If you want to listen to music in style, you need to take a look at Sennheiser's reboot of its classic Orpheus headphones. Of course, look but don't touch, 'cause these 'phones cost a whopping $55,000.
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. Three hundred sets of the original pair were made, with each set costing $16,000.
The reboot of the headphones reportedly took Sennheiser experts a decade to design, updating the electrostatic design and amplifier of the old Orpheus headphones for modern music.
So, why the mammoth cost? Well, the key is that the headphones are electrostatic, which means that they work by placing a static charge on a thin film that is placed in between two metal plates. The voltages from the incoming audio cause the thin film to oscillate, which produces the sound. Because of the fact that the film is so light, often being lighter than air, it doesn't have issues with resonance, meaning that it produces extremely clear sound.
When it comes to the sound amplifier, Sennheiser says that it combined the superior impulse processing that comes with a tube amplifier, along with the low level of distortion that comes with a transistor amplifier. Basically, the amplifier features eight vacuum tubes that are suspended freely, which helps reduce noise.
After the sound passes through the amplifier, it then passes through a high-impulse amplifier stage that takes place inside the cup of the headphones. This helps eliminate the problem of power being lost in the cable, which is an issue in many electrostatic headphones.
According to Sennheiser, all of this tech under the hood gives the new headphones a distortion level of 0.01 percent, which likely makes them the clearest-sounding headphones ever. Of course, most of us won't ever get to give them a try, but for those that have an extra $55k lying around, these might be the headphones for you.
Via: Gizmodo
