Sennheiser HE 1 Are the world’s best and finest headphones with theatrics and powerful sound at Rs 45 lakhs

German Audio specialist Sennheiser has added another crown to its line-up after its legendary $55,000 (~ Rs 35 Lakh) headphones ‘Orpheus’. This time, the company has taken it even further and is calling the release ‘the world’s best and finest headphones’ and they have named it the Sennheiser HE 1.

With such claims being made, you can bet that the new Sennheiser headphones are not your everyday headphones and that they just might be heavy on your pocket as well. But just how expensive are the new Sennheiser HE 1? Well, the German company has priced the “world’s best” headphones at a whopping Rs 45 Lakh.

If you are wondering why these headphones cost as much as a house does, it could potentially be because the company says that just the development of these headphones took around a decade. As per company's claims, the new HE 1 premium headphones offer "a frequency response that extends beyond the range of human hearing and the lowest total harmonic distortion that has ever been measured in an audio reproduction system."

In order to achieve improved sound, the new Sennheiser HE 1 headphones use a tube amplifier. The amplifier comes with eight vacuum tubes that are used to process the incoming signal. The company claims that the use of tube amplifiers is because of their superior impulse processing. However, as the tubes are sensitive to air-borne-noise, the company says that it crafted amplifier housing from granular, inhomogeneous Carrara marble and says that it is freely suspended with the amplifier.

"The decoupling of the tubes in combination with the damping properties of the marble has the effect of reducing structure-borne noise to an absolute minimum. The tubes themselves also have a high-quality patent-pending enclosure consisting of quartz-glass bulbs that perfectly shield them from their surroundings," the company said in its release. The tube amplifier is coupled with a ultra-high impulse amplifier stage integrated into the earcups.

"The headphones use a completely new amplifier concept that combines the superior impulse processing of a tube amplifier with the low distortion of a transistor amplifier to perfection," said CEO Daniel Sennheiser. The company is also touting gold-vaporised ceramic electrodes and platinum-vaporised diaphragms for better acoustic output. Another highlight is a frequency response from 8Hz to 100KHz.

Commenting on the launch, Kapil Gulati, Director Consumer Segment said "We are very thrilled to have launched the world's finest headphones, now in India. India has emerged as one of the biggest and fastest growing markets in the audiophile industry and with the launch of these headphones we have managed to set a new benchmark yet again. We at Sennheiser always thrive for excellence and are reshaping the future of high-end audio world in pursuit of perfect sound."

Amplifier Concept

• Sennheiser has put to use, an entirely new amplifier concept that combines a tube amplifier’s impulse processing with a transistor amplifier’s low distortion.
• Italian Carrara marble has been used to make the Amplifier housing to monitor the sensitivity to air-borne-noise.
• The cups of the headphones house a patented, ultra-high impulse amplifier stage.
• Sennheiser puts its new amplifier concept in Cool Class A, which provides Class A power at any volume in the low-frequency range and switches to Class AB in ultra-high frequency range.
• The amplifier and the diaphragm are placed less than 1 cm away, reducing the power requirement for charge reversal.
•  A combined effect ensures high impulse fidelity with relatively low power  requirements.

Components

• The Sennheiser HE 1 constitutes of more than 6,000 individual components.
•  Sennheiser HE 1 uses platinum-vaporised diaphragms and gold-vaporised ceramic  electrodes.
•  The eight wires of the cables are made of oxygen-free copper and silver plated for  optimum transmission of audio signals.
• Also, the wires are covered with an insulating layer to eliminate any sound waves acting on  the cable.

Technology

•  Sennheiser HE 1 uses ESS SABRE ES9018 chip to convert digital music data into  analog signals.
•  HE 1 houses 8 internal DACs to convert audio data with 32 bits resolution and a  sampling rate of up to 384 kHz into analog signals.
•  4 DACs are connected in parallel for each stereo channel for noise reduction.

Sound Experience

•  The Italian Carrara marble used in the HE 1 is the same type of marble using which  Michelangelo created his sculptures.
•  A single piece of brass is used to make the rotary switches for the source and the  volume  controls which are also chromium-plated.
•  A microprocessor is used to control the position of four switches.
•  Each element follows the listener’s adjustments and can be remote controlled.
•  The HE 1 will be available in India from May 2017 for Rs 45,00,000.