[DavidMahler]

I've had ideas about opening an Audio Salon where people pay an hourly fee to listen to good audio gear with an extensive library of CDs. 

 

[eke2k6]

 
And we are talking about Sennheiser, who made the Orpheus I. 

 
Which sounds noticeably worse (or less good), to me, than the SR-009 by no small margin. That's why I'm so skeptical.
 
The second reason behind my skepticism is the gimmiky design of the system that screams "Hey, look at me I'm premium so I should cost more." True luxury products like my uncle's Rolls Royce appear more understated, and only veer into the obvious when necessary. 
 
The design of the Orpheus II seems premium for the sake of it, and even the marketing brochure seems very Astell and Kern in nature. 
 
Lastly, look at the price. We are fast approaching the ridiculous, if we're not already there. Suddenly, the $3,500 AK380 DAP doesn't seem so pricey anymore. It's just crazy to watch and see how we're becoming used to such pricing in personal audio.

 

[masterfuu]

  I've had ideas about opening an Audio Salon where people pay an hourly fee to listen to good audio gear with an extensive library of CDs. 

hey hope to see a new battle of flagships soon. With Orpheus 2.

 

[Flamess]

Wow, this is sick. I hope SOMEDAY I will be able to listen to these...

 

[WhatToChoose]

   
Which sounds noticeably worse (or less good), to me, than the SR-009 by no small margin. That's why I'm so skeptical.
 
The second reason behind my skepticism is the gimmiky design of the system that screams "Hey, look at me I'm premium so I should cost more." True luxury products like my uncle's Rolls Royce appear more understated, and only veer into the obvious when necessary. 
 
The design of the Orpheus II seems premium for the sake of it, and even the marketing brochure seems very Astell and Kern in nature. 
 
Lastly, look at the price. We are fast approaching the ridiculous, if we're not already there. Suddenly, the $3,500 AK380 DAP doesn't seem so pricey anymore. It's just crazy to watch and see how we're becoming used to such pricing in audio.

 
The crazy started when IEMs rose above $50 imo....although I am way past that point, as are 99% of the rest of the people here (I view $500 as normal price about, only gonna go up probably
 
I have to admit, watching the orpheus activate was pretty awesome, but for people who don't have over $1mil in the bank it is not worth it.
 
You'd probably have to have a nice home and a $100k plus car before you would think about buying $50k headphones...but idk people do as people do, and I personally would buy these if I had the money.

 

[DavidMahler]

 
hey hope to see a new battle of flagships soon. With Orpheus 2.

i hope so too! probably won't be from me though.  The value of those headphones is more expensive than every headphone I own combined. I'm sure they're great.  I wish they were limited edition to make the resale value an option for those who even consider splurging. One of the great things about headphones of that kind is unlike a car where you spend 20k, the value increases in time.  I am not sure that is going to happen here if Sennheiser continues to produce them, so forking out 50k and having it turn to 30k in 2 years seems unwise to me.  My justification for years on the money I spent was that for the most part, anything expensive was worth more when I sold it.
 
im sure it will go out of production one day and when it does, it may very well be worth more than 50k, but without a set number, it will be approached differently by most of the people I know who buy ridiculously expensive audio.  I'm sure they will still sell quite a few. I would guess it may sell between 300-400 easily.

 

[Freets]

Heck, buy a trailer and build a super cool audio room...travel North America charging people for the privilege to listen to these puppies.

 

[icebear]

   
It's just one ESS9018 chip with 8x internal DACs (one per channel)...

Ooops, indeed I stand corrected, 1 chip only :
http://www.head-fi.org/t/786512/sennheiser-orpheus-successor-the-sennheiser-he1060-hev1060-first-look/15#post_12046251

 

[RMSKFX]

Everything is relative when I was growing up $100K for a car.....gezzz. Now check it out, also there are $1M dollar speakers out there. Hey someone will go for it
just not many, but they don't need many.

 

[Dobrescu George]

I wonder if you have 50.000 if you would do a better job with hunting an amp + dac + speakers.
 
again, if orpheus 2 will be a statement of perfection in headphones, there are more expensive cars out there, and much more expensive other stuff. At least i want to be amazed, if I demo them. 

 

[PATB]

   
Which sounds noticeably worse (or less good), to me, than the SR-009 by no small margin. That's why I'm so skeptical.
 
 

 
I listen to the SR-009 every night and had an HE90 years ago.  I only had a KGSS to go with the HE90; I heard the HE90 with the HE90V amp but that was at a meet and I have very little confidence on meet impressions.  While I prefer the SR-009 (from memory, which is bad!), I do not prefer it over the HE90 by a wide margin. 
 
But what I was trying to convey, is that Sennheiser does not really prove engineering prowess (even if the new Orpheus is technically better) unless they can make an SR-009 killer at the same or lower price. 

 

[tonykaz]

KC world champs, I could spit.   
 
I had money on the Mets. 
 
Somebody jinxed my Mets, I'm blaming you KC fans!
 
Tony in Michigan

 

[PATB]

 
i hope so too! probably won't be from me though.  The value of those headphones is more expensive than every headphone I own combined. I'm sure they're great.  I wish they were limited edition to make the resale value an option for those who even consider splurging. One of the great things about headphones of that kind is unlike a car where you spend 20k, the value increases in time.  I am not sure that is going to happen here if Sennheiser continues to produce them, so forking out 50k and having it turn to 30k in 2 years seems unwise to me.  My justification for years on the money I spent was that for the most part, anything expensive was worth more when I sold it.
 
im sure it will go out of production one day and when it does, it may very well be worth more than 50k, but without a set number, it will be approached differently by most of the people I know who buy ridiculously expensive audio.  I'm sure they will still sell quite a few. I would guess it may sell between 300-400 easily.

 
I did not like the Qualia 010 when I heard it a meet, but bought one anyways at Las Vegas while I was drunk!  Anyways, I ended up selling the Qualia for a profit years later.
 
But, the headphone world was very different 10 years ago; the only TOTL cans were the R10 and HE90.  Now, we have all sorts of Audeze models, Hifiman, Abyss, Stax ("cheap" if bought from Japan), etc.  And the headphones just keep on improving.  I am not holding my breadth about the Orpheus 2 "appreciating" as much.  I'd rather place that kind of money in the stock market.

 

[BobG55]

  Wow, this is sick. I hope SOMEDAY I will be able to listen to these...

+1 that or spend a night with Angelina Jolie, whichever comes first 

 

[fiascogarcia]

  Two cents.

We'll let you know when Walmart auditions them.