[dBel84]

SG on the AB1266   The Audiophiliac : Abyss AB-1266 headphones run $5,495, but they're worth it

 

[Gorillaz]

another not hyped review from the Audiophilac

 

[grokit]

The Dodge Viper of headphones, thought it would be a Tesla lol

 

[gikigill]

I find it really hard to believe that an ortho driver can match the SR009. Will be auditioning them shortly and let's see.

 

[gikigill]

Ortho bass is very good usually but the remainder of the spectrum not so much. The overall liquid delivery of a stat can be hard to match.

 

[wuwhere]

I like planar magnetics, unlike electro stats that requires very special amps.

 

[3X0]

There's your friends problem. 

On the other hand, when has SG's reviews been consistently reliable? 

Yup. Ridiculous.

What's become exceedingly clear is that we have these being compared to underserved SR009s, and that we need to hear the two back to back personally to form meaningful impressions.

 

[gikigill]

A full on review with matching DAC, BHSE for the STAX and equivalent for the Abyss would be a good way to go.
 

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

Yup. Ridiculous.

What's become exceedingly clear is that we have these being compared to underserved SR009s, and that we need to hear the two back to back personally to form meaningful impressions.

Yeah what strikes me about the so far impressions is whether or not these are compared against the 009's for neutrality. Of course these is no such thing as the best headphone, a headphone pleasing to all, but in terms of musical and hi-fidelity the more neutral a headphone/speaker is the better it ranks amongst it's competition, deserving it's own status. Until Tyll can get measurements out for these I will reserve further comments to myself, sure we like coloured aspects of sound sometimes but imfho a BHSE + 009 is very hard to beat in terms of neutrality. 

 

[Joe Skubinski]

Do you not believe the BHSE can have a sound of its own, or many different sounds depending on how it's tube'd; or cabled?

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

Do you not believe the BHSE can have a sound of its own, or many different sounds depending on how it's tube'd; or cabled?

The BHSE has been regarded as an amp "wire with a gain". KG himself designed them to be as neutral as possible with plenty of power to boot so the transducers being driven does not lack finesse in areas of sound. Given the hybrid design of the BHSE, the amp is insensitive to tube rolling as compared to say the Woo Audio amp's. Of course at the end of the day everybody's ears are different, any bias, placebo can be influential to what some user's swear by the subtle differences in it.

 

[Joe Skubinski]

Do you own one of these with the 009's, or are you simply repeating what others have said?

 

[DefQon]

I was close to getting my BHSE few months back to pair with my Omega but no I don't personally own one myself but I have heard the infamous 009 and BHSE combo not too long ago though only briefly less than an hour. Although the 009 is pretty damn good I find it to be not my cup of tea it's brightness sort of reminds me of my stock CD950. I will be going the BHSE route in the future but right now I'm just focusing on collecting the vintage Stax models before price hikes up again.

 

[Joe Skubinski]

That explains it all...

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

That explains it all, thanks.

To be honest with you, from a consumer perspective, you would've had more success with these if they were priced less than the asking price. Not every so called audiophile here have trees that grow money, even for those that do, they are quite conservative to how they spend it, and then there is the small group of people that don't care because they simply have too much money/ use the headphones once and never touch it again.
 
Yes there are perspectives from your business side where new technology, R&D, equipment, effort, time, cost, labor not being cheap to develop these, but maybe if there were an option giving the consumer a mind of peace to use there own supplied cables without spending $5.5k for the complete package, maybe even an entry/basic product along with the flagship to give people a taste of what your companies headphones are capable of would of been beneficial as well.
 
You can still achieve all this without sacrifacing too much, heck a good example is Hifiman. If you eat in small bites, you can enjoy the food even more, if you take one massive bite and swallow it down, you're not enjoying the food and getting no benefit out it. 
 
My 2c.