Posted Wed Nov 4, 2015 at 12:15 PM PST by Steven Cohen
The ultra high-end headphones promise an unprecedented audio experience.
Sennheiser has announced the successor to its legendary Orpheus headphone system. The new Orpheus headphones are designed to be "the best headphones in the world."
"For seven decades now, Sennheiser has shaped the industry and has been at the cutting edge of audio by continuously re-defining the gold standard of what is technically possible," said Sennheiser CEO Daniel Sennheiser. "With the Orpheus, we are once again pushing the boundaries and are showing that we can repeatedly set new benchmarks in excellence and reshape the future of the high-end audio world."
The Orpheus is a reference electrostatic headphone system that features a new amplifier concept that combines the superior impulse processing of a tube amplifier with the low distortion of a transistor amplifier. A Cool Class A MOS-FET high voltage amplifier is integrated into the ear cups, and eight vacuum tubes are then positioned in a gorgeous granular, inhomogeneous Carrara marble housing. In addition, the headphones use gold-vaporised ceramic electrodes and platinum-vaporised diaphragms. The frequency response is rated for 8 hertz to more than 100 kilohertz, and the Oprheus uses the ESS SABRE ES9018 chip. The system is compatible with a variety of analog and digital sources, and the eight internal DACs can convert audio data with a resolution of 32 bits and a sampling rate of up to 384 kHz or DSD signals with 2.8 MHz and 5.6 MHz into balanced analog signals.
Sennheiser's new Orpheus Headphone System is expected to start shipping in mid-2016 for around $55,000.
Source: Sennheiser
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