Sound of Luxury
ABYSS - AB-1266
They’re blocky, they’re angular and they might make your head look like a 1960s robot, but they boast of some superlative sound quality. In fact, the sleek rectangular look isn’t accidental or aesthetic, it’s to ensure precision and adjustability so that when those soft lambskin pads hit your ears, you feel no pressure or discomfort whatsoever.
The planar magnetic drivers took over five years to develop and correctly position, reducing reflections and creating an open sound from their thin, low-mass diaphragm. The result is a broad bandwidth and widescreen spectrum that allows a spacious sound that’s designed to make you feel as if you’re right in the center of the action. The price tag is also justified by the solid aluminium components. With good recordings, you feel like you’re in the room with the band!
V-Moda Crossfade Wireless
V-Moda originally made a name for themselves in the DJ sector with their M-100, but have now created a wireless pair of headphones that tick every checkbox in your (high) lifestyle fantasy. It comes with a vast array of precious metals for those game for a bigger hole in their pockets for the sake of extraordinarily clear soundwaves, and the enclosure shields can be customised and 3D printed in almost any design you want using silver, gold, rose gold, white gold or platinum.
Ruggedly constructed and sensibly designed, they come with a 12-hour battery life, a heavy and sturdy frame and optional XL cushion accessories. If you’re looking for the finest premium Bluetooth wireless headphone the world can offer, this is the one for you.
Ultrasone edition 5 limited
Ultrasone claims that this pair of headphones is like “having your own private concert hall on your head.” Equipped with two titanium-coated transducers that are hand-tuned and matched to each other to create an arrangement that comes at you from the peripheries and meets in the middle, the structure makes sure that you’re effectively wearing a perfectly calibrated listening room on your head at all times – only this one comes made of Ethiopian long-haired sheep leather and seven-layer varnished Bavarian bog oak. Only 555 of these are in existence, so if rarity is a factor in your choice of luxe music accessories, it doesn’t get much rarer than this.
Sennheiser Orpheus
Named after the original Orpheus HE90 and released back in the 90s with a whopping price tag of Rs 10,97,000, the new Orpheus is assembled by hand using more than 6,000 individual components — from the ivory stand of Carrara marble and the gold vapourised ceramic electrodes to the plush leather cushions. According to the manufactuters, the system comes with a “hand-crafted amplification setup designed to complete a sonic system that surpasses everything that has come before it”.Sennheiser Orpheus Price Rs 37,71,000
The headphones that also boast electrostatic drivers known for their stark clarity and lightning-fast transient response, will be launched mid-2016 with a batch of 6,000 – all hand-crafted in Germany after almost a decade of preparation. Like the 90s original, the new Orpheus is not designed for portability, but to sit on your desk like a piece of art. Sennheiser has gone for a more modern aesthetic for the new model, each of the amplifier’s controls having been created using a single piece of brass, and once you turn the headphones on, the quartz glass vacuum tubes rise up from the marble enclosure and emit their characteristic glow.
Final Sonorous X
The brand new Sonorous X is so fresh that it hasn’t rolled out globally yet. Dispatched from its Japanese laboratories in traditional tomobako boxes, this pair of headphones has literally gold-plated its beauty to produce the ultimate prestige model. Beneath all the bling, the hardy aluminium and stainless steel unit houses 50mm dynamic drivers and a titanium diaphragm that ensures all unwanted vibrations and reflections are kept to a minimum.
Applying the same acoustics as a brass instrument, they’re every bit as heavy as they look — 630 gm. The thick leather head-band ensures zero ear-fatigue after a marathon session and the pillowed ear cups clasp the ears in plush security. reducing a lot of ambient noise. Keeping the price tag in mind, each model has been issued with regionally-sensitive product keys to prevent parallel importing too!