[XERO1]

  CES 2016 will be the one to watch....

 
Foooorrrrrr........????  

 

[alpha80]

  CES 2016 will be the one to watch....

Because Sennheiser will be waiting to debut it's new Closed back HD800 there ?
We cant wait any longer !!!!!

 

[jespersen]

Sennheiser is showing some nice new color editions of the HD800 - will we see a commercially available 70th anniversary edition with a new color job you think? I would not mind a black version...
 

Funky colors; not really my cup of tee though...
 

 
Seems like this one (shown at the reshaping event) even has a color matched balanced cable. It would be nice if it included a balanced cable but I guess that would be hoping too much...
 
Best regards

 

[STR-1]

I've just learned that Sennheiser have started a price reduction promotion for the HD800 (at least in the UK), dropping it from £1,100 to £900.

 

[schalliol]

Here's a bit more info on them: http://www.whathifi.com/news/sennheiser-teases-special-70th-anniversary-headphones

 

[lamode]

  Here's a bit more info on them: http://www.whathifi.com/news/sennheiser-teases-special-70th-anniversary-headphones

 
"The concert was recorded by 103 microphones"
 
Why oh why do they insist on doing this?

 

[schalliol]

Haha, yeah, that's crazy. How about a head shape with mics in its ears?

 

[arnaud]

So, this week end, axel grell from sennheiser brought the only hd800s prototype for the fujiya avic phone festival. I had the priviledge to pick his brain about phones r&d, I reported about our conversation on the hd800s here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/785577/sennheiser-hd800s-unveiled/300_30#post_12021524

We also talked a bit about the new orpheus as Axel was also very much involved in the design of the new phone. It turns out Sennheiser always thought electrostats were the ultimate for sound reproduction (and recording I guess), they know the reputation of the original orpheus, axel gave large praise to competitor design today (stax sr009), so they wanted to give it another shot with the new orpheus.

We could not dig into the details of the design, in particular the built-in amplification in the headset. He mentioned about high voltage originating at the amp (at least the bias / dac component) but the rest happening in the phone. He mentioned about a fault safe design where the amplifier is constantly monitoring output current going through the phones an will shut off as soon as a problem arise (in the cable or otherwise).

But the neat part of the conversation was about the electrode design (ceramic with conductive coating). As you may know, the killer here is to have a super flat surface which isn't trivial. Original orpheus had fiberglass stators, which unfortunately would lack rigidity and self damping and cause some distortion.

The new ceramic electrodes are stiffer and have much improved self damping but a pain to manufacture... We heard about some nitty gritty details but I am not sure what I can share so leaving it aside for now. Suffice to say, in the end, you end up with a very expensive product to manufacture but Axel is apparently proud of his new baby and did the best he could to deliver a statement product.

About the probibitive cost, at least for the headphone, it seems like the unfortunate result of trying to design a no compromise statement product. Even though it will be out of reach to most wallets (and will only be sold through very restricted / specific sales channels), Axel truly hopes they will find a way to get headfiers to get a taste of the new orpheus. We may imagine some of unit units reserved for circulating worldwide to the various large headphone shows...

I have to say I was not too excited about the amplifier / overall tone of the marketing campaign held by sennheiser but this conversation with axel was a breath of fresh air and assurance that this is not just fluff: they is actual strong engineering going behind the product and, sennheiser certainly appears to have done hard work on the r&d side of things.

Cheers,
Arnaud

 

[schalliol]

Thanks for report of your conversation. So the new Orpheus (or whatever it'll be called) has built in amplification in the headphone? Maybe I misread. It seems there's a huge tube amp, so I can't imagine what I'm headphone amplification they'd be doing.

 

[Sennheiser]

So, this week end, axel grell from sennheiser brought the only hd800s prototype for the fujiya avic phone festival. I had the priviledge to pick his brain about phones r&d, I reported about our conversation on the hd800s here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/785577/sennheiser-hd800s-unveiled/300_30#post_12021524

We also talked a bit about the new orpheus as Axel was also very much involved in the design of the new phone. It turns out Sennheiser always thought electrostats were the ultimate for sound reproduction (and recording I guess), they know the reputation of the original orpheus, axel gave large praise to competitor design today (stax sr009), so they wanted to give it another shot with the new orpheus.

We could not dig into the details of the design, in particular the built-in amplification in the headset. He mentioned about high voltage originating at the amp (at least the bias / dac component) but the rest happening in the phone. He mentioned about a fault safe design where the amplifier is constantly monitoring output current going through the phones an will shut off as soon as a problem arise (in the cable or otherwise).

But the neat part of the conversation was about the electrode design (ceramic with conductive coating). As you may know, the killer here is to have a super flat surface which isn't trivial. Original orpheus had fiberglass stators, which unfortunately would lack rigidity and self damping and cause some distortion.

The new ceramic electrodes are stiffer and have much improved self damping but a pain to manufacture... We heard about some nitty gritty details but I am not sure what I can share so leaving it aside for now. Suffice to say, in the end, you end up with a very expensive product to manufacture but Axel is apparently proud of his new baby and did the best he could to deliver a statement product.

About the probibitive cost, at least for the headphone, it seems like the unfortunate result of trying to design a no compromise statement product. Even though it will be out of reach to most wallets (and will only be sold through very restricted / specific sales channels), Axel truly hopes they will find a way to get headfiers to get a taste of the new orpheus. We may imagine some of unit units reserved for circulating worldwide to the various large headphone shows...

I have to say I was not too excited about the amplifier / overall tone of the marketing campaign held by sennheiser but this conversation with axel was a breath of fresh air and assurance that this is not just fluff: they is actual strong engineering going behind the product and, sennheiser certainly appears to have done hard work on the r&d side of things.

Cheers,
Arnaud

 
Nice post here as well as the other in the HD 800S thread, arnaud! 

 

[pOOB73]

Some more info: http://gizmodo.com/sennheisers-built-probably-the-worlds-best-headphones-b-1740236171

 

[Sennheiser]

Introducing the world’s new best headphones: Employing the latest breakthroughs in design, leading-edge manufacturing techniques and materials, the new Orpheus delivers unparalleled, unprecedented sound performance, reshaping the meaning of excellence. Click for more:  
 

[size=24.57px][/size]

 

[KT66]

that website is just silly, for a start the audio is way too loud

 

[lamode]

  that website is just silly, for a start the audio is way too loud

It didn't seem to work for me. I mean some parts of the page loaded but it seemed that the main content was missing.

 

[kupco]

http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/3/9663230/sennheisers-new-orpheus-headphones-will-cost-you-55000