The Sennheiser Orpheus 2? A First Look At The Sennheiser HE-1 (The New Orpheus)

[bfreedma]

If you have lived with a few good power cables and they make no difference then great, don’t buy them. Everyone hears differently.
If you think RLC is it for modeling cables then you are pretty clueless.
Makes no sense for any electronics company to limit to a power cable if their customers will just toss it and use their own - everyone hears differently

I asked for objective evidence and you respond with platitudes and insults. That speaks volumes.

I think I do understand the problem though. i use the pre-2016 definition of “fact” - How things really are as supported by objective, peer reviewed evidence. You use the post 2016 definition of “fact” - How you want things to be as supported by feelings and random internet postings.

Suggesting that someone who doesn’t ask a vendor for cables to “try” means I shouldn’t be in this hobby? Um…. Ok…
I’m in this hobby for the musical enjoyment, not to chase solutions in search of problems. If anyone ever shows proof that a power cable makes a difference, I’ll be first in line to buy it - not staying up nights waiting on that to happen though.

 

[protoss]

@chesebert

Why are you trying to debate this?

70% is about the headphone. We are all here for the headphones.

20% is about the amps. We all love these amps.

10% is about the dac. We all love our dacs.

0% of interest should be in cables. Why argue for cables? It's yours headphones or amplifier that's makes up the sound.

 

[chesebert]

Just buy the best measuring gear and be done.

 

[Articnoise]

@chesebert

Why are you trying to debate this?

70% is about the headphone. We are all here for the headphones.

20% is about the amps. We all love these amps.

10% is about the dac. We all love our dacs.

0% of interest should be in cables. Why argue for cables? It's yours headphones or amplifier that's makes up the sound.

With headphones it's 70% the record and 30% audio gear.

With speakers it's 50% the record, 30% the room and 20% audio gear.

 

[Pastwa]

Are you stating that the Sennheiser engineers are competent enough to build the HE-1 but don’t have the requisite knowledge to include cables that don’t audibly limit the rest of the design? I find that rather hard to believe.

Following this logic, you may also believe that Sennheiser has developed a state of the art DAC that comes with the unit (based on SABRE ES9018) that does not limit (audibly) its performance.

Also, on the audio debate, on what is a fact and what is not, I have not seen any scientific proof that converters or amplifiers should sound different, even dough their owners tend to say so.

 

[chesebert]

With headphones it's 70% the record and 30% audio gear.

With speakers it's 50% the record, 30% the room and 20% audio gear.

Did you pull those percentages out of your head? Please provide scientific/technical evidence.

 

[VandyMan]

boring

 

[xxx1313]

Indeed. What a superfluous discussion in this thread of the world's best headphone setup, by far if you like the Harman curve neutral tuning. Extreme bassheads and bats desiring accentuated treble peaks can look elsewhere.

The HE 1 makes me smile every day when I turn it on. Not because of the start procedure, but because of its incredible sound, which surprises me again each time. It does indeed scale even further with lower power line noise floor (=noise reducing power cables etc.), but imo it easily beats any other headphone setup on this planet also with a 3$ power cable. It sounds great with every bitcorrect source. The USB implementation is great imo, as well as the clock. I have read here that DAC of the HE 1 is mediocre, but I do not agree at all. I have owned Chord Dave and Hugo MScaler, but I never had the desire to use them instead of the DAC of the HE 1. I even recouped two thirds of the price of the HE 1 by selling all my other flagship headphones and headphone gear and never looked back.

This will stay the best headphone setup for the next 10-15 years at least, and after that I will probably be too deaf to appreciate anything that might be even better anyway.

Cheers,
Bernie

 

[Whazzzup]

Concerning cables, guilty pleasure, guilty as charged and guilt free. im just going to hang in with hd800s until and if it’s ever replaced. Senn has me hooked

 

[Articnoise]

Did you pull those percentages out of your head? Please provide scientific/technical evidence.

Yes clearly. It is all about context, you know, and the SQ % @protoss stated. You know sarcasm don't you?

 

[432789]

Above a certain threshold you can improve a DAC all you want but your ears are just not sensitive enough to objectively (in a controlled test) perceive any difference. Maybe one day we will be able to upgrade our ears. But Nowadays Transducers seem to be the only remaining part of the system which has room for audiable technological improvement. I would personally never upgrade the HE1 dac before a bat ears transplant.

 

[chesebert]

Did you even try a different dac with HE1? The integrated dac sounds mediocre to me.

 

[mammal]

Spoke with Sennheiser's rep today, the price in Switzerland is 54k, a second pair of headphones would be around 30k, they no longer offer black marble (was too expensive for them to get the right specs), only the white one from now on. The warranty is standard to what your government guarantees, so no extras for free (like with Chord where you get 3 or 5 years). He also stated that even though Sennheiser sold their consumer brand, they intend on manufacturing & servicing HE-1 in the future, the employees stay the same, and they have the spare parts necessary.

 

[onlychild]

Indeed. What a superfluous discussion in this thread of the world's best headphone setup, by far if you like the Harman curve neutral tuning. Extreme bassheads and bats desiring accentuated treble peaks can look elsewhere.

The HE 1 makes me smile every day when I turn it on. Not because of the start procedure, but because of its incredible sound, which surprises me again each time. It does indeed scale even further with lower power line noise floor (=noise reducing power cables etc.), but imo it easily beats any other headphone setup on this planet also with a 3$ power cable. It sounds great with every bitcorrect source. The USB implementation is great imo, as well as the clock. I have read here that DAC of the HE 1 is mediocre, but I do not agree at all. I have owned Chord Dave and Hugo MScaler, but I never had the desire to use them instead of the DAC of the HE 1. I even recouped two thirds of the price of the HE 1 by selling all my other flagship headphones and headphone gear and never looked back.

This will stay the best headphone setup for the next 10-15 years at least, and after that I will probably be too deaf to appreciate anything that might be even better anyway.

Cheers,
Bernie

I too prefer the internal dac of HE-1 vs something like the Chord DAVE with DC4 LPS. Everything just sounds more “real” with the HE-1 dac.

My opinion is that you are better off upgrading the source (e.g. dedicated server vs something like a MacBook) instead of using a different DAC.

 

[protoss]

@mammal

What do you mean second pair of headphones? Isn't their only 1 socket inside the HE1? And also it's attached?