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

[pedalhead]

It's wonderful to see Sennheiser continuing to invest time and money in achieving the best possible headphone rig and perhaps the technology may trickle down in the future to benefit us all.  However it is a shame that the price is almost certainly going to mean only very few real audio/music enthusiasts will be able to afford one. I expect far more will be bought by the uber-rich as show-off toys. Oh well, sadly the way of things in these days of such huge wealth division.

 

[lamode]

  Will this be shown at a roadshow in London and if so, when?

 
I'm also curious. I remember listening to the original Orpheus back in the early 90s.
 
Jude never mentioned comfort in his review. How comfortable are these? The phones do seem heavy.
 
Finally, happy to see that there is a black marble version. That white marble is really not good. (I'd prefer no marble at all, to be honest).

 

[tranhieu]

Why didn't anyone mention how great this video is? The best vid I ever watched on Headfi, you touched me hard this time mate. Are you actually a speaker in real life or something?

 

[DavidMahler]

Uh oh

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I can't help but to simply shake my head at the price regardless of any reason. It is a ridiculous amount over any of it's competition. But to those who will have this and have the disposable income for it, I hope it is truly worth it over the alternatives, and not by a small margin. There is a legitimate performance boost, and there is justifying something for the sake of not feeling like money was blown.

I do trust Sennheiser to make something special, so at least there's that.

But what do I know, I don't even hit its price with 2 years of work. It is far and away beyond my personal perception of reason.

 

[audionewbi]

The time and resources for research and development along with the choice of materials is simply...... Wow! I would love to just demo one.

I think if they just used the old design without doing any more R&D (and assuming that meant zero R&D cost) and they just released the old design alot of us head-fier would have embrace it with wide open arms however at $55,000 it is truly for ultra rich who have the million dollar home stereo and like to have the same sound in their executive lounge.
 
In summary orpheus isn't designed for your average head-fi, it is not ever designed for your ultra-experienced head-fi who can hear better than a bat, it is designed for those who can afford it, this is not certainly a product that perhaps has no place in our hobby. Even the stax SR-009 has a very small audience in this hobby. 
 

 

[mikoss]

50,000 euro. Endorsing this is part of what makes other people who aren't a part of our hobby justified in calling us audiophools.

 

[MuppetFace]

Thinking about getting a set. No joke.
 
 
Recovering from cancer, the last thing I should be doing is spending more money (those bills...). But then again, recovering from cancer, I'm thinking "you only live once..."

 

[audionewbi]

I hope you get well, I used to love reading your journal, this is a sad news. 

 

[pedalhead]

  Thinking about getting a set. No joke.
 
 
Recovering from cancer, the last thing I should be doing is spending more money (those bills...). But then again, recovering from cancer, I'm thinking "you only live once..."

 
It'd be good to see at least one of these things in the hands of someone who'd really appreciate it!  All the best with your recovery.

 

[433115]

Yup, it's Bugatti Veyron alright.
 
Basically, it exists for the sake of existing.
 
But you're probably silly to actually buy it. Unless you're 70+ years old I'm sure you'll live to see when a system like this becomes common tech. Tech moves so fast anymore. $50k? If you have 50k on hand you invest that crap and let it grow. Then you can easily afford the $50k models of 2035 or something which I'll bet will be WAY better than this and not totally break yourself doing it.
 
 Even most of the craziest self-proclaimed "audiophiles" would think you're absolutely insane to buy it. There's a limit even for your hobbies, ya know? It may be better than any other headphone and amp combo, but is it really $50k better than a STAX SR-009 or the upcoming HD800S? Highly doubt it. You're paying a minimum of 45k extra for that perfectionism, when a ever-so-slightly lower level product saves you a whopping ton.
 
But I'm sure there's some multi-millionaires out there that's fine dropping $50k on something. I guess that's what this is more or less marketed for. Same market as the Veyron is geared toward.
 
Also, all this talk of trickle-down makes me laugh. If Reaganomics didn't work for money I somehow feel it's not going to mean a lot for headphones, but we can hope.
 
I will indeed say that I am jealous of whoever can have these. But I'd probably be envious of their riches in general anyway, headphones aside. Heh.
 
Good on Sennheiser anyway I guess. You've made something that can pressure other manufacturers or give them an example in some way or another I suppose.

 

[vkvedam]

Congrats Sennheiser on the achievement! But that's a lot and I wouldn't be able to afford that. It's like a concept car design, kudos to the technological achievement.

 

[x RELIC x]

I think if they just used the old design without doing any more R&D (and assuming that meant zero R&D cost) and they just released the old design alot of us head-fier would have embrace it with wide open arms however at $55,000 it is truly for ultra rich who have the million dollar home stereo and like to have the same sound in their executive lounge.

In summary orpheus isn't designed for your average head-fi, it is not ever designed for your ultra-experienced head-fi who can hear better than a bat, it is designed for those who can afford it, this is not certainly a product that perhaps has no place in our hobby. Even the stax SR-009 has a very small audience in this hobby. 

 

Of course. Not sure why you quoted me. I'm just pointing out that I appreciate someone on this big blue ball has gone through a lot of trouble for that very small percentage of über audio that is apparently so difficult to attain. Judging by Jude's reaction they've come closer. Kudos for trying Sennheiser, it takes money and balls to create a product like this even though the vast majority of the population will never hear it. That's risky.

 

[reihead]

One of the best videos I have ever seen about any product.

Very happy for you Jude. I can only imagine the overwhelming feeling.

As for the price, I tried to guess and fell short by 15k EUR.

It is what it is, the best of the best, the materials, the details, the experience! For what I know just that piece of marble with its precise cut would cost about the same of the HD700.

Now to play the lottery!

 

[longbowbbs]

@jude That was a fantastic presentation! Hopefully you can persuade them to bring one to CanJam SoCal next March. You need a new T-Shirt that says "Got NDA?"