Sennheiser Reveals New HE 1 Orpheus Electrostatic Headphones

Following the intriguing teaser web campaign “Reshaping Excellence”, launched September 1st during an event in London to celebrate its 70th anniversary year, Sennheiser finally revealed the successor to the legendary Orpheus, originally introduced in 1990. The 2015 Orpheus reintroduces the concept of the world’s best headphones.

Fresh from an historic launch at the High End Show in Munich, Merging’s revolutionary audiophile D/A converter, NADAC, will now be introduced at T.H.E. Show Newport, in the US. High End enthusiasts will be able to experience the full advantage of Merging’s network approach, particularly suited to DSD source files and high resolution formats.

Apogee Electronics announced the worldwide availability of Groove, a portable headphone amplifier and DAC for Mac and Windows computers. According to Apogee, Groove builds upon Apogee’s 30-year history of digital audio technology for music creation and “unlocks the highest possible quality of any headphones or powered speakers” for music listening.

Swiss manufacturer Merging Technologies confirms its new high-quality consumer D/A converter, NADAC, will be introduced at the High End Show in Munich on May 14. Following its success with the Horus and Hapi networked audio interfaces for professional applications, Merging is leveraging its technology also for the consumer market.

Pioneer Home Entertainment USA announced two new Pioneer Elite home theater receivers that will meet the needs of custom installers, and two new consumer home theater receivers. All models feature HDCP 2.2 compliance, HDMI 2.0, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, DSD file playback and more. The 7.2 models are able to decode and play back Dolby Atmos content.

exaSound Audio Design announced the introduction of the model e12 stereo digital–to–analog converter. This lower cost exaSound digital–to–analog converter was designed to address the needs of high resolution audio playback, from DSD to DXD master files, including custom ASIO drivers, developed in–house for highest performance.

As Richard Schram, the president and founder of Parasound explains, “several years ago we challenged ourselves to create a no-compromise integrated amp that would match the performance of our Halo separates in every respect. We call it the Halo Integrated Amplifier.” Parasound’s new 2.1-channel integrated amplifier/DAC with 160-watts per channel of John Curl designed amplifier topology is now shipping.

Apogee usually targets the Winter NAMM Show for major product announcements but this year the California company was relatively quiet. Instead of launching new recording or studio solutions, Apogee opted to preview its forthcoming portable USB DAC and headphone amp, named Groove, at the 2015 NAMM Show.

Like many technology companies in Silicon Valley, OPPO Digital is continuously working on bringing new ideas and new products to customers. Over the past 8 years, OPPO has developed and released a series of award-winning universal DVD and Blu-ray players. But just as video has entered the Ultra HD era, OPPO Digital acknowledges audio is evolving with the rise of high-resolution music and a renewed interest in personal audio. Aiming at demanding customers in the personal audio space OPPO has announced the new PM-1 Planar Magnetic Headphone and HA-1 Headphone Amplifier. The PM-1's became available middle April and the HA-1 one month later.