Comments on Profile Post by rhythmdevils

The drives and enclosures are tiny thus material costs are low. You an get huge speakers with multiple large drivers with much higher material costs and more R&D for 4k. The HD800 cost around 1.5k and it is well made with a lot of R&D behind it, likely more than most other headphones.

The only exception I can think of is Stax, who is a small company and sells very low volume so needs to price their heapdhones higher to support the company. Hifiman on the other hand, makes their orthos cheap in China with little R&D and is just completely ripping us off at 6k for Susvara. I seriously wonder how much they cost to make.

the susvara is a headphone I've always wanted to hear, but yeah, there's no way ill ever pay 6grand for a hifiman. I only paid 1800 for my speakers LOL

The original 2009 MSRP for HD-800 was $1,400; so, almost $1525 with New York sales tax. That's the equivalent of almost $1,930 today. With shipping, it comes to over $1,950. If we base the maximum total cost on that case, the most a new headphone should cost (Stax excepted) is $2k.

@Claritas good point, but that's still the most a headphone should cost IMO. So much engineering went into that headphone. A completely new driver. The LCD-4 is not that much different from the LCD-2 Classic. The Susvara is not anything revolutionary or new. It's just price gouging because they can.

I won’t spend $200 on Hifiman, let alone $6,000. Most high end headphones are insanely overpriced. The HD800 in any flavor looks like an absolute bargain in comparison.

Have made the transition to mainly investing in 2 channel, I completely agree. Absolutely wild how expensive some headphones are, especially when you consider equivalent speakers you can get for the same price. I suppose only scenario where it is justified is if headphone listening is legit your only listening option.

Some of this stuff is just audio jewelry. I get that R&D and high end materials go into a Utopia but is the sound quality $3k better than an HD800?

Did 3k more R&D go into Utopia? (No) It’s certainly not 3k more expensive to make than the HD800.

It all started from having to one up Hifiman and the he1000 at 3k....we are betterer so $$$$$

What you can get for 10 to 50 Dollars/Euros in performance is enough to make you think "wait what, what do I really get for the money?" After years of this hobby, first get your music collection in order. Then chase the audio-gear.

I think with no exceptions, but I’ve headed back down from the summit, and will make a further downhill run toward solid midfi very soon.