get your red hot $60000 headphones while they're still expensive

[Yoyodyne ArtWorks]

I personally don't care how much money somebody spends on an audio component, that's their business. But I worked in the high end/specialist audio industry for a number of years, and gained first-hand knowledge about the inflated egos and stunning lack of technical knowledge that characterized many Golden Ear audiophiles. Their condescending attitude towards anyone unwilling to spend astronomical sums on audio equipment ("Well, you must not really care about music.") was comical at best. I was far more interested in the many specialist audio manufacturers who worked to create cost-effective products that the average music lover could afford.

People who truly understand engineering know that the challenge of creating an inexpensive product with outstanding performance (e.g., the N-A-D 3020 integrated amplifier of the late Seventies) is vastly more difficult than building a cost-no-object product that may be based on a medicore circuit topology but is constructed with very expensive parts (e.g., too many tube amps to list).

Sennheiser has a long history of making brilliant products, but this $60K product looks like an effort to meet the self-
esteem needs of certain Golden Ears. In the old days this was known as the "Rich Idiot" market, a phrase used by more than a few audio manufacturers and importers behind closed doors. :emoticon-tv-015:

[RAMd®d]

In the old days this was known as the "Rich Idiot" market, a phrase used by more than a few audio manufacturers and importers behind closed doors

And if critics used that phrase for the condescending faux Golden Ears, that would make perfect sense.

But there are far too many people who's bias has them proclaiming that anybody who spends more than they would on something "has more money than good sense" and any other number of clichés.

It's that knee jerk, blanket reaction that gets tedious, usually cast by someone who has their own condescending reasons for being a dik.

Someone wants to tell me that he buy product X ultra expensive interconnects over inexpensive but well make options, doesn't get any sympathy. Somebody say "I bought these because I like the way they look" doesn't get a peep out of me. It's not my money and it's their choice.

Like the Apple Watch Edition, probably all buyers of the HE-1 won't be able to distinguish the superior performance over several less expensive 'phones. Much of that performance is no doubt above the threshold of mortal man's ears, however Golden.

But I'm not going to assume he or they are automatically some condescending pretentious jerk who is/are compensating for something.

You know, like SUV and pickup truck drivers.