[JaZZ]

Quote:

...Just shame about the colour, it does look cheap.

It looks like metal, and metal isn't cheap.

It seems as if some «placebo effect» is going on here.

What if it was metal and spray-painted to look like cheap black plastic?
.

 

[number1sixerfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ /img/forum/go_quote.gif What if it was metal and spray-painted to look like cheap black plastic? .

Then you'd get mostly the same feedback, minus complaints about plastic. A lot of people would still find them unattractive. The look would simply be concentrated on.

 

[greggf]

John Willett,

Do you know how Sennheiser goes about styling headphones?

Do they have in-house industrial designers/stylists, or do they utilize outside sources/consultants, or is it fly-by-the-seats-of-their-pants no-style, where stuff ends up looking the way it looks for pretty much no special reason except engineering concepts of appearance?

If you aren't sure, could you find out and post how design is done at Senn? Especially how the looks of the HD800 came about...............who signed off on it?

 

[s1rrah]

I'm late to this thread ...

But that said ...

If the sound is good, I could care less what a can was made of/from.

Then again ...

Being a visual design professional by trade ...

Being a diehard fan of industrial design in all it's many forms ...

I have to concur that industrial machines, be it headphones or cars or chairs, are generally better when constructed of naturally occurring materials.

It's just not a disputable point.

Real world materials bent to the will of sonic practitioners ... will always be superior to materials that are fabricated, guessed, estimated or factored ... from some hybrid/solids technology.

Its the same as trying to make a low quality .jpeg look better via resizing/resampling to a higher bit rate.

Sonic is sonic.

As it was played is how it should be heard and anything and everything else is just farting in the wind or wishful thinking.

So ...

I'm firs a fan of products that use unadulterated, naturally occurring materials ...

Second ... I'm a fan of all others.

 

[jamato8]

Paying that kind of money should warrant some quality material. I am so tired of plastic. Why is it that people have come to accept this? Even the BMW and Mercedes etc use a lot of plastic, everywhere.

So why not something that is visually and tactile appealing, as in materials that hold up to the asking price. I have the Ultrasone Ed. 9. A head band that costs maybe 8 dollars at the most and plastic ear cups. All for a list of 1700 dollars and a selling price of 1200 to 1300. So if they can get away with it, why not say it is for the dampening properties and the end sound when really it is for the ease of cutting corners and the extra dollars or whatever currency they use, in profit. At least the new PS1000 has aluminum cups with the value to dollar cost to be determined as more get it in their hands.

 

[davidhunternyc]

Yes, John Grado chose to use aluminum instead of plastic for his reference PS1000 headphone. Are there any engineers here who would argue with this?

 

[wnmnkh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Willett /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Leona plastic of the HD 800 is acoustically and mechanically better than metal - that's why it was chosen. Just wait until you actually *hear* them.

Same words came out one of Jude's posts, citing Sennheiser engineer's saying.

And of course we have Tyll's comments (and hey, Tyll's company actually sells expensive woody and metal cans, and I have no doubt that they will sell PS-1000 as well... But Tyll decides to tell the truth here.)

David, I highly suggest you to read books from Tyll's recommendation.

 

[jamato8]

I wouldn't care if the acoustics were controlled with plastics, if they do best but the rest could have some quality to it. If all plastic then drop the price accordingly. Some will pay the price. I paid for the Ed. 9's, knowing what I was getting. I just think it is a shame we don't get or demand more for our hard earned (most of the time). . . . . Money.

 

[Morph201]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Willett /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Leona plastic of the HD 800 is acoustically and mechanically better than metal - that's why it was chosen. Just wait until you actually *hear* them.

That's just it, a majority of people that are b***** about the 'plastic' won't be hearing it. So what's left? Complain about something that's really a non-factor as some form of justification.

 

[Morph201]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamato8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wouldn't care if the acoustics were controlled with plastics, if they do best but the rest could have some quality to it. If all plastic then drop the price accordingly. Some will pay the price. I paid for the Ed. 9's, knowing what I was getting. I just think it is a shame we don't get or demand more for our hard earned (most of the time). . . . . Money.

If I recall correctly, there are a number of posts with people complaining about the materials used on the Ed. 9.

 

[ast]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamato8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif ..... At least the new PS1000 has aluminum cups with the value to dollar cost to be determined as more get it in their hands.

But we are buying headphones here, so weight and sonic performance override all others. If metal can perform the same AND with the same light weight as plastics, then I'd protest HD800 as well.

If you like metal, more substantial headphones, go ahead order the new PS1000, it is heavier than PS-1 according to Zanth's review.

 

[wnmnkh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamato8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wouldn't care if the acoustics were controlled with plastics, if they do best but the rest could have some quality to it. If all plastic then drop the price accordingly. Some will pay the price. I paid for the Ed. 9's, knowing what I was getting. I just think it is a shame we don't get or demand more for our hard earned (most of the time). . . . . Money.

Other than that slive plastic body, Sennheiser DID use a lot of metal (mesh, grill, headband, etc) to the point that use of such metals won't affect the sound that much.

(I said 'that much' since I felt that they actually compromised the sound quality for metal when I was reading about headband of HD800.)

 

[jamato8]

Well it will be fun to read a comparison when they are all put to the test.

Yes there were many posts on the materials used on the Ed. 9's.

 

[davidhunternyc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yikes /img/forum/go_quote.gif Insomnia is an evil thing. All of the Leona Polymers that I could find are so much softer than even commercially pure titanium (An alloy would likely be used in a headphone frame application, and all probable alloys are much harder than CP titanium) that the above statement is probably misleading. As far as strength goes it is probably closer, at least compared to CP titanium. Once again though it wouldn't be CP titanium but an alloy and the likely titanium alloys have a decided strength advantage. This however is not the point. I have little doubt that a polymer will likely have a significant vibrational advantage; i.e. less susceptible to resonances. It could also very easily be strong enough to avoid significant mechanical failure. [size=small]So a Leona Polymer could very well be a better material for this application, but as far as it being harder than titanium (or a likely titanium alloy) all of the data that I could dig up doesn’t support this claim.[/size] [size=small]Besides I would think that tensile strength would be more important than outright hardness.[/size] [size=small]I am not one to poo poo the use of plastics, oh…. Sorry, Polymers. They can be ideal materials for such applications. I have high hopes for the HD-800’s, I don’t care what they’re made of, the proof as they say is in the pudding. [/size]

The marketing PR for this headphone is insane and it is well known that the frame is made from fiberglass reinforced plastic. To say that the tensile strength is harder than titanium is unbelievable. Maybe the people making the "Leona" plastic should start making bicycle frames. It has also been noted that, despite or because of the plastic frame, the HD800 does a superlative job at controlling unwanted resonances. I don't think that after over 3,000 posts that this subject needs to be rehashed again. What I am interested in at this point in how the drivers are suspended in the frame. Supposedly the each driver only connects to the frame at one point. Has anyone confirmed this or not? If this were true, the amount of air moving the drivers would be an insignificant cause of frame resonances and it wouldn't matter if the frame was made from plastic, titanium, or a tin can. It would be nice to be able to see the innards of the HD800 but we will have to wait a long while to see this for sure.

 

[SleepyOne]

We have been saying that metal feel more expensive, well, how much does it cost in raw form?

Above is the price of Aluminum.

And here is rough price of magnesium for making magnesium alloy (probably out of date).

#12 - Magnesium - Mg