Most Expensive Headphones

If you’re like me, you think the point of headphones is to be able to listen to music on the go. Clearly, though, that isn’t the case for some audiophiles. The world’s most expensive headphones are hardly portable.

Sennheiser, a leading manufacturer of studio and stage microphones, created a limited number of what have been called the best headphones in the world. That’s right, only 300 of these headphones exist—possibly because they’re handmade. The set includes a high-end vacuum tube amplifier with an all-valve signal path and equally high-end electrostatic headphones with gold connectors.

The most expensive headphones in the world originally retailed for around $15,000 and can still be found for less than $30,000. Of course, if you plan on hooking them up to your iPod, you’ll need to leave the amp at home.

Another pair of expensive headphones, the ULTRASONE Edition 9 Limited Edition S-Logic Natural Surround Sound Headphones, come with some cool features. The S-Logic natural surround sound takes the sound out of the headphones and into the room around you for a three-dimensional sound similar to a live concert. Less stress is put on your eardrums because pressure is decreases by up to 40% (3-4dB), allegedly reducing the risk of hearing damage.

Ultrasone’s expensive headphones also utilize ULE technology with an MU metal shield that reduces radiation by up to 98%. . The ULTRASONE Edition 9 Limited Edition S-Logic Natural Surround Sound Headphones are certainly a luxury to be had by the most discriminating audiophile. At a retail price of $1499.00, they’d better sound good.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Most Expensive Two-Way Speaker System

Two-way speakers—speakers with only woofers and tweeters and no midrange drivers—don’t get a lot of love from the high-end audio industry. Once you’re spending big bucks on loudspeakers, it seems like you might as well go with three- or even four-way speakers. That hasn’t stopped Audio Note from releasing their high-end AN/E two-way speaker systems.

While we previously reported Bower and Wilkins’ Signature Diamond system as the most expensive two-way speaker system in the world, its price is dwarfed by that of the Audio Note AN/E SOGON system.

Audio Note’s watchword seems to be “efficiency.” Well, at more than 95 decibels at 1 Watt, the AN/E certainly delivers. The AN/E SOGON is housed in a cabinet designed for both driver dispersion and bass output and has frequency bandwidth from 18 Hz to 23 kHz at -6 dB. It features AN silver foil caps, ALNICO woofer and tweeter magnets (as available) and braided strands of Audio Note’s 99.99% pure silver SOGON cables.

This luxury two-way speaker system is priced at $125,000, but several less expensive versions of the AN/E are available.

Source: Most-Expensive Journal]