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CES 2012 Headphones


Grahame

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Sounded like Monster (Beats) was capturing 53% of the headphone market.

The partnership between Beats and Monster, an electronics company best known for expensive stereo cables, has been an unmitigated success. Its products captured 53 percent of the $1 billion annual headphone market last year,

Further, audio gear sales is 60% of Monster's revenue. What else do they make? Don't cables, etc. count as audio gear? Maybe their cable business is down that much? Whatever.

Audio gear sales, most of which came from the Beats partnership, last year accounted for nearly 60 percent of privately held Monster’s revenues and profit,
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Crazy amount of work today, to blitzt to post, drink witht he boss before he cautght the red eye, then drank witth the HEadRoom dudes.

Th only thing worth dredging out of my head for youguys at the moment is the new Phillips line is amazingly good. Amazingly. And they've price there cans where they shoud=ld be priced.

out.

Are you talking about the SHP6000, SHP8000 and L1? I have the 6000 and 8000 and for the price they are quite good. The L1 I know nothing about but given Philips has made good headphones before without exaggerated marketing is something worth mentioning.

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rolleyes.gif

It was a bit of a generalization indeed but I've yet to hear a high-end tube amplifier that sounds rough in the upper mid to lower treble region. I've always thought that the smoothness in that area complements well with the HD800. Shame there is no Balancing Act around here but I've always thought that the Zana Deux is the best match I've ever heard for that particular headphone.

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Th only thing worth dredging out of my head for youguys at the moment is the new Phillips line is amazingly good. Amazingly. And they've price there cans where they shoud=ld be priced.

out.

I was always somewhat amazed with Philips headphones. They're honest and a surprisingly good value. Here in Brazil, where most people can't afford much in terms of audio, Philips phones are like a safe bet to aspiring audiophiles. And I was surprised with the ones I've listened to, they're really great for the price.

By the way, did anyone see those Samsung tube dock and 7.1 receiver? To me that's just ludicrous.

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Th only thing worth dredging out of my head for youguys at the moment is the new Phillips line is amazingly good. Amazingly. And they've price there cans where they shoud=ld be priced.

out.

S'pose you're referring to the Fidelio line moreso than the products they've designed for use with the Android... but perhaps both.

http://www.techradar...o-wares-1053048

http://www.whathifi....elio-headphones

Nice to know that someone is still taking these market segments seriously and not simply surrendering to the Beats hype machine. If nothing else, I'll be able to recommend the L1 or M1 as a better bang for the buck alternative to my nieces and nephews who can't shut up about the Beats (simply for the cool factor, and because their friends all have them). Quite like the look of the L1, actually.

Edited by Wmcmanus
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It was a bit of a generalization indeed but I've yet to hear a high-end tube amplifier that sounds rough in the upper mid to lower treble region. I've always thought that the smoothness in that area complements well with the HD800. Shame there is no Balancing Act around here but I've always thought that the Zana Deux is the best match I've ever heard for that particular headphone.

The HD-800 is a very well damped headphone. If you drive them with an amplifier with a very low output impedance, they will be over damped and sound bright and a bit thin. On the other hand, if you drive them with an amplifier that has some output impedance, the damping factor will be less, and they will sound fuller, warmer, and bloomier. Contrarilly, something like the HD-650 is less well damped and thus does much better with an amplifier with a very low impedance. This, however, has little to do with tubes vs. solid state.

It is true that most tube amplifiers have a higher output impedanace than most solid state amplifiers. There are a variety of semi-inherent reasons for this -- for instance, tubes generally have lower transconductance. But, when comparing something like the Eddie Current amps vs. say a B22, it has more to do with amplifier topology than anything else. However, it is not the case that tubes amplify different frequencies, or sound much different than transistors, or anything like that. Indeed, the differences are really overblown by many people. Instead, it is that tubes tend to be used in certain ways, and transistors tend to be used in different ways, leading to many gross generalizations about how tubes sound like this, and transistors sound like that.

So, what I am trying to say is that I think you are ascribing traits to tubes and transistors that are actually traits of topologies, and not the devices themselves.

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couldn't you un-damp the headphone by filling it with toilet paper?

Of coarse, but keep in mind that different toilet papers will yield different results. Quilted Northern vs. Charmin Ultra is a big debate in of itself. biggrin.png

No, no, no. TP will just dampen them further. To undampen them, you need to put in some flubber.

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On Philips: I've found Phillips headphones in the past to rather suck. This show they released something like 32 new products in the "personal audio" category. There were five complete lines introduced at the show: an android specific headset line, a sport line, a lifestyle line, the action sport line cobranded with O'Neil, and a high-end line of two cans. Didn't try any of the in-ears, but of the headbanded cans only two were clunkers. The rest were VERY good, and two were great. The big news is the prices, which on average were about half of other makers at the moment. Philips was the highlight of the show for me.

The Cardas in-ear is now out. It didn't sound as good to me as it did at RMAF. George has discovered that putting a small pinhole in the filter gets you a brighter response and has decided to put holes in the filters as stock. Bypassing the acoustic properties of the filter by puncturing it is a bad idea IMHO, they seem a bit strident as a result. He's going to send me some filters w/o holes and I'm gonna have another listen. If it sound like the RMAF cans sans holes, I'm gonna recommend he ship product with both filters at a minimum.

I'll tap dance around the issue for the show report, but I sure hope he gets it back sounding like the cans at RMAF, which I loved.

The new noise canceler from PSB sounded pretty good on brief listen; the Velodyne in-ear had a bit too much bass, no surprise there, but was decent otherwise.

Internet connectivity at Harrahs SUCKED ASS!!! I managed the first two posts by using my 3G iPhone as a hot spot. it took forever to upload the vids. So, posting from the show here was hamstringed, damit.

"Course that left me free Thursday night to go out with the HeadRoom boys. We went to Frankies Tiki Bar. Opened 365 day a year for the last 55 YEAS STRAIGHT!!!! Neon blue, orange, green, and puple drinks with umbrellas and 5 shots flowed freely. The conversation with two tattooed lesbians in our little corner for the evening was rollicking fun.

Jerry Harvey prefers the JH13 over the JH16. Jus' sayin'.

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I spent some time at the show with the HD700. Listening-wise, even using my own gear, I was less than thrilled, but it was very loud in and around the Sennheiser booth, even in their "high-end" listening booth. However, what really shocked me about the HD700 was how cheap the plastic looked and felt. I was shocked by the lack of quality feel in a $1000 headphone. Even the HD580 is a more pleasing tactile experience. Of course, some would argue that the low weight achieved by the cheap plastic build is more comfortable than many other heavier headphones. And while the HD700 might be extremely comfortable (I couldn't try it long enough to find out), it just doesn't look or feel like a $1000 item.

Furthermore, I really dislike how Sennheiser copied the general look of the HD800 when building the HD700, but took out the high-grade materials, and the ring-radiator driver. Like or lump the HD800, at least it represented Sennheiser using their muscle to leverage a new headphone technology. The HD700 on the other hand, might as well be an HD595 in drag.

I actually had a better listening experience with the Beyer T70, but that might just have been the combination of the closed headphones and lower noise levels near the Beyer booth. I didn't get any of the tizziness I've heard in the past with Beyer Tesla headphones, though.

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