Trying to stay neutral and open minded is going to kill me but I hate to judge aesthetics and finish on a prototype. I recall the first Audeze protos' in 2009 - people calling alien antennae to mind. For lack of better description , that headband is ruggedly simple. They have several sizes of bands, not sure how this will play out but possibly selecting the headband for your head ?? I spoke with Eric's son and he indicated that they were working on some mechanism for strain relief. He also admitted to me that the units at the show had been assembled 1-2 days before the show as there was a delay in anodizing etc. The back plate will be "adjustable" "tunable" by the end user - several different types of wood and some form of transparent mesh. They apparently sound best with no backing at all but the risk to the driver is ever present. Only one layer in final production, double layer was to protect driver mishaps at the show in case someone was a little overzealous.

RD - they are unipolar and I did ask why the magnet on the front rather than the back and this is something they evaluated in prototyping and the rear magnet caused too much coloration relative to the magnet in front. I can only imaging that the front window acts like some sort of polarising lens.

I think I mentioned this on HF  - most everything is made in house. Material is said to be very thin - no specs , overall driver is extremely light and mostly air damped. The back pressure from the frame does help in this regard. Magnets are not off the shelf but custom made for "front back" polarity instead of side to side. The screws used are some non magnetic material to prevent inadvertent driver accidents and tools need to be titanium or hardened plastic.

Fit - the first pair I tried was a little loose and there was airleakage at the bottom of my ears , second pair were a good fit and more comfortable than I thought they were going to be.

Sound - there was something that I couldn't place with the voicing and it finally occured to me last night. They sound like horn loaded speakers do  - especially with respect to the mid and upper frequencies. And I am talking BIG horns or like the plasma tweeters I have heard.

gotta board my flight, more rambling latter 
..dB

Remember, those vintage orthos were Don's modded yammies, and are quite good.


Don, if the case is that they're doing most everything in house, I understand that they have higher production costs than some other established companies with pre-existing infrastructure.


But here's where they're wrong - you don't immediately transfer that cost to potential customers and build it into the price to fully offset the costs you've incurred.  You make a first product that's darn good for a price that consumers just can't help but try it.  (Especially in this case, when the company has plenty of pure profit revenue from their cables) you make back the costs after a couple fairly priced models that also entrench you as a company with good products and decent prices. Going straight to statement, let alone one with an unheard of price (for a company that has not been in the market!) reeks of opportunism, taking advantage of a market they consider "ripe for the picking."


I'm all for the proliferation of orthos.  But market trends are a real thing and if the negative trends aren't halted in their muddy tracks by an informed public, the headphone market will look very bleak indeed.


I recently had a chat with a friend of mine who collects for charitable institutions.  I asked him how he knows how much to ask for from any given prospective donor - he said "you push until you find resistance."  Then you know the limit and can do all your planning with a working knowledge of X amount being roughly the limit.


I see the headphone market working this way - sure, there was a hue and cry raised over some recent flagships, but people still bought them.  That won't dissuade these companies from continuing to release at even greater price points in the future.  The only thing that will spell out "line of demarcation" to these companies is a flat-out lack of sales. 

Mass production means custom injection molds, unless you plan on going with an off-the-shelf OEM design and just sorting out the drivers.  Those molds are seriously expensive, and not prudent for companies like Audeze until they're selling major volume (with household name recognition, large dealer networks, etc)


Assuming they are having everything done to spec to meet their own requirements, (and therefore don't want to go OEM) I'm not sure that they could get a good headphone below say $650 with a healthy profit margin in the near future.  A few years from now though might be a different story.


Either way, there's a huge difference between Audeze charging... $450 for LCD-1's, $650 for the first couple months of the LCD-2, etc - only now charging a more questionable price on the LCD-3 and JPS just plopping down and saying "OK guys, ortho, cables, lambskin, $5,000." 


Audeze was pushed into the market by ortho fans.  JPS is trying to push into the market.  Except they're going about it completely the wrong way and a way that will ultimately hurt the hobby.

Yep . Please don't read into my comments as being supportive of the the anticipated cost. I am still reeling. I know well what it costs and in this headphone world, most small manufacturers hardly break even let alone maintain an overhead to grow. This is because the community has essentially dismissed the industry predicted 5x price point to ensure market growth. This is unlike the speaker world where 20k premps are aplenty and I can assure you that there is not even 4k worth of electronics in something like that. And yes, trying to recoup R&D in the first run is not a practical business IMO


Just limiting my comment to the driver - it is quite an achievement

I understand that we all hear differently etc and that the subtleties is where things change as you climb the fidelity ladder. The detail retrieval of these drivers is impressive. The fact that they are flapping free in the air speaks volumes to my ortho side. What it tells me is that it can be done.

On a different note, inside scoop is that 2 more companies are entering the fray. ( I didn't just say that )

..dB

I had a dream a few months ago where Fostex announced the TH1000, their new flagship which just happened to be an ortho. Then Yamaha decided to get back into the game and become rivals again, released a YH-2000.