New Chifiman Playnar Flagship Unveiled!

People are still thinking for themselves so far, Jude/Curradong/Random HF Thought Leader #652 haven't stepped in to tell them what to think yet.

 

It'll take a few over-the-top reviews to prime the pump. Featured reviews, of course. Jude's probably writing his head-fi TV spot at this very moment.

 

Did you check "summit fi"? I won't look...

edit - I'm a bit ashamed, I looked.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/831355/hifiman-edition-6-headphones

 

It was working fine at the LA Canjam last year. I heard it. Nothing about it said "This is worth $40K!"

 

Build it, they will buy it. Or at least some might.

I had the opportunity to hear the LCD-4 and HE1000 V2 this week. I jumped at the opportunity in the same way I would to drive the latest hypercar.

Very nice cans both ... and I could pick out certain elements of the performance that improved on my trusty "former flagship" collection. It made me wonder, but two days later I got my systems fired up and still basked in the glory of the beautiful music they made. Absolutely zero intention to rush out and buy either of the others.

And now this. I don't mind top end products. Heck, they are nice to look at, discuss and debate, possibly experience or maybe just laugh at. But products like these underline the irrelevance and absurdity of this inane race to the top. Some undoubtedly will buy it and I will jump at the opportunity to hear them. But I'm certainly not joining the queue where style outweighs substance.

 

Now here is something that actually devalues fiat money!

 

Looks like it´s already backfiring on HF. Not many positive comments. Couldn´t resist replying, stuff like this can´t be allowed to fly without objecting to it. Interesting to see if the thread will be linked to once the eventual news item for these is released.

 

6K? 6 thousand dollars?????? How did flagship headphones get to this ludicrous price range? The staggering price increase on new flagship headphones is going crazier than the Sydney and Melbourne property market.

 

So the psychological limit for headphones fanboyism is 6k apparently. Audeze, Abyss, Utopia went at close to that price in a breeze, while Hifiman gets the door shut on their faces.

Hifiman's lack of performance since the he500/6 has made me look elsewhere for innovation, but I still find it interesting that they get blamed for the direction this hobby has taken. I can only feel amused remembering how people felt the lcd3 was too expensive at its introduction price (2/3k, can't remember), and it feels ok to the majority now at 4k for the lcd 4. Not even talking about the 5.5k Abyss.

Something is rotten in the kingdom of Denmark, but I don't think only one guy can be taken for responsible.

 

We are experiencing what happened to big-boy hi-fi since it came into popularity.

If CHFM's headphones were truly getting better on each flagship iteration, I think folks would have a different response. Or at least I would. As you admit yourself, they've been of middling performance. Of course there will always be people that don't like the existence of expensive things. We can discard these opinions as chattering from the plebs.

 

@OJ
Headphones are stagnating since 2009/10. Audeze is basically delivering the same headphones since the lcd2 with the quality control (or lack thereof) making two units looking like two different headphones. Sennheiser hasn't released a true flagship since the hd800. New comers bring interesting sidesteps to the market without disrupting it, and at outrageous prices.

I'm all for pleasing everyone and his neighbor for his personal tonal taste, but I fail to see innovation there. Hfm is putting its own stone in this wall of shame, but so does every competitor in the market. I stand my ground, saying that unloading a shitload of negative comments on hfm right now is a farce at best.

 

So what is your issue here exactly? I remember most folks absolutely shat on the Audeze stuff (LCD4 recently, and LCD3 back in the day). Everyone shat on the HD800S. Everyone bemoaned the existence of the Orpheus Redux. Hell, some people were preemptively shitting on the Utopia until @Marvey and I got ears on it and could testify to its performance. I don't see how we're placing the blame exclusively on HFM.

 

In most other markets, new and better things get introduced at the same price as the top of the line stuff was last year, while older stuff gets lowered in price. It feels so sickening to see headphone audio stagnate with new stuff just getting higher and higher in price. At this point it seems almost exponential as well.

I was going to say that only a truly outstandingly performing headphone at a low cost would help start a competitive downward trend in prices, but at this point I think that a huge chunk of the target audience is just seeing seeing higher price tags and automatically hearing higher performance when they try said headphones-- confirmation bias is a strong thing. Companies can get away with things like these absurd prices when the main idea of the hobby is built around subjectivity that revolves around super subtle differences and/or personal taste in sound coloration.

If Focal released the Elear at 599 and the Utopia at 1499, I still don't think it would make any differences to loyal enthusiasts of Audeze, Hifiman etc (especially since a big deal to planar fanboys is the idea that they think planars are an inherently superior driver tech with no drawbacks anyways.)

 

Oh wait this thread is supposed to be informative? My bad.

More seriously here is what this thread makes me think about (politics aside, American people have the right to choose whoever they want for president) :

 

Hopefully we see 30% tariffs on all chi-fi in the near future

 

Man, my Yggdrasil ($2,299)+ unboxed modded HE 6 ($800) + Odyssey Stratos Supreme from Audiogon ($800) is a screaming bargain...

 

Thank Allah for free markets. The good news is that you don't have to buy this shit unless you want it. Unless there was some provision in Obamacare that forced people to buy it that I missed......