It’s 2017 and Sennheiser’s HE 1 are still the best (and priciest) headphones on the planet
The vast majority of headphones available in the market are conceived to cater to certain market demographics; many are made as a compromise to cost effectiveness or to pander to certain use cases like headsets for workouts. Sennheiser’s HE 1 that was released in Asia last year however puts all these concerns aside including cost to attain just one thing: the world’s best audio experience. How much to get this sublime aural delight? Well, offhand it costs € 50,000, which translates to about RM234,753 bucks, give or take a few dollars.
The successor to the prior Orpheus headset, the HE 1 consists of 6,000 individual parts, carefully crafted and made to order. It has a frequency response that extends beyond the mortal limits of human hearing with the lowest total harmonic distortion ever conceived in a headphone ever. To wit, it has a frequency response of an astoundingly low 8 Hertz all the way to 100 kilohertz. To achieve this, it ensconces eight vacuum tube amplifiers crafted from quartz-glass bulbs for perfect sound insulation in an exquisitely elaborate housing made of Italian-sourced Carrara marble to minimise distortion from airborne noise.
No expense was spared with even the smallest components. The ceramic electrodes are sheathed in gold while the diaphragms are just 2.4 micrometres thick and coated in platinum. Incoming digital audio is connected via the S/PDIF in your choice of either optical, coaxial or via USB before eight DAC chips sample it to create distortion free audio which is piped to your ears via the headphones which are sheathed in Teutonic-hewn leather.
The end result: the world’s best audio experience ever made. Almost every audio pundit who has donned it has emerged with beatific smiles of aural bliss. It’s 2017 and since its launch last year, it has yet to be topped in performance or price. CES 2017 may be around the corner and the HE 1 is slated to be displayed at the Sennheiser booth onsite. There aren’t any indications of a successor as yet, and until then the HE 1 still remains the undisputed – and priciest – headphone ever made.
