That kind of sensible response has no business on an audiophile forum.

That's too bad about equipment costs being factored into the Abyss.  I hope that means they're in it for the long haul and will put together some competitive price-performance options.  I don't think they're setting a very good precedent with their pricing.  The 009 even at $3.3-3.4 is still a bit too rich for my blood, though I would've picked the 009 up if I was bowled over by them.

Despite the price, I do have a deep appreciation of the AB-1266 for its uniqueness. I haven't conversed with Joe that much, but from what I can gather, JPS definitely had certain goals in mind. They selected a technology ("asymmetric ortho" for lack of a better term) knowing full well its strengths and weaknesses (openness, speed, articulation, layering vs. higher 2nd order distortion, other weird sonic stuff) and just went with it.

Joe did tell me he tuned them to mimic a high-performance two channel speaker system (presumably his reference) and I think that's pretty cool. To a large extent, I feel he's succeeded. I could only presume that some performance targets were met, others exceeded, and others not quite met.

I guess what I'm saying is that I get a sense of what JPS Labs was trying to aim for; and that what they were aiming for was something of merit. One of the reasons I started this site is because I got tired of WTF is this, and WTF is that with one too many headphones. Recall my 2012 State of the Headphone Hobby manifesto?

I'll point out the $1000 HD700 (I mean WTF was that? Was the HD700 performance target designated by a committee of neophytes, dispassionate engineers, marketeers afraid of HD800 cannibalism, bean-counters, or a combination thereof?) What about the $2750 Ultrasone? Even the HD800 has serious issues (mind you that Anax, one of its stronger proponents here, runs it modded - and Jason@Schiit brings his HD800 to meets with a version of the Anax mod.)

I do think STAX had an idea what they were doing 009, but that's a $4250 headphone which requires at least an Electra or LL2 to do it justice if you can't DIY a KGSSHV. I'm running the AB-1266 from the LAu which is fricking awesome, but the fact is, the AB-1266 is still very highly capable with the $750 Mjolnir.

For all we know, Joe @ JPS probably heard the 009, and then switched to the AB-1266, and said to himself "buck that, I'm charging $5500 for the AB-1266."

I mean, I don't like the price, but it sucks to be me I guess.

One picture - getting ready for the meet. HE-400 to the left of the LAu. AB-1266 on the lowest shelf. (see, it doesn't look that fugly from that angle!)

Lego White House for the win!

I think that when a headphone leaps into a whole new price range the general populous is expecting (demanding?) something ground breaking, earth shattering, heaven opening... From what I'm reading I don't think the Abyss brings that to the table.  That's going to be hard for many to accept.

Their performance seems to be on par with some of the other expensive offerings, in its own way, and buyers will be selecting it for many reasons other than price vs. performance. 

I can fully understand the strengths and weaknesses behind the asymmetric design, but it just seems weird they'd have the magnets between your ear and the frontwave, and not the backwave, for resonance reasons.  Although I guess having the magnets on the front means better control of the sound that hits your ear.

I think its mentioned somewhere that JPS tested both configurations and concluded that the config with magnet towards the ear performed better.

While its doesn't seem immediately obvious, think about it. With an obstruction in front, most of the sound waves are just going to bend around the obstruction and some of them(high frequency) will be reflected away from the ear = no major harm done.
OTOH, with the magnet towards the back the reflected sound waves would reach the ear after a slight delay from the original signal from the front creating an echo(Coomb's effect) which would probably be more of a sonic issue.
I am myself not fully convinced that, the magnet on the backside would cause any significant reflections since the frequency of waves reflected would most likely be ultrasonic (because of the miniscule distance).The effect of not having a reflective damping material otoh is very audible and has been discussed ad nauseum among orthoheads and tbh, having a critically damped ortho just by air is probably the holy grail for most of us nuts.