shipsupt

gregg allman -- low country blues

I visited Monaco once... it snowed there for the first time in 20 years. I took it as an omen not to hit the casino.

I'm moving there later in the year if it's something you can wait on... I should be there in late April or May.

Interesting item for sale found on Ken Rockwell's pages... of all places. Some cool pictures included in this .pdf http://www.kenrockwe...ube-factory.pdf Quote from the page... "My buddy who founded and owned Groove Tubes retired, and had bought all the original GE production equipment used for certain kinds of audio vacuum tubes. If you'd like to bring tube production back to the USA (or anywhere else), here's your chance to do it, with the original equipment! Interested? Phone or email Raffie at Industrial Odds & Ends at (818) 253-5692."

I agree, it's not an overall trend of headphone prices going up, only what seems to be the target "flag ship" pricing. I'm certainly hoping that the Philips offerings are as good as the hype. I'm itching to get a listen. Great point. I hadn't looked at it from this side. I guess you could make a case that there is a whole super high end that's missing in the current market, except for Stax...

I just wanted to add, in case I came across differently, my observation was about the industry trend for higher priced gear, not about HeadRoom's prices. The HeadRoom guide just provided an easy view of the trend. And I couldn't agree more, guides like this got me listening to decent gear when I first got the itch...

Ignoring the suggested retail prices, and the headphones selected... I found it interesting to see the trend in HeadRoom's updated "Ultimate Head Phone" guide. I seem to remember that it used to contain some bargain contenders.... but as $1000 becomes the norm for "flag ships" I see that they only slip two or three choices under the 1k mark now, and the bulk of the pack heading north of $1200. http://www.headphone.com/selection-guide/top-picks/ultimate-headphones.php

Vitamin String Quartet A String Tribute to System of a Down

I guess that went along with the headline I saw --> "Justin Bieber Does The Robot At The Consumer Electronics Show"

Perhaps Sennheiser is simply offering another alternative at a different price point without lowering the MSRP of their flagship. There are still a lot of ears that prefer the HD-800 sound to Audeze or HiFiMan and Sennheiser is undoubtedly still selling plenty of 800's. Leverage your existing technology to build a cheaper to produce headphone with some of the same characteristics as your big dog. Roll out the 700 not to capture those that are already going to lean towards those other house sounds, but to offer a $1k option to someone that subscribes to your sound but struggles to drop the cash for it. There is likely a group that wants the top of the line Senny sound but struggles to get past the other offerings selling some $500 less than the 800. Spock logic might tell you to pony up the extra bucks and get the 800, but I'm guessing there are consumers who will jump at the chance to get part of the way there and save some rubles. In other words, definitely not a headphone created to be better than what's already out there, but one that bridges a gap and gets certain buyers to make the plunge because the pricing is simply closer to the comfort zone for a discretionary purchase. Maybe I'm just saying what's already been said...

Sort of... I am interested what is really going to make a $300 difference between them and the HE-500. Specs on Head-Direct are confusing at best... but why the loss in frequency response?

Just wanted to thank purrin for the chance to listen to the 3's when they made the tour through the Bay Area... via Christian and Whitney. I finally got to listen to a pair of r2's recently that in 30 minutes had me more interested in upgrading my r1's than the 3's did after a few hours...? Are you still thinking of exchanging them?