The Sennheiser Orpheus

[xjazzdummy 0]

I made my pligrimage to pay my respects to the king yesterday. Here are my brief comments:

 

SOUNDSTAGE

I'm the sort of person who prefer accurate soundstage instead of wide soundstage. In other words, I prefer, for example, a sound that supposed to be in the centre (eg singer, lead instrument) to sound dead centre, needle-sharp precision, just like in real life. Most headphones with wide soundstage sacrifice on soundstaging precision, in other words the centre sound (eg singer) is smeared across the centre rather than being dead centre.

 

The Orpheus is the first system (I think of it as a system, not a headphone) that I've come across that can do both. I'm sure all of you can attest that the soundstage is beautifully and musically wide, but not too wide. And yet, the soundstage and stereo positioning is precise. The singer is dead centre, the words seemingly to come from a needle point directly in front of me. I can feel that instruments off to the side has a defined space, a great sense of recreating the physical presence of the performers.

 

FREQUENCY RESPONSE

Electro-static headphones aren't that great with the bottom end, so I wasn't expecting much bass end. To my surprise, the bass end of the Orpheus is sufficiently full, compared to say K1000s and Staxs. This is partly due to the circumaural design. Of course, we don't expect the bass end to match than dynamic headphones. For example, on the bass resonance test track of the Chesky Ultimate Demo disk, there is not much bass resonance to speak of. But for most other tracks, it is sufficient. Not great, but sufficient.

 

As for the mids and highs, it's definitely perfection. Everything sounds natural, i.e. the mids are accurate. The lower highs are not harsh, and the upper highs have this terrific extension without sounding too bright or sibliant. Like I said, it's perfection!

 

DYNAMIC RESPONSE

I prefer accurate dynamic response rather than sacrifice that for sounding punchy. On a scale of 1 to 10, I prefer very soft sounds to be 1, very loud sounds to be 10, with the full range in between. Some headphones are capable of only 6 to 10, sounding punchy but compressed. Does it sound like I'm from the Senn/Beyer camp?

 

For dynamic response, I'm glad to report that to my ears, the Orpheus is the most dynamic headphone system I've heard. It's amost like high-end studio monitors. The music is dynamic and expressive, emotionally pleasing. Soft strings are sweet, loud drums are powerful and never breaking up. Beautiful.

 

TEXTURE

This is the most pleasant surprise for me. The sounds from the Orpheus have this incredible sense of texture. It's almost like you can feel the sounds. Every strum, every pluck, every note, every snare stroke seems to emanate from the headphone and reaches toward you. I can physically feel the sounds!

 

TRANSPARENCY

All of you probably agree to this. The Orpheus is very transparent, very much naked. The music just comes forth, no veil, no harshness.

 

CONCLUSION

I have finally heard for myself why Orpheus is considered the king of headphones. Everything that we want, it does it perfectly. It is the ultimate marriage of electro-static technology and tube amplification. Perfecto. I will say it too, ALL HAIL THE KING! LONG LIVE THE KING!

 

Actually, it'd be better if it's "LONG LIVE THE KING IN MY BEDROOM"

 

COMPARISON

Prior to this, I thought my home setup was already close to perfection. I use a HD650 with Zu Mobius cable (to remove the "veil"), plugged into an X-CAN v3 with a Mullard tube (for the warmth and plush bottom end) and an EH tube (to counteract the lows of the HD650).

 

So I went home to try to recreate the Orpheus experience. No matter what I did, it is far from the Orpheus. Suddenly every sounds muddy. Suddenly there's no transparency. Suddenly the notes lost their texture. Suddenly the stereo positioning is smeared. Alas! My system is now flawed!

 

Trying with the Beyer 880 yields better results, but it's just not the same

 

My life is changed. I have heard the king. And there only one king.

 

CDs USED

Chesky Records "The Ultimate Demonstration Disk"

Jennifer Wearners "The Hunter"

Rage Against The Machine "Rage Against The Machine"

Karajan+Berliner Philharmonic 1980s Beethoven Symphony No. 9

Jaco Pastorius Big Band "Word of Mouth Revisited"

Ana Caram "Rio After Dark"