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Sennheiser just made the most expensive headphones on the planet

it's really, really easy to steal from audiophiles.

like taking candy from a blind deaf kid who's gagged and doesn't know where he is.
 
Holy crap, I saw $5500 for the headphone and amp, and thought, "that's not bad!" Then I saw the extra 0. Wow! It's really cool, but not for that price. Jesus.
 
JackBurton said:
Holy crap, I saw $5500 for the headphone and amp, and thought, "that's not bad!" Then I saw the extra 0. Wow! It's really cool, but not for that price. Jesus.
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Well it's a statement piece, it's not meant to represent anything resembling value. It's simply claimed to be the best headphone in the world, and the best can command any price the maker wants. I have no problem with these kind of conceptual products. It is much better than the ridiculous price hike game all the other manufacturers have been playing with their flagships. In the past 10 years, flagship headphone prices have gone from $1000 to over $5000 (for the headphone alone), making flagships all the more unaffordable to the middle class.
 
The last gen Orpheus retailed for $16000 when they came out in the 90's. Now a mint unit costs in the $35000-40000 range but that's mostly because it was a limited release with only 300 units ever made. The new Orpheus is not limited release in the slightest and Sennheiser just said it can make a couple hundred per year but it's going to sell it like a normal product.

Even taking into account inflation the price on the new Orpheus is way too damn high. But of course they pad the price by having the amp shell made out of carrara marble.

But since it's not limited release the price will be half in a couple years in the used market.
 
gus6464 said:
The last gen Orpheus retailed for $16000 when they came out in the 90's. Now a mint unit costs in the $35000-40000 range but that's mostly because it was a limited release with only 300 units ever made. The new Orpheus is not limited release in the slightest and Sennheiser just said it can make a couple hundred per year but it's going to sell it like a normal product.

Even taking into account inflation the price on the new Orpheus is way too damn high. But of course they pad the price by having the amp shell made out of carrara marble.

But since it's not limited release the price will be half in a couple years in the used market.
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A couple of hundred units a year is not limited? Do you know how many rich people there are in the world? If you want one of these you better pre-order it now, or you will probably be waiting 3-4 years before you get one, or pay 100,000 K in the used market.
 
There's some interesting ideas behind this (namely separating some of the amp so that some is right near the drivers in order to eliminate the issues from the capacitance of the cable, although that's likely very overblown), but that price is ridiculous. We'll see if they come out with a more mainstream version that ditches the mechanical whizbang (look at the tubes rise! 🙄 ) and granite (WTF?) and some of the other stuff that is absolutely more for prestige than for any real benefit for sound.

And I'm sure it will sell. Audiophiles, and especially the headphone market in the past 5 years has just gone insane. But people keep ponying up so its going to happen. And yet audiophiles complain about Beats, when other audiophiles themselves are to blame for the market being like it is.

I'd be much more interested in the Shure IEM electrostat, although I'm sure it has a very healthy margin as well.
 
JAG87 said:
A couple of hundred units a year is not limited? Do you know how many rich people there are in the world? If you want one of these you better pre-order it now, or you will probably be waiting 3-4 years before you get one, or pay 100,000 K in the used market.
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Well for starters this item is ultra niche so I highly doubt there's going to be lines upon lines of rich people waiting to buy one.
 
gus6464 said:
Well for starters this item is ultra niche so I highly doubt there's going to be lines upon lines of rich people waiting to buy one.
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While this is certainly several levels up, a lot of people said the same thing when Sennheiser came out with the HD-800. A few years later and the market is practically flooded with $1000+ headphones and doesn't seem to be slowing. And that's even with the lower end stuff improving pretty dramatically too (and some calm sense of sanity as people started to go, they're good but I still like the HD-650s and were able to support why using technical details and measurements). We'll see if the HD-800S manages to retain the aspects that the HD-800 does well while getting a more even keeled sound that would make them more listenable for a wider variety of material.
 
gus6464 said:
Well for starters this item is ultra niche so I highly doubt there's going to be lines upon lines of rich people waiting to buy one.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but Rolls-Royce is also a niche market and they sold more than 4000 cars last year. Sennheiser is doing a great job at marketing and creating desire for this product, even for those who don't understand anything about audio. I'm sure it will be backordered in no time.
 
Oil-rich Saudi prince would love these.

6xsThkS.jpg
 
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