[Blackmore]

Wonder, how many dealers will have this system for audition.

 

[Me x3]

It's obvious that Sennheiser put a lot of effort in order to enhance the hype around this new headphone.
If you really have a game changer in your hands, you don't need these kind of stuff.
 
Marble, michelangelo, elephants, bats, platinum, gold, silver plated cables, platinum, gold, platinum, gold... 
 
Where's objective proof about the performance of the new system? 
 
The whole 'monument of sound' thing is almost an insult to rational people.

 

[deafanddumb]

Ironically, on the thread about the highest end piece of personal hi fi yet produced....This is not a thread about personal hi fi.....stranger still when most, if not everyone commenting, including myself, will never own this and only grab a 5 minutes of glory listen at a show....and I thought the LCD 4 thread was becoming pointless...

 

[devilboy]

Just like the 800S thread, this one has the same repetitive, speculative, meaningless and uneducational posts over and over. So, just like the 800S thread, I'm unsubscribed.

 

[complin]

Jude said that the 1060 will be available to listen to in London in the near future. Has anyone heard when and where? 

 

[Ali-Pacha]

 
- 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?

To be specific, e-stat amps are meant to drive a capacitance, which is by around 60% within the cable.
For a typical 120 pf Stax load, one has 70 pf in the cable and 50 pf in the drivers.
Have a look on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slew_rate : slew rate has to be above a given value...at higher volume (high voltage) and high frequencies, the more capacitance you have to drive, the more current (then heat) you have to provide.
 
Sennheiser's solution should reduce capacitance to drive around 50 pf (Kevin Gilmore's assumption). To reach something at least at the level of a Stax SRM-T2 performance, Sennheiser has to dissipate "only" 40% of the heat. Which is still a lot, that said original T2 could slowly burn through overheating (one of the raisons d'être of DIY T2). 
I'm a bit doubtful that a full marble enclosure plus heatsinks on the backside of the cups could dissipate so much heat...far more BTW, considering Sennheiser's claim of up to 100 khz FR. But there are two hints of what they did :
- no pure class A operation
- only 5V in the cable, so base amplifier has practically nothing to dissipate
 
Other speculations can be made :
- reduced gap beetween diaphragm and stators to lower voltage needs
- maybe bias is a bit lower than 580V DC
- then you need very high diaphragm tensioning to avoid arcing...and that could explain the use of a very thick one (2.4 µm vs standard 1.35 µm on Stax)
 
You can also check analogsurviver's posts. I fundamentally disagree with his craving for very extended FR in the highs (then very unsafe current requirements), considering any ultrasonic intermodulation products that could fall in the 20hz - 20khz bandwidth will be recorded and reproduced by a well designed e-stat (and KG's designs are exactly made to target this bandwidth). But his posts sure contain valuable infos 

 
Ali

 

[David1961]

In the Orpheus 2 system, only the headphones stir my interest, however assuming they could be made to be driven by any stats amp, my guess is they'll still be too expensive.
Now while I'm prepared to spend a lot on a DAC, I wouldn't for headphones, in fact the most I'd spend on them is the cost of 009's.

 

[scorpio187]

 

[bfreedma]

^^^
 
Can I have my 20 minutes back please?. At least I know never to bother with "The WAN show" ever again.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  It's obvious that Sennheiser put a lot of effort in order to enhance the hype around this new headphone.
If you really have a game changer in your hands, you don't need these kind of stuff.
 
Marble, michelangelo, elephants, bats, platinum, gold, silver plated cables, platinum, gold, platinum, gold... 
 
Where's objective proof about the performance of the new system? 
 
The whole 'monument of sound' thing is almost an insult to rational people.

 
What objective proof do you want aside from measurements? What objective proof about the performance of any new system is typically available before its release? Normally, measurements of a new headphone aren't published until it's been out for awhile. You probably won't be getting any objective proof until mid-2016 or later.

 

[scorpio187]

Yeah, it can be irritating, but I thought he was right about the headphones, that it lost its glitter and they overestimated the demand. 

 

[kawaivpc1]

Exactly, I hope this doesn't end up being another rare limited headphone...
They need to put this up on Amazon and sell it like any other regular products so we can get our hands on it one day.....

 

[Me x3]

   
What objective proof do you want aside from measurements? 

 
Yeah, some measurements are a great starting point.
What's the target frequency response for the headphone and why?
How are this better than the rest of the headphones/systems?
They should know, and I'm pretty sure it's not because of marble.
 
Who cares about 100 kHz tones?
 

   
What objective proof about the performance of any new system is typically available before its release? Normally, measurements of a new headphone aren't published until it's been out for awhile. You probably won't be getting any objective proof until mid-2016 or later.
 

 
That's true, but why? 
Because measurements don't lie, they help to put things in perspective.
They bring things back from the marketing world to the engineering world.
 
In my view, serious companies/people do their best to improve their products and let the customers judge them.
Take a look at Schiit Audio for instance, even Beyerdynamic with their new Tesla T1 v2, even Axel Grell saying that the HD800S is a little bit better than HD800.
They are transparent in their behaviour and that's really valuable.
 
On the other hand, this time Sennheiser has chosen to bombard the customers with unfounded facts and (borderline) magical stuff to make them believe in the "best/even more perfect headphone" in the world. That's not a great take in my book. I think, they've underestimated good customers.
 
Just to clarify, I'm not against marketing, but this kind of marketing is too aggressive and normally seen among companies trying to sell ultra-refined snake oil.
Again, I'm not saying this is snake oil and I do respect Sennheiser engineering. But the whole marketing ploy and the pricing stain the good Sennheiser name.
 
That said, they are probably doing this because they can. There's always people willing to pay 55k for the system and there's people willing to pay 250k as well.
There's also people that will pay 20k in the future thinking that it's not that expensive after all considering there's someone else buying a 55k system.

 

[saidentary]

   
What objective proof do you want aside from measurements? What objective proof about the performance of any new system is typically available before its release? Normally, measurements of a new headphone aren't published until it's been out for awhile. You probably won't be getting any objective proof until mid-2016 or later.

Yes, of course.  However, without any evidence at all they're claiming these are the best headphones ever made.  Maybe they are.  Sennheiser's a GREAT company.  They make GREAT products.  But it's still arrogant for them to make such claims before there's any real world experience.  It would be very VERY different, if they said, "We believe these are the greatest headphones ever made."
But to say they are the best headphones ever made is presumptuous.  They need to PROVE it.  The logic goes like this: They need to prove that the price is justified by the stunning sound that's better than anything made so far.  They can't expect (most of us) to believe these are the best ever simply because they're priced so highly and therefore "must be great."  KEY POINT: I'm NOT saying they aren't the greatest ever made.  With a company of this caliber, they may very well be the very best ever.  But for them to make this claim prior to even releasing the product--without qualifying it as their opinion rather than an established fact--should be troublesome, even for people who really like that company (like me).

 

[tonykaz]

This Sennheiser "Gala" 1060 "Coming-out", "World-Tour"
 
This ultra system is not meant for us, the DIY crowd.  I doubt that it's meant to be scrutinized, poked, prodded, or anything close to or resembling critiqued.  
 
This device is a "Living" expression of Sennheiser's commitment to excellence.  I have no issues with them over all this, in fact I rather admire them and will continue being a "Loyal" Sennheiser lover.   
 
I may never meet any person that's ever actually seen one of these things.  ( except Jude, of course, whom I've met on two different occasions and seems a most generous person )
 
And I must say that I'm a bit disappointed that Sennheiser made "our" Jude ( of all people ) pay his own way to see and hear this system.
 
But then, perhaps, our Jude crashed the party and got away with it.  I'll bet the Sennheiser people saw Jude as an unexpected bonus of Cred.Building. Bet they didn't anticipate all the "arguments around the Head-Fi campfire" that Jude's visit & video triggered, phew, what a mess I and everyone else kicked up! Today, I feel remorseful and kinda embarrassed over my dubious contributions to the Skewering'.  
 
I rather feel that Sennheiser need not make even one more of these 1060 systems. They've established themselves as the leader in Recording & Sound reproduction systems. This 1060 system serves notice to Shure & AKG and all the other Pro-Audio outfits.  Besides, servicing this system would be a nightmare they'd have to commit to for a lifetime ( they are that kind of outfit ). 
 
We DIY hobbyists already realize ( or should ) that we can build superb music reproduction systems from modestly priced components.  
 
I'm sorry for poking at you Jude, you de man!
 
Tony in Michigan
 
ps.  I showed a 10 second clip of the 1060 in operation to my wife's decorator/designer who looked at it closely and asked if I could order it in a different Marble?, something to match the fabric and wall treatments.  Geez, lets not go there!!!
 
ps.#2,  Our Tyll is up next, in LA, sometime soon.  I hope he gets all cleaned up for this, it will be an Important Video that Sennheiser will be using in their Promotions! ,  Good for Tyll, he deserves it! ( as does Jude )