geekhack
geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: aj-kun on Mon, 23 December 2013, 18:53:46
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https://www.massdrop.com/buy/koss-esp950
Pretty good price for the Koss flagship. Very tempted to get a pair myself.
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http://www.head-fi.org/t/119820/koss-esp-950-review
a review, apparently these used to be $599 at amazon
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http://www.head-fi.org/t/119820/koss-esp-950-review
a review, apparently these used to be $599 at amazon
Note the review date.
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http://www.head-fi.org/t/119820/koss-esp-950-review
a review, apparently these used to be $599 at amazon
Note the review date.
"used to be" :P
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I thought the Japanese dominated the electro cans.
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They still do, but you need to pay at least $2500 for a new pair of Omega 2's & then you need to amp them. ESP 950 is pretty good bang for buck when it comes to estats. The only thing better would be if Hifiman released a HE Audio Jade successor.
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I dont understand why audiphile headsets are so expensive
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I dont understand why audiphile headsets are so expensive
The word audiophile should give it away.
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I can say these are worth the full $1000. They come with their own amplifier (energizer) and the sound quality is phenomenal.
I jumped at these because they were on sale on black friday and saved a lot.
This is the 2nd best deal I've seen before their price normalized again.
Electrostatic headphones are expensive because the stupid tech in them is so damn delicate.
To put it in different terms this is like a DSLR for sound. A number of other headphones like $300-$600 Sennheisers are like a nice point and shoot. They can all take pictures and really good ones, but the DSLR wins technically in every way you can take a picture.
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To put it in different terms this is like a DSLR for sound. A number of other headphones like $300-$600 Sennheisers are like a nice point and shoot. They can all take pictures and really good ones, but the DSLR wins technically in every way you can take a picture.
I disagree with your comparison. electrostatics have a lot of benefits over dynamics, but they hardly "win in every way".
Still, I will say the technology is excellent and features a lot of benefits. Same with planar magnetic headphones, the electrostatic driver moves forward all at once, rather than as a point like a dynamic. One reason the HD800 and friends have drivers the way they do is to minimize the negative effects of this.
You can DIY electrostatics pretty cheaply, but the process is very long, very delicate, and very labor intensive. The finished product should sound good, but usually look ugly and are uncomfortable.
Another reason for their expense is the safety factor. The bias voltage of an electrostatic driver is usually a few hundred volts. Having that sort of voltage near your head presents some safety challenges for a consumer product. Plasma speakers (and headphones, rare though they are: I know of only one) have the same issue.
Also, the amplifier is fundamentally different than a normal one in a few ways.
All these things ass to expense. Beyond what you get from just having an "audiophile" tag.
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Those used to sell for around $550-$600 a year or two ago. They were considered outdated and not worth the cost then since even the old Stax Lambdas have better sound quality for less cost. I was a bit surprised to see the price actually higher on Massdrop than I've seen on eBay/Amazon.
And no, electrostats aren't better in every way. They fail horribly at bass reproduction.
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I disagree with your comparison. electrostatics have a lot of benefits over dynamics, but they hardly "win in every way".
There is a limit to how accurate a sound can get when produced by a diaphragm. The diaphragm's ability to reproduce sound often has to be engineered around material constraints which are simplified, to a point, with an electrostatic model. An electrostatic driver can produce sounds with distortion too low to hear and they do it at entry levels, and that is just a plainly stupid fact. They can do it into the higher registers where orthodynamic drivers struggle to retain definition. The LCD-3, LCD-X, and HE-6 are great examples of the lengths an ortho has to go to get that top end extension.
Making a point about how easy/hard they are to manufacture has nothing to do with the audio quality. I don't understand how a $700 estat energizer and headphone
capable of outperforming most other headphones in that price bracket up to $1000 is beyond audiophile or whatever point you're attempting to make.
And no, electrostats aren't better in every way. They fail horribly at bass reproduction.
Then you have not heard any electrostats. Plain and simple you just have not.
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The one pair of ES headphones I listened to were flat and muddy sounding. Just couldn't bring and vividness or lushness that even a much lower cost headphone would be able to bring, even if just a little. Probably unfair to judge all ES headphones off that one experience though.
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The one pair of ES headphones I listened to were flat and muddy sounding. Just couldn't bring and vividness or lushness that even a much lower cost headphone would be able to bring, even if just a little. Probably unfair to judge all ES headphones off that one experience though.
I've heard several of the Stax models and some crappier ones I forgot the make of. Usually when an ES sounds muddy there is a problem with it, or it's the padding/foam they used in the earcups. The best ES I've heard was a Stax Lambda Pro, and it was about as good as my Sennheiser HD600 in terms of sound quality. My HD600 had much better bass. The Stax had almost no bass impact and it was very weak. This is due to how it's designed. ES plates can't move as much air as dynamic drivers can. However, ES headphones have excellent transparency and upper frequency reproduction. When I first turned the Stax headphones on, I thought the music was coming from like 8 feet away and took the headphones off to check. I think this is due to the plates creating more parallel sound waves due to having flatter drivers.
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And no, electrostats aren't better in every way. They fail horribly at bass reproduction.
So you base your whole opinion on a 30 year old Lambda. Try an Omega 2 and I'm sure you won't have that same impression. Not bass heavy but bass extension and clarity are pretty amazing, my only dislike is it sounds a bit too warm at times.
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I dont understand why audiphile headsets are so expensive
How can you say that on a forum full of ppl that pay lots of money for several keyboards?
Meh, I like my K550's
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And no, electrostats aren't better in every way. They fail horribly at bass reproduction.
So you base your whole opinion on a 30 year old Lambda. Try an Omega 2 and I'm sure you won't have that same impression. Not bass heavy but bass extension and clarity are pretty amazing, my only dislike is it sounds a bit too warm at times.
It better be amazing for $2000 plus like $600+ for the energizer.
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I dont understand why audiphile headsets are so expensive
right? they should come free with the car ffs