[eke2k6]

I've brought up several things that haven't really been challenged. If these criticisms are uninformed, let's have a conversation about them.

- motorized tubes and buttons as an engineering point of failure which does nothing to improve sound

- amplifier built of marble to reduce microphonics - are microphonics actually an issue with the top tube amps being produced by other companies? are there audible microphonic distortions in competing tube amps?

- amplification built into the earcups to avoid distortion over cabling - is there currently audible distortion in amplifiers set up to carry the amplification signal across cables?

Again, people seem a little too eager to shut down all potential criticism. It's best to balance the over the top marketing that is currently being distributed with a grounded perspective that actually attempts to critically evaluate some of the engineering decisions involved in the development of this headphone.

Save your breath. We're beyond reason in personal audio now. Shure just released a $3k flagship iem. JH's flagship is around the same price. The AK380 costs $3.5k. We can only wait for the bubble to burst.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  I've brought up several things that haven't really been challenged. If these criticisms are uninformed, let's have a conversation about them.
 
- motorized tubes and buttons as an engineering point of failure which does nothing to improve sound
 
- amplifier built of marble to reduce microphonics - are microphonics actually an issue with the top tube amps being produced by other companies? are there audible microphonic distortions in competing tube amps?
 
- amplification built into the earcups to avoid distortion over cabling - is there currently audible distortion in amplifiers set up to carry the amplification signal across cables?
 
Again, people seem a little too eager to shut down all potential criticism. It's best to balance the over the top marketing that is currently being distributed with a grounded perspective that actually attempts to critically evaluate some of the engineering decisions involved in the development of this headphone.

 
I get where you're coming from, but the problem is that your criticisms seem to be implying (correct me if I'm mistaken) that the sound of the headphone is inferior to other headphones, which is something that cannot be deduced by noticing the things you mentioned. From my perspective, you're acting like the fact that there is marble, amplification in the earcups and so on somehow prevents it from being a good-sounding headphone.
 
I'll give you a link again:
 
http://www.sennheiser-reshapingexcellence.com/en/press
 
Go there and read about the design of the actual headphone, such as the diaphragm and so on. No one can deny that the successor to the legendary Orpheus was indeed designed with sound quality in mind. The fact that they had luxury in mind as well does not negate this; it just makes it more expensive than it needs to be.
 

  What would be interesting is if OP compared the new Orpheus to his 009/Frank Cooter amp/$20k dac. If he prefers the new Orpheus then we have something. Not mentioning what the 009 was driven by at Sennheiser really leaves allot of "if's" imo.

 
As far as I can tell, when he said both the new and old Orpheus sounded better to him than the SR-009, he was basing that on his experience of hearing the SR-009 from all sorts of gear, including his own system.

 

[up late]

deleted

 

[masterfuu]

To get great sound you dont need to spend a fortune. Just beyer t1 second gen with a sweet bottlehead crack and i guarantee you tears will run down your face.

 

[Cagin]

If the Monument to Orpheus is the prized jewel of the 70th anniversary of Sennheiser, I'm quite curious what's already being worked on in the background for the 75th anniversary, a far more symbolic moment. Electrostatic in-ear monitors? Sennheiser's own take at the Shure's KSE1500? 5 years to go, that's quite some time to further improve. I admit I'm not knowledgeable enough on how diverse Sennheiser is. Which other areas can we expect a 'monumental' offering to progress?
 
edit: poor Jude, probably under another NDA, waiting patiently to reveal the next future best iems ^^

 

[up late]

I've brought up several things that haven't really been challenged. If these criticisms are uninformed, let's have a conversation about them.

- motorized tubes and buttons as an engineering point of failure which does nothing to improve sound

- amplifier built of marble to reduce microphonics - are microphonics actually an issue with the top tube amps being produced by other companies? are there audible microphonic distortions in competing tube amps?

- amplification built into the earcups to avoid distortion over cabling - is there currently audible distortion in amplifiers set up to carry the amplification signal across cables?

Again, people seem a little too eager to shut down all potential criticism. It's best to balance the over the top marketing that is currently being distributed with a grounded perspective that actually attempts to critically evaluate some of the engineering decisions involved in the development of this headphone.

like i said, i have no objection to informed criticism but yours is clearly biased and speculative. it seems only fair to me to wait for the release of the production units and the subjective and objective evaluations that will follow, rather than trying to find fault with the new orpheus based on the limited information that is currently available.

 

[raypin]

mmm.......one positive for me is this headphone system will not be on a limited run. I'm doubling down on my weekly lotto bet. One day..........

 

[bolmeteus]

I wonder how much future-ebay prices will rise to... The orpheus is 28-30k, this thing starts at 55k :3

 

[DougD]

Save your breath. We're beyond reason in personal audio now. Shure just released a $3k flagship iem. JH's flagship is around the same price. The AK380 costs $3.5k. We can only wait for the bubble to burst.

 
The bubble will not burst. There will be ever-more expensive head-phile gear released. But these releases don't DRIVE the prices. Companies build and offer expensive products because they believe there will be buyers at the (specs+features+SQ)/cost=value point they intend to occupy. Sometimes they are right in their assumptions, and sometimes they discover they mis-judged the market, oh whoops. 
 
I am willing to accept, more or less on faith, that this new Sennheiser is in fact better than any other headphone ever previously made. Selling it at 55,000 Euros is a double-edged sword ... at that price, it NEEDS to clearly sound better to 90%+ of people than the competition, or Sennheiser ends up with serious pie-face to their reputation. They would not have released it, unless they were very very sure it met that test. (IMO).  
 
But as consumers, we each make individual decisions to buy, or not buy, gear according to our own calculations of cost vs estimated value & enjoyment. I will never own an Orpheus. I'm totally over that already. I can set it up in the private jet I don't have, parked on the private island I don't have, and daydream about it occasionally while listening to great music on my affordable-for-me gear that I do have.
 
It took 25 years for Sennheiser to top their previous best effort. And they've created a product so expensive that few audiophiles and/or music-lovers will ever own it or enjoy it. And they probably won't affect sales of the Stax SR-009 and related gear at all ... anybody who can afford the new Orpheus without a deep soul check won't need to make an either/or decision. 
 
Meanwhile, in the past year or so, Schiit Audio has released two great amps, the Ragnorak at $1699 USD, the Mjolnir 2 at $849, and three great multibit DACs, the Yggdrasil at $2,299, the Gumby at $1,349 and Bifrost Multibit at $649, plus several novel USB-cleanup products. All of these products are incredibly disruptive, sometimes because of new technology, but always because their specs and SQ exceed those of most of the competition that is 2, 3, or 4-times as expensive. (Or much much more, in the case of Yggy.) And they're shipping thousands of them every year. In other words, we're buying thousands of them, and improving our sound systems.
 
And Schiit is by no means the only company innovating and redefining the value frontier from the bottom up. We have at least three DAPs and one cellphone about to hit the market, all under $1000, that appear to be poised to give Astell&Kern some serious heartburn. (The Questyle QP1R, the Onkyo DP-X1, the Fiio X7, and the LG-V10 that I know of, there probably are more.) 
 
At this year's RMAF/Canjam, Andrew Jones' new ELAC speakers, mostly under $500 as I understand it, were in the "HIGH-fi" suites along with the $20,000 to $100,000 speakers systems, and reportedly very few people who heard them thought they were out of place.
 
Let the good times roll. 
 
(I will shut up now. For at least 6 hours.)
 
Edit: In fairness, I must mention that I consider the Senn HD-650 to be one of the greatest values in all of audio, and it's been in that position for more than 10 years.

 

[saidentary]

   
I am willing to accept, more or less on faith, that this new Sennheiser is in fact better than any other headphone ever previously made.

Well, that makes ONE of us.  They're making brash and unsubstantiated claims.  These claims may or may not be true. But Sennheiser's not the only company to make wild claims about their product's superiority to all other competing products.  Lots of companies do it.

   
Selling it at 55,000 Euros is a double-edged sword ... at that price, it NEEDS to clearly sound better to 90%+ of people than the competition, or Sennheiser ends up with serious pie-face to their reputation. They would not have released it, unless they were very very sure it met that test. (IMO). 

Agreed, but they can be sure of something and still be wrong.  I'm not saying they are wrong, only that there's no way to know without listening.  And most of us will never get the chance to do so.  And I really wouldn't blame Sennheiser if they were QUITE selective with who they let get near these.  Look at the thanks they got for bringing an original Orpheus system to shows so that people (like us) could listen.  It got STOLEN! 

 

[saidentary]

Save your breath. We're beyond reason in personal audio now. Shure just released a $3k flagship iem. JH's flagship is around the same price. The AK380 costs $3.5k. We can only wait for the bubble to burst.

It's their way of saying "stick it in your ear, sucker!" and some folks are listening. 

 

[donunus]

Sennheiser send me one for free! In all seriousness though, I am very excited about this even though I can't afford one

 

[icecreams]

The way system turns on/off is just awesome!

 

[Sal1950]

A majorly cool product for sure but one I just can't get myself worked up over. Like Wilson speakers or a Bugatte Veyron, short of a lotto win, none of which I'll ever own.
Time for me to move on to real world products.

 

[WhatToChoose]

Someday I hope to listen to these headphones while relaxing in my private spa surrounded by the elusive female audiophiles, right after a day of relaxing on my yacht.