There are good headphones, great headphones... and $55,000 headphones :-|

Have you guys seen this? $55,000 Sennheiser Orpheus headphones. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/11/sennheiser-unveils-40000-marble-clad-valve-amp-orpheus-headphones/

http://i.imgur.com/WCHmUC2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WCHmUC2.jpg

do I spy 8 vacuum tubes dedicated to that marble headphone amp? that seems like serious overkill, I cannot imagine needing more than a dual triode to nicely power a pair of cans... we're talking about the simplest amplifier technology because you don't even need much power as tube amps go, the less crap in your amplifier the cleaner and more hifi it is... this looks like a case of insane German engineering gone off the deep end.... if its 8 dual triodes then I am really worried.... maybe its 4 pairs of matched small signal pentodes, maybe EF86es? I hope its a limited run of like 10 units that they will market to asshole, eurotrash DJs with more income than tech sense

Ah shit, my headphones budget is only $12,000.

Ah shit, my headphones budget is only $12,000.

wait wait, you mean 12k for the cans, what about for the itty bitty amp to drive them? you wouldn't spring $43k more for the amp? I mean it has overkill tube circuitry and its encased in marble! We all want rock solid audio response, right? Well this amp is literally made of solid rock, dude.

oh, they're electrostatic drivers, nevermind, they do need all those tubes to drive them.... how wasteful, we're in the middle of an energy crisis..... for the money sennheiser is charging they should include a small fusion reactor to generate the electricity that would be wasted plugging such an inefficient pair of cans and amp off a wall outlet! you can get pretty good sound quality out of some high end AKG cans powered by a mosfet run at 24 volts or lower with negligible current draw. I would really like to build a highly efficient hifi headphone amp and hold blind listening tests against these sennheisers for rich dildos and if they can't tell the difference then they should write me a check for $55k.... I once replaced this rich hifi nerd's expensive speaker cables with coat hangar and he couldn't tell the difference in a blind taste test.... I offered to sell him my cut up coat hangars for half what he paid for his sucker-cables but he didn't bite. He was pretty pissed off and embarrassed!

truth be told, there are situations where even measurable electrical differences in audio systems are literally inaudible to the human ear, and then there's all the hoodoo hifi types preach or the people who swear a sozo cap performs differently than a similarly constructed, rated and proportioned Mallory 150 in coupling applications.... 2 words, my ass! I have really great ears and will spot lots of little changes to my rig, but fucked if I can guess what brand of polyester film cap you haveafter stage 1 in your amp. Sorry, I am not planning to drink any koolaid I didn't mix myself....

I wonder what it costs them to make these...

I would think a lot.... all the magic elves locked inside that marble box must be expensive to trap

Wow, you really hate these kind of outrageously priced hi-fi stuff. I know they're probably just ripping off anyone who buys them by... probably $50-54,000, but why do you care so much if some over-rich, overly-snobby ''hi-fi'' wannabes waste their money on it?

Wow, you really hate these kind of outrageously priced hi-fi stuff. I know they're probably just ripping off anyone who buys them by... probably $50-54,000, but why do you care so much if some over-rich, overly-snobby ''hi-fi'' wannabes waste their money on it?

because overpriced luxury items are inherently bad for the economy.... that $55k would be more helpful to the average person if it were spent differently.... how many jobs do you think a set of sennheiser 55k electrostatic headphones creates.... plus I am offended by smoke and mirrors masquerading as science... I am less bothered by subjective luxury items like good cigars and fine wine, that's a 'your mileage may vary situation' versus something where even measurable electronic differences are probably not audible to even the best set of human ears, the whole hifi culture bugs me to no end