The new headphones are the successor to the Orpheus set of headphones that were built back in the ’90s, when Sennheiser asked its engineers to create the best set of headphones that it possible could. The first Orpheus headphones demonstrated that. Sennheiser has gone for a more modern aesthetic for the new model, opting for a marble transistor amplifier that also “combines to perfection the advantages of a tube amplifier”. Little power is lost in the cable transfer, and efficiency is increased by 200 percent compared to its electrostatic counterparts. Rather than intensifying to high voltage at the amplifier itself, the process occurs at the gold-vaporized ceramic electrodes located less than.4-inch from the platinum-vaporized diaphragms inside the headphones.
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It’s perhaps not surprising that the test of the hardware is high-grade, too.
Designed for the complete experience, once the headphones are turned on, the quartz glass vacuum tubes ascend from their marble casing and emit their characteristic glow as the protective glass covering opens up to unveil the headphones. Instead, you have stone: fine Carrara marble of the type once used by Michelangelo.
Sadly, we’ve not been able to try a pair out yet, though we do have a few specifications and the word of the engineers to go on.
The extravagant headphones are also capable of producing frequencies from 8 Hz right up to 100 kHz.
In fact, at 1 kilohertz and a sound pressure level of a hefty 100 decibels, Sennheiser claims the total harmonic distortion of the headphone system is 0.01 per cent. That is all but insane, and it likely makes this set of headphones on the cleanest-sounding audio products ever made. “I found this really moving”.
In the world of super-premium headphones, Sennheiser’s Orpheus HE90 is in a league of its own.
But the price. Oh, the price. Now Sennheiser wants to do it again, this time going insane with the luxury and premium factors, resulting in a pair of $55,000 cans. You could buy a very nice vehicle for that amount of money. But is it enough to get you to fork out $50,000?
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With eight digital-to-analogue the headphones will offer an unprecedentedly high standard in digital to audio conversion.
