’re planning to save up for it? Does such a headphone not exist, but you can describe it as an amalgamation of existing headphones? Is there just a perfect signature for you? Or maybe it’s a journey towards an ideal, which you enjoy the path without ever wanting it to end? Or maybe you have already found satisfaction, and you’ve already got a favorite that continues to bring a smile to your face and a tap to your toes?



We’d love to hear about your Holy Grail stories: Headphones, DACs, a rare vinyl pressing, recent or old… a bit of HiFi hope for the weekend! If you can include a picture or link to enrich your post, we would love to see it! Both @Evshrug and @ericpalonen will chime in with their own pursuits of perfection.

My holy grail? The competitor to the HD820 and pretty much your biggest nightmare most likely causing sleepless nights for lots of Sennheiser employee

MDR-Z1R on an TA-ZH1ES

 

[Evshrug]

My dream headphone….

Sennheiser HE 1 for $1,000 USD.

The HE-1 is no joke Just a replacement set of tubes costs something like $850.

It’s interesting you say that though… relates to the fun history of the HD 600 (and HD 580).

So, the original Orpheus (and the new one) was/is beyond state of the art, but absolutely a work of art and passion by a group of smart people trying to make the best sounding headphones possible, without regard to price. Therefore, the first Orpheus HEV-90 was absolutely a purchase price outlier, and Sennheiser knew it was going to be financially out of reach for most people.

Therefore, not too far from his internship and relatively new to Sennheiser, Axel Grell’s first project he lead was the design for the HD 580. The mission was to make a new mass-production flagship which would bring as much of the qualities of the HEV-90 as possible, to more down to earth prices.

Of course, the near weightless qualities of the electrostatic Orpheus driver (and some other traits of the carefully designed amp) couldn’t be cheaply replicated, but a similar tonal balance could be achieved. The team of engineers and designers could also use careful materials selection and sophisticated tools to design an acoustically optimal and lightweight enclosure, mounting system, and dampening materials to help with tuning and clarity. Planar magnetic drivers were considered at the time, and they would have been less expensive to produce, but they were discarded because they could design a dynamic driver with better acoustic properties and consistency. Construction required too many different kinds of tasks and too much dexterity to have production automated by robots, so there was a big investment in state of the art facilities in Ireland to assist employees/craftsmen with the finest dexterity and hand eye coordination… a large portion of the workers there are women, often recruited out of hair salons because of their amazing fine motor skills. A quick shout-out to these workers; they’re basically super star athletes when it comes to dexterity!

The first “release celebration” batch of HD 580 was $350, and subsequently it was priced at an ongoing MAP $390. This was considered expensive and at the top end for the average consumer headphone budget in the 90’s, remember Beats by Dre (and Monster) didn’t release until 2008! For Sennheiser’s 50th anniversary, the team designed a limited production run that would push the platform even higher, with a couple sonic fine-tunings that brought it closer to the HEV-90’s sound, a carbon-fibre application, and notably a decision to replace the plastic herringbone grilles (which were causing some resonance) with a more acoustically transparent steel mesh. The changes made did end up increasing production costs significantly, but since it was a limited production, they were sold as the HD 580 Jubilee for $450, and when they were gone they were gone!

However, customer and critical reception of the closer-to-Orpheus sound was very well received, and they had more people asking to bring the headphone back and sell more. The ongoing MAP would be raised to $500, and the carbon fibre application would be replaced with a blue-marbled coloration that would still help it stand out as something more special than just another headphone, but importantly it kept the steel mesh and all the other tweaks that improved the sound. All-told, the design, training, and construction of the tools/tooling needed to create these three headphones (and more in the future) was a larger investment by Sennheiser than the development of the original Orpheus, but it also earned them what is probably the finest transducer development facility in the world, in Ireland.

So, @Olumm, @Mufti, @SoundHelmet, @Zachik, and others, if you want a baby Orpheus, and you don’t mind that it costs less than $1,000, you owe it to yourself to give the HD 600 a try!

 

[Evshrug]

To me it would be the HD800 resolution, imaging and soundstage with the HD598 clamping force and the HD650 midrange/pinna gain with added low end. Simple.

Feels close to this…

Maybe not quite HD 800 resolution, but the angled drivers give it very good imaging and soundstage, of course the clamping force matches the HD 598 (Headband is from the same tooling), it was tuned with a similar midrange as the HD 600/650 (though the highs are closer to HD 600, which assists the angled drivers in providing good imaging), and then the bass is pretty normal for open headphones EXCEPT it’s got a little something extra in how linear the sub bass extension rolls (aka not much roll off compared to the HD 650).

 

[DivineCurrent]

For me, any pair of headphones that can deliver an exact FR curve at the eardrum for a start. Active ANC headphones with a robust feedback mechanism and a proper headband / yoke / earcup / pad design can already deliver that in real time below 800-1000Hz or so. First step towards holy grail would be for me to break the "1kHz barrier" and find ways to get a similarly predictable response at any listener's DRP past that frequency.
Then comes the question of what that curve should be, by which point next holy grail step would be for me for ways to personalise the response based on my anatomy. Difficult to know how that would be convincingly achieved for now. But basically the idea would be, for stereo recordings, if I were to be placed in Harman's "decent room with decent speakers", what the FR at my own eardrums would look like ? And with object-based formats something that takes into account my personal HRTF.
And finally package all that in a portable, comfortable, wireless pair of HPs with a novel way to transmit lots of two-way data with very low latency.

That is a very interesting idea, and something I have wanted for some time. I've experimented with something like this and equalized my HA-FDX1 iems to what I perceive as a balanced frequency response by using sine sweeps. If one area of the frequency is higher/lower than the other, than I equalize up or down to match the volume of the other frequencies. I also noticed while doing this that bringing down 3-4kHz and 9kHz slightly lower in volume than the rest of the frequencies adds a bit more space and sounds more natural. So I am probably sensitive at those frequencies, which lines up well with the Fletcher-Munson equal loudness curve. If you've ever done a sine sweep on a relatively flat speaker, you will notice the volume stays pretty much the same on the whole sweep, and so it makes sense to try to emulate that perceived balanced sound in headphones. And then add more or less bass and treble to your preferences. But then again, everyone's preferences are different so some may not want speaker-like tonality.

 

[adydula]

Been thru 30+ amps, dozens of dacs and countless headphones....I love the ability that a transducer has to be able to reproduce music as it was recorded in real life.
Something that makes you stop and just listen and not think about the gear or how good or bad stuff is...a system that allows you to hear into the recording and make you smile.

Well at my age....I have found several setups that I could be content with, but have a sweet spot for the Final Audio D8000 Pros....the iFi Pro DSD multibit dac and a PassLabs HPA-1 amp. Listening to some very very well recorded DSD recordings is just plain a solid 10.

ATM I am not looking for any headphones....just great material, well recorded to listen to....

Ah! Life is good...

Alex

 

[432789]