Readers with longer audio industry memories might recall the Sennheiser Orpheus, supposedly the best headphones in the world. Now the German company announces an update, the result of over a decade of work.
Released in 1991, the Orpheus HE90 were something of an audiophile's dream-- one complete with a companion HEV90 amplifier and a $16000 price tag. Production was limited, and currently only just 300 pairs are available in the world, meaning existing pairs get sold at a much higher price.
As for the 2015 Orpheus update, a very gushy Sennheiser says the headphones are hand-crafted from over 6000 components, including silver-plated OFC cables, gold-vaporised ceramic electrodes and platinum-vaporised diaphragms "exactly 2.4 micrometres thick, the result of extensive research that shows that any thinner or thicker would be sub-optimal.”