How much would you pay for a good pair of headphones? $50? $200? How about $55,000? Sennheiser, purveyor of all things high-end audio, has released an update to its legendary Orpheus headphones, which combine an electrostatic set of cans with a valve pre-amp clad in solid marble. The company claims this results in an 8Hz to 100KHz frequency response—far beyond what human ears are capable of hearing. As such, the price for these new cans is pegged at $55,000 (probably £40,000 or more in the UK).
For the uninitiated, the original Orpheus HE90 headphones were the result of a Sennheiser R&D mission in the '90s to build "the best headphones ever made." It took until 2013 for Sennheiser's engineers to come up with the Orpheus HE90, and even then, only 300 of the things were made and attached to a ~£12,000 ($16,000) price tag.
The modern reboot took another 10 years to make, according to Sennheiser, thanks to updates to the electrostatic design and valve amplifier. The result is a set of headphones with a sound pressure level of a hefty 100 decibels and an alleged total harmonic distortion of just 0.01 percent. If true, that makes the Orpheus one of the cleanest audio products ever made.
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