[anetode]

Quote:

Did listen to the Da Vinci DAC?

The RMAF setup was lappy to Mytek DAC to Liquid Fire

 

[obobskivich]

It's not a *bad* headphone, maybe competitive in the 300$ range. Though I'd still rather get an he400 from that segment. Detail wise it's outdone by the mad dogs and the he500, slam-wise it's outdone by the lcd3, soundstage-wise it's second to the yamaha yhd2 (despite being a very open design with deep pads). On the good side, it is very solidly built and comes with some seriously heavy duty cables. The abyss is also fairly even, despite having a bit of a sharp accent on the percussion that's reminiscent of the he6. Also like the he6 it has a very low sensitivity.
The people promoting the abyss are very nice, straightforward and ambitious. But the price is a joke.

I'm guessing you have heard these, and let me get this right:

They want $5000 for a headphone that looks (in pictures) like a $200 DIY product, and ostensibly sounds no better? Good grief.

I agree with radio_head on this, but unfortunately I can think of a few "collectors" (I've heard the phrase "flagship hoarder" in some discussions) even on this board will buy one just to say "first" - and that's probably all JPS cares about here; they know there are people who will buy it just to buy it. And with the massive retail pad that's probably worked in, they likely only need to move a few to cut into the green.

Seriously, I agree with the complaint though - it wasn't really a "big deal" when it was just Ultrasone putting out a periodic massively expensive model (and I'm still convinced Edition is how Ultrasone recoups R&D), or Grado and Sony having offerings at $700-$1000. But given that "they" have managed to get people talking like an LCD-2 or AH-D7000 is "mid-fi" thanks to the consistent stream of junk rapper cans pushing $500 (which really aren't on the whole bad, but 15 years ago you'dve found them near the VHS tapes in K-Mart for around $60), so yeah, the clever duckies are of course going to turn "high end" into "insanity class" like they've done with amplifiers and speakers, and most of the rest of higher end audio.

 

[arnaud]

abysmal sales figures I predict . Good they didn't launch on april 1 too lol! Also, the staff from the machine shop must be pretty high up on the payroll for the can to have to be priced at 5k, this is almost hilarious! I bet it sounds pretty good though, there's got to be something somewhere for the company to feel they can charge so much and get away with it (unless they have severe lack of business sense lol ).
 
Ah, I wish I was at rmaf...

 

[juantendo8]

It's clearly $4500 "miraculite" cables attached to $500 headphones. The poor chaps are doing us a favor by providing us quality with zero markup.

 

[CBF-]

If they're $5k, then why the spider web pattern?

 

[obobskivich]

If they're $5k, then why the spider web pattern?

Because spiders are tougher than butterflies?*

Seriously I have no idea, even if they were $5, I think the spider web pattern is kind of...odd.

*

Spoiler

If this makes no sense to you, this is an Edition 10 joke. Some review back in the day called them "the butterfly" (I even found the thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/518477/ultrasone-edition-10-the-butterfly-initial-impressions).

 

[Blackmore]

I hope that their cable will be much flexible than ALUMINATA.

 

[alvin sawdust]

It's the cable that costs $4700, the cans $300

 

[manveru]

Now it makes sense. The cable obviously transforms them from an HD650 into an SR-009. And that's just the stock cable!? Nice! I don't even want to imagine how amazing it must sound with $6000-10,000 of Aluminata as well. We're probably approaching Orpheus territory right there. Plus, with that 10 pounds of cable pulling down on your neck, that square headband, and those suspiciously small and even supraaural looking pads, it looks like we've got a comfort king on our hands. Not to mention that spider web pattern which I'm sure was years in development for optimal acoustics.

 

[dBel84]

I had a long chat to Joe of JPS

The spidey design is meant to represent an abyss , not a web
They do all the manufacture in house , ie they bought all the equipment to cut deposit etc and r&d a few hundred protos to find a driver they liked.
The neodymium magnets are custom made for them, they had very particular polarity requirements
The cost - clearly I am hoping this will change but what they said to me is that it is a package deal - the headphones, a custom stand / storage box , custom premium cables made in house and all the adapters you might need to play the headphones out of any dynamic amp .


My brief show interaction with the Abyss so far has been very positive. They are voiced a little more to the upper end , not unlike the HE 6 but I find them to be more articulate at low dB as well as pushing a little volume. the show models have a very slight emphasis in the upper mids and this is said to be due to the double wood outer protector - they are fairly thin and it would not be impossible to push your fingers through into the driver - hence the caution.

ok enough of fighting iPhone mistyping and autocorrect , happy to post when I get to a laptop

..dB

 

[project86]

Quote:

Okay, so these are 5K (thanks for the scoop anetdote)
 
This is not Stax or Sennheiser charging 5K after years of experience and major expenditure (not to mention bankruptcy in Stax's case) in the headphone arena as the pre-eminent headphones.
 
This is not Final Audio coming out with a ridiculous number and then selling 1 or 2 units.
 
This is a cable company, that, like many cable companies is well known for their markups that border on stickups trying to horn in on a "hot" high end headphone market which has just started to really breakout into mainstream audiophile publications and consciousness.  It's bad for the consumers, bad for the perception of said consumers, and bad for the hobby as a whole.
 
I'd like to do an experiment here, but it would require the passive participation of everyone on the forum:
 
Don't buy these.  Just don't.  Let's see what a concerted effort by a large forum with untested influence can do to effect a greedy outsider company that thinks it can take advantage of us.  Let's try to return a modicum of sanity to an increasingly spend-happy hobby that says more is better and new is better instead of rewarding innovation and R&D.  It's not just for us - it's for our children.  Our metaphorical children in the hobby, who may find themselves joining in 5, 10 years from now with 2K headphones being entry level high end with compromises and 10K not being out of the ordinary for "true high end" as the market sustains it.
 
Oh sure, no matter what there will be some online publications with little to no headphone experience that come out with overwhelmingly positive reviews.  But don't let that sway you.  If no one on this board buys a pair of these, it would set a precedent, an important one in a market that in many ways is still in its adolescence.  
 
It's not like this is unbearably hard.  Just don't send these guys $5,000.  
 
Do it for the kids.

 
One of the best posts I've read in a long time.
 
Look, these guys could be dead serious about breaking into the headphone game. And their motivation could even be pure - maybe they really do want to advance the art of planar headphones. But at this stage it seems equivalent of the Audeze folks selling their LCD-1 for a massive price. If people remember, Audeze did let some LCD-1s out the door, but the cost was in the low hundreds, not thousands. 
 
If the Abyss is a work in progress, prototype status design, then fine - just show it and keep working on it. Don't add a crazy price and say "this is the best we can do at the moment due to X, Y, and Z, and we hope to bring it down at some point". 

 

[gelocks]

All I can say is... WOW.
 
Agreed with Radio_Head and Project86... $5,000 is A LOT of dough for a first-time headphone manufacturer. They don't even look that great and I HIGHLY DOUBT that the sound will even approach to that of AT LEAST the LCD2...
 
And THAT'S what drugs can do to your brain...

 

[obobskivich]

I had a long chat to Joe of JPS
The spidey design is meant to represent an abyss , not a web

..dB

This...makes more sense. Perhaps if they added some relief or shading to it, it would accomplish this more?

Unfortunately while this makes more sense, it isn't as funny as my original theory.

 

[Sandman65]

Quote:

They also coined the term "The World's Finest Headphones". So price may go up even further!

 
 
oh, bother...yet ANOTHER world's finest! (yawn)

 

[jerg]

If they continue this pricepoint into actual sales then yeah it will be a financial abyss for them. If they sell at $500 AND these are competitive at the $500 mark then yeah they might get profit but any more? Digging a hole IMO.