OPINION : Earlier in March I was give a spell of the Sennheiser Headphone manufacturing plant in Tullamore , Ireland , and while I was there I was given the opportunity to listen to theSennheiser Orpheus HE-1 .
Now while I would n’t say that I have some sort of audio pail list , the Sennheiser Orpheus has always been one of those audio products where I wondered if I ’d ever get the chance to take heed to it .
Named after the Greek God endowed with superhuman musical acquirement , at £ 60,000/$60,000 ( if not more ) it ’s not a productwhere access to it is easy , though someone else on the trip said they had already listened to it twice before . The Sennheiser Orpheus is something of a sacred hi - fi object . Only a poor taste sensation in music could possibly desecrate it , but such is its capabilities that it could make the most soporific of Song dynasty vocalise interesting .
And like all expensive pieces of kit , there ’s drama to its introduction . Turning the Orpheus on is essentially theatre with some mismanagement thrown in . The foot is a solid block of Carrara marble ( source from Italy ) , with anelectrostatic headphonein a see - through compartment on top with dial that force out from the fascia , and valve subway amplifiers that spring up from the marble blockage . It ’s like the projectile positioning its engines and fetch quick for launch .
The mismanagement is that the valve tube amplifier need some time to warm up and get quick , so all that dramaturgy is there to get stuff in the background up and running , which on first start - up takes about a moment .
You ’re give the headphones which are massive but comfy , the aim of which looks like a prop from out of a Tarsem Singh film – and then you sit back and allow yourself to be transported away .
Now , some of that may come across as exaggeration . It ca n’t be that good , it ’s too expensive , etc , and yes the Orpheus could ( or can ) be very well those things if you come at it from a sure perspective . What do I care , my £ 50 headphones do the trick for me etc .
But part of the enjoyment about lavishness audio is that it is pretentious , giddy but also a gravid sight of playfulness . In carrying into action terms the Orpheus sounds fantastic – it sounds effortless with its warm sound ; that ’s receive and wrap around your point like some sort of transonic cozy . It performs just as well at quieter and louder volumes , never sounds as if it ’s straining and vocalists vocalize as if they were stand in front of you . Best of all , you stop guess and just listen .
That ’s what the good audio products do . They disarm and enchant the auditor into the medicine , not to some aloof vantage point where you ’re thinking and analyze . I ’m not a prominent fan of Daft Punk ’s now final album in Random Access Memories but the copious , soulful performance the Orpheus elicited from the vinyl album made me want to listen to it again in full – but probably only on the Sennheiser Orpheus …
A trip through The Beatles ’ Revolver record album was equally enlightening ( and had me bopping my capitulum to Yellow Submarine ) , as was a listen to Fleetwood Mac ’s The Chain . Whatever the music genre , the Orpheus flesh it out in a plenteous and rewarding mode .
I only spend an hour with it , but everyone else on the circuit could have easy spent plenty more time listening to it . It ’s a special product , put together by one individual ( hello Damien ! ) , which takes him about two weeks to put together before it ends up as a 21 kg production put through acoustical , mechanical , and electromechanical tests before it gets shipped to its new owner .
We never learn who bought a Sennheiser Orpheus , but they ’re a lucky individual . Such merchandise do n’t add up around often , which is rather the point , and when they do , you ’ve got to revel them from an uncynical distributor point of view . After all , music can do many things , and one of them is to put a smile on your font , and that ’s what the Sennheiser Orpheus HE-1 does – as long as you ’ve got £ 60,000/$60,000 in your wallet .
