OFFICIAL: Massdrop Sennheiser HD6XX

IMO at the $199 price the wait ceases to be much of a factor unless you just gotta have some headphones now. Otherwise place the order and fuhgeddaboudit. When they come they come.

 

I agree. That way when it shows up in December it will be a Christmas surprise. Kinda like that kid you never asked for.

 

Btw, you can get up to 3 HD6XX at the $199 price. I am thinking xmas presents.

 

I guess looking at close to 3000 units left on the table at the end of the drop was just too much.

EDIT: Drop has been extended to Jun 30th, 9pm Pacific Time, and now has 11,500 units.

EDIT2: Free international shipping went bye bye, replaced by $15 international shipping. Free shipping to USA is still on. No change in ship date ("by December 25"). I would love to hear the real story behind this. Will's posts says something about showing Sennheiser the metrics (slow sales, many cancels, and documented reasons for each).

 

It sounds like Sennheiser got greedy or was a little hubris. Either way, back to $199 and I'm happy.

 

O.K. This great. But do I have friend that's worth $199 at Christmas. Yes I do! He has an old pair of AKG 701's!

 

lol wow... so if my math is correct..

Drop ends in few days and they will process US$2.3 million dollars if all 11500 units are sold.

Sennheiser should be happy with that figure no?

 

$1 says the pricing has everything to do with estimated quantities, sennheiser wholesale volume pricing, and nothing to do with customer sentiment.

 

I don't know. I think Massdrop would have gone $199 to start and already be at the 11.5k units.

 

Dammit, I jumped on this. I'll probably end up selling my HD 600 or gifting it to family

 

We're family here aren't we?

 

Well, in this case, true 'customer sentiment' was exhibited by low sales volume. i.e., if all available units had sold in a day, no amount of internet squabbling would have produced a lower price.

 

@Bill-P - Complete your collection at $199.

 

Yep. Money talks.

 

They decided to pay attention to the complaints and lack of sales and take a cut in profit.

 

A smaller percentage of a metric fuckton of sales is worth more than a fat cut of nowt- as anyone who has watched the crazy money made during Steam sales would confirm.

 

I think Schiit said the something similar somewhere. Basically they make far more on Magni/Modi than on the more expensive products, because the lower prices has far higher volume.

 

damn, even though I don't really like the 650 all that much, I'm tempted just so I can have one for friends to listen to! $200 is a great price.

Given there will be over 16000 of these thing floating around in the wild starting in 2018 (from the two drops), I wonder if the used market for HD650's will truly dropped below $200 forever -- especially if MD does these drops every year or two. Of course if this is the last hur-rah of the HD650 and Senn is coming our with a Mk 2 or HD655 or something, then the new pricing makes sense.

 

I think that as long as the HD600/HD650(HD6XX) keep selling they way they are now, at the current prices, and keep receiving the praise they do (well deserved praise) Sennheiser has zero incentive to develop / ship a "new" replacement for it.

The 700 got a tweak because the reviews were horrific. The 800 got an 800S because the mayor complaints were not compatible with the asking price and the expectations attached to the $$$.

But the HD6x0???

People complain about the cables, colors, clamp, "veil?", nothing really to take away from the boatload of pluses of this headphone. And as long as that is the case, and no competitors can match those pluses at that price (name another $300 headphone that checks as many boxes as the HD6X0, and does it as well) there is no incentives for Sennheiser to worry about a new one.

Me for one, as many studios I have set foot in, the one headphone that you see the real professionals using still is, the HD600/650. Particularly within classic guitar players.

For the ones that purchased the iTunes Beetles collection and have access to all of the videos about the remastering @ Abby road, check out the one pair of headphones you see everywhere. On walls, tables, etc. HD600.

 

If anyone was on the fence and waiting, 99 left and 15 hours.