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Thread: $50,000 Headphones!

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    Default $50,000 Headphones!

    So, "?"



    From Sennheiser: "In 1991 we created the best headphones in the world. We called them Orpheus. Now, we have done it again. The name and uncompromising philosophy remaining, this is Orpheus reborn. In otherworldly sound and timeless beauty. Perfectly engineered. Equipped with unique features and state-of-the-art technology these headphones transform music from something you listen to, into something you live in."

    That's some serious coin for a pair of headphones! Whatever rows your boat if you have the money. I would like to have an audition, just for the hell of it.

    "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." - Issac Asimov



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    Not much use for someone like me who has $500 ears

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    It is more the amplifier that comes with it, but hell yeah, the foam and ear pads on my aged HD650 are falling apart anyway.

    Errr... on second thought, I suppose I could order a new set of foam and ear pads.
    I could only afford that HD650 because it was second hand.
    Today even Sennheiser's cheapest model is still better than that "Beats" rubbish that makes my ears bleed.
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    Years ago I bought a set of 'Over the ears' type from Deitch Bros Army Disposals store either on George or Oxford streets in Sydney.
    They sat well off the ear, minimal sweating, no noise 'leakage' past the pads and plugged into my Tandy Realistic DX160 and later into a Yeasu FRG7, they sounded great.
    Even for 50 Grand, I doubt these could make Rap Crap sound any better than it does when the speaker is submerged in a bucket of water.
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    Quote Originally Posted by nomeat View Post
    It is more the amplifier that comes with it, but hell yeah, the foam and ear pads on my aged HD650 are falling apart anyway.

    Errr... on second thought, I suppose I could order a new set of foam and ear pads.
    I could only afford that HD650 because it was second hand.
    Today even Sennheiser's cheapest model is still better than that "Beats" rubbish that makes my ears bleed.
    The last comment is so true. I went to a local JB Hifi and I compared the Sennheisers to the Beats... and the Sennheisers were way better by my ears

    Also notice the song they listen too on the headphones (Hotel California). Not today's stuff.

    aarty

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    Quote Originally Posted by aarty View Post
    Also notice the song they listen too on the headphones (Hotel California). Not today's stuff.

    aarty
    Proves my point completely that the headsets are only as good as the music being played through them and there is nothing wrong with 'Hotel California' either, it could have been worse with Nelson Eddy singing 'Give me 10,000 men'.
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    Audiophooles!
    If Australia is a democracy why, then, is voting compulsory?

    "What has changed between the arrival of the First Fleet and today?"
    "Wearing leg irons is now not required."

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    I got a pair of Sennheiser 'phones at a (comparatively) cheap price in the 70s and they only recently falled beyond repair. They were the ones used in many radio stations and recording studios and definitely the best quality sound I'd heard plus they were extra light weight and sat gently on the ears (not the 'head in a vice' feeling you get with most 'over the ear' phones). They were black with bright yellow foam covers that allowed you to hear the music but still hear outside sounds so they didn't cut you off from the surroundings completely. I paid about $40 for those back in the day and it was a sad sad day when one of the drivers went open circuit.

    Can't even imagine how they could make them sound 50000/40 times as good

    My latest Sennheisers cost a little over $100 and the quality is still built in but, oddly enough, I tried a pair of very cheap Phillips 'phones at $15 and that was the closest to same quality sound as long as the volume wasn't so high your eyeballs wanted to pop out. Quality sound doesn't require insane volume levels.

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    The problem with sound is that NOBODY has linear ears. What we hear is totally subjective.
    If I play back any music through a set of very expensive studio monitors with EQ and room acoustics dead zero, I pretty sure all of you will tell me it sounds crap at first impression.
    Strangely after a while things will change as your mind adopts to this dead sound and you might suddenly hear things you have never heard before
    on a track you have heard over a 100 of times in the past.
    At the same time somebody who sings in a tiled bathroom (a nightmare for any better sound system) might think he is a great opera singer.
    I hate singing and my voice, but once I tried singing when I had a flu and thought I had a cool Blues voice at that moment, but nobody else did, LOL.

    So I will just claim: What we hear is in the ears of the beholder

    The $50,000 question is: What did Sennheiser do to get EVERYBODY think these cans are amazing ? ...or is it the looks of that amplifier

    "Hotel California" is not exactly what I would use as a reference.
    Back in the eighties I always used Level 42(usually the track "Dune Tune") to EQ our PA system and also test
    HiFi speakers and would still do today (if there were any hifi speakers to test ) especially because it is analogue.
    It sounds rubbish on any computer speaker don't even try, but on a quality sound system you might think the walls will crack even though
    it does not sound loud at all when you max out the amp. Most of that cheap subwoofer rubbish can't handle it.
    Music has to be played at a certain volume for us to perceive and enjoy the desired dynamic. A live symphony concert can also get damn loud.

    Maybe they did something like this to that Hotel California song using digital signal processing
    to give you the effect of not believing you have head phones on. Maybe there is even a kind of dummy head simulator built in that amp, which
    means anybody could achieve that sound with far cheaper head phones.

    I experienced the original "KunstKopf" in the early 70's as a kid on German radio. It was used back then mostly for plays and the head phones I had back then were totally rubbish but the effect was mind blowing. Real surround sound coming from two channels that had you constantly turning around
    to see who just came into the room behind you or knocked on the front door far way.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 18-01-16 at 02:08 PM.
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    Ahhh yes the 'dummy head' recordings were amazing but that's the first mention of it I've seen in a long time. The concepts of live dynamic range and subtleties like small phase variations between channels giving a directional sense to the listener in recorded sounds are, these days, getting to be meaningless with most going for compactness, convenience and ear-bleeding volume (distorted to hell). Storing their music in MP3 format and/or playing it back on nasty little desktop speakers for example.

  • #11
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    I wish I could appreciate fine music these days, the MVA put paid to my hearing so MP3 "crap" sounds just fine to me now, that is, if I don't mind the constant drone of tinnitus which, sadly, is there most of the time anyway, (I'm guessing it's around 5KHz) so I have to be happy that I can just hear. (I do possess hearing aids but they just amplify all the background noise, too.)
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Actually I love distortion but in the right places. A cello for example is an instrument that can distort rather radically from nature.
    I spent many years designing instrument amplifiers with unique distortion.
    From a signal analysis point of view every instrument with harmonics has a form of distortion but you mean obviously clipping from amplifiers turned
    up to loud.
    However not all is lost, there are definitely some real talents around like these guys who can even make pop songs and distortion a sound experience (all instrumental of course):

    If you can find time to sit back and watch/listen to this on the biggest screen possible and using big phat hifi speakers turned up appropriately.
    It is crappy YouTube sound and the artefacts had me checking my speakers several times(probably would drive me nuts if I had to use my Sennheisers)
    but still a lot comes across.
    Test a bit first but if anybody likes this stuff download to avoid buffering, it is really brilliant.


    Lsemmens my audiogram shows a radical drop above 2kHz and my tinnitus on the right ear was 5.65kHz last time I measured it but I still
    enjoy music. I can not afford hearing aids, I tried them from my father who was a musician all his life and they are deafening loud but he
    also enjoyed listening to his jazz until his last breath.
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    LSemmens
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    It's all right nomeat, I still do appreciate fine music, just not as much as I used to. It's taken me years to get back into the position where I might be able to play in a band again. Initially, I had considered that it was my hearing loss turning all the sound to mud. Over the years I have noticed that my discerning of sounds has improved and I have concluded that it wasn't actually my hearing, but the result of my head injury which means information processing has been impeded. Right after my accident I couldn't decide if my arse was on fire or not, now, I actually present as almost "normal", as long as I take my drugs, that is.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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