Sennheiser Orpheus $50,000 Headphones - CES 2016
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,098 words · ~5 min read
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so a huge shout out to Squarespace for allowing us to be here at CES 2016 you
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can check out the link in the video description to learn more so here we are
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in the private Listening Room on the show floor at the Sennheiser booth and
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we are going to be seeing for the first time the
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$50,000 followup to the original Sennheiser Orphus headphones I haven't
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seen it yet but apparently they're here somewhere I actually don't know where
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they are so let's go find out cuz there's not a whole lot in here okay so
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oh there's an there's an activation experience acation yes and this is one
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of the coolest things okay so you have that knob right there with the red light
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if you just press it in very gently uhhuh right there in front yep just tap
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that in okay turns white yep and then
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you'll see the front knobs they all come out everything is motorized and then the
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tubes will open up and then the case will open up on its own and then kind of
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raise the headphone slightly and this is done for two reasons one it's really fun
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to watch two it also only takes 20
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seconds for the tubes to warm up to be ready for use so it's the whole process
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is done with purpose so that now you put your glass down hit the button have a
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sip of your drink and then you're ready to go okay so um so now what I just take
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him out and off I go take them out and run as fast as you can yeah
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okay so let's talk about the transducer for a minute the main difference between
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an electrostatic headphone and a well a more traditional magnetic driven
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headphone is that well there's there's no magnets you don't have magnets and a
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diam and then the uh differing magnetic fields move it back and forth and cause
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the vibration that creates the sound waves that you hear instead we are
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actually using we're actually manipulating these tiny thin sheets of
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in this case vaporized Platinum to move
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back and forth to deliver the best possible sound and when I say best
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possible sound I really do mean they spend a lot of time figuring out that
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2.8 micrometers was the optimal
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thickness for the vaporized Platinum transducer in order to achieve what
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they're saying is 8 Hertz all the way up
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to 100,000 Hertz of frequency response so
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to put that in perspective I could not hear how good they are neither could you
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I don't care how much of an audio file they are literally Beyond human
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comprehension it's true
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the rest of the unit features fairly exotic materials and construction
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techniques as well everything from the aluminum fins on the outsides of the ear
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cups in order to keep the power sources cool to the actual like hybrid vure sort
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of soft material and genuine leather material that sits up against your head
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for maximum Comfort now that's not to
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say that all of the craziness is necessarily in just the headphones and
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let's let's move our attention to the entire completed unit
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6,000 handbuilt components make up the
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entire orus experience everything from
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the single slab of it's some fancy marble I'm sure we can put a note in the
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video I've forgotten what it is but it's apparently very very amazing there we go
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Carrera marble for the base station itself it takes an entire day to create
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one of these units with someone assembling it in Germany yes an entire
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day to build one of them and they've even they thought of everything because
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the bottom of the amplifier unit itself
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is actually a shock absorber so just in case you're on a crowded show floor hall
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floor and people are thundering around outside like elephants it will be able
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to absorb some of that so it doesn't transfer it to the listener but all of
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that's in theory I haven't actually put them on yet so why don't we do that next
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I've always wondered what a $50,000 pair of headphones sounds like
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kind of shaky so Hotel California is just the
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the Universal Song that everyone's obviously heard on their high-end
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headphones it's the sen for 30
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years
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well the appointments are unfortunately only 15 minutes long
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but it's very clear and this is not going to come as a surprise to anyone
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that that is by far the best rendition of Hotel California I have ever heard
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however would I pay $50,000 for it well that's going to come
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down to the individual buyer and this is the part of my CES coverage of the orus
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that Sennheiser is probably not going to like that much with the original orus
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what I liked about it was the exclusivity of the item and while this
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one is expensive enough that not all of your neighbors are going to have one in
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their basement next to their you know old Lazy Boy from the 80s that's just
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the right kind of comfortable they are not limiting
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production this time outside of a yearly
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maximum quota so would you if you had
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the money pay $50,000 even knowing that someone else could buy one if they could
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scrape together the dough or would you first Sennheiser had gone the same route
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as last time and made it a numbered limited edition let me know in the
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comments and let me know in the comments below if you guys are enjoying our CES
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coverage so far don't forget to get subscrib to Line's Tech tip so you don't miss any and a huge thanks to
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Squarespace for allowing us to be here at CES 2016 remember guys if you're
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building a beautiful website visit squarespace.com Linus use offer code
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today that is uh that is just I mean
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that is just incredible I mean obviously
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any high-end pair of headphones you can kind of pick out an individual
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instrument but this is this is a very very different level this is like you've
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yeah it's
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um yeah