krmathis
Head-Fi's Most Prolific Poster
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- Jan 13, 2004
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To me it seems to be mostly about supply and demand.
Look some 5-15 years back and most of the major manufacturers had a high-end statement model on the market. Sennheiser HE90, Sony MDR-R10, Sony Qualia 010, Stax SR-007, AKG K1000, Audio-technica ATH-L3000 and Grado PS1 to name some.
But most of these have since then gone out of production without successors, as the manufacturers probably have concentrated on the mass-market headphones (HD650, K701, ...). Until recently that is when they obviously have seen an unfilled demand in the market, and slowly start releasing new statement models again.
They still have reasonable priced mass-market headphones out there, so if you can not afford the top end you get 85-90% of the sound quality for around 1/5 of the price.
Look some 5-15 years back and most of the major manufacturers had a high-end statement model on the market. Sennheiser HE90, Sony MDR-R10, Sony Qualia 010, Stax SR-007, AKG K1000, Audio-technica ATH-L3000 and Grado PS1 to name some.
But most of these have since then gone out of production without successors, as the manufacturers probably have concentrated on the mass-market headphones (HD650, K701, ...). Until recently that is when they obviously have seen an unfilled demand in the market, and slowly start releasing new statement models again.
They still have reasonable priced mass-market headphones out there, so if you can not afford the top end you get 85-90% of the sound quality for around 1/5 of the price.