El Reg reports
Sennheiser has announced a new pair of headphones it says will cost "around €50,000" (£35,314 or US$54,279).
The forthcoming "Orpheus" model boasts silver-plated copper cable and "gold-vaporized ceramic electrodes and platinum-vaporized diaphragms ... exactly 2.4 µ thick, the result of extensive research that shows that any thinner or thicker would be sub-optimal." The accompanying amplifier boasts "comes from Carrara in Italy and is the same type of marble that Michelangelo used to create his sculptures.
The tubes "rise from the base and start to glow", and "the control elements, each of which are crafted from a single piece of brass and then plated with chrome ... slowly extend from the marble housing."
We could go on, but fear doing so may induce ire among some readers. Know, then, that there's a very gushy website here [ecmascript required] full of all the jargon a rich audiophile could want.
(Score: 2) by number6 on Friday November 06 2015, @01:45AM
50,000 EUR will buy you a glorious set of speakers/monitors which will satisfy you for a lifetime of usage.
Have a look at the monitors made by ATC Loudspeakers (UK) [atcloudspeakers.co.uk] -- They are used at Abbey Road Studios and the Sydney Opera House amongst many other places...including mine :)
I own an old pair of headphones: AKG K140, 2x800 ohm, Made in Austria
They cannot handle deafening volume levels without distorting, but for normal sane volume levels they are an audiophile delight.
A problem I have with headphones is they become irritating after about half an hour on my head; beyond this time I always want to use the speakers and amplifiers.
---
Here is a previous post I made from Aug 2014, about how I combine "using a computer" with "being an audiophile":
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=3346&cid=80560#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
FYI,
The far speakers are a vintage pair of FOSTEX SM6600 Studio Monitors - pretty rare to find in good condition now, fantastic clarity and dynamic range and not expensive!
The near speakers are a pair of ATC SCM19 Passive Monitors - used as a fill-in effect to bring the soundstage of the Fostex monitors to a couple of feet from my face (read the post).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @04:50AM
Mod this clown down.
(Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Friday November 06 2015, @04:59AM
Why would I spend that much money on magnets and boxes?
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @10:04PM
Hello, fellow reductionist! The LHC is also poor value for money, as it's little more than magnets and tubes.