Наушники — Sennheiser HE 1

The HE 1 is an electrostatic headphone system from Sennheiser, launched in 2015 as the successor to the Orpheus HE 90 of 1991, which was built in a run of 300 units later extended to 330. The system combines the HE1-HP headphone with the HVE1 amplifier, a vacuum tube and solid-state unit housed in a block of Carrara marble. Since 2019 each HE 1 has been hand-assembled in Tullamore, Ireland, and building one unit takes up to two weeks. The official European price is EUR 89,990.

Key specs that matter

The headphone uses 2.4-micrometre platinum-vaporised diaphragms between gold-vaporised ceramic electrodes. Frequency response is 8 Hz to 80,000 Hz at -3 dB and 4 Hz to 100,000 Hz at -10 dB, maximum SPL is 114 dB, and distortion is below 0.01% at 1 kHz and 100 dB SPL. The operating voltage is 780 V DC with a 650 V polarisation voltage. The headphone weighs 550 g without cable and presses with 4.3 N. The amplifier runs eight SE802S tubes, weighs 21 kg and measures 434 x 160 x 350 mm closed or 434 x 405 x 375 mm open.

Engineering and use context

The tube stage sits in a spring-loaded, damped marble housing, and each tube is enclosed in a quartz bulb that isolates it and protects hands from the heat. The final high-voltage stage is a Cool Class A MOSFET amplifier built into the ear cups themselves, so the cable carries a low-voltage signal and the capacitive reactance of a long high-voltage lead is removed. Eight ESS SABRE ES9018 DAC chips work in parallel, four per channel, in a fully balanced layout, accepting PCM up to 32-bit and 384 kHz plus DSD at 2.8 and 5.6 MHz, with ASIO support for native playback from a computer. When the unit is powered on, chrome-plated knobs milled from single pieces of brass rise out of the marble and a smoked glass door over the headphone compartment opens automatically. The ear cups are machined from solid aluminium, the pads combine leather with velour and microfibre, and the cables are 99.9% silver-plated OFC.

Pairing

The HVE1 accepts USB, optical and coaxial S/PDIF, unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR inputs, which means digital sources such as a computer or a CD transport connect without an outboard converter, and an analogue preamplifier or phono stage can connect directly. Balanced XLR and RCA outputs allow the HVE1 to work as a DAC and preamplifier for a loudspeaker system, and a second headphone output sits at the rear.

Alternatives

The Sennheiser HD 800 S is an open-back dynamic headphone built around a 56 mm ring radiator driver with 300 ohm impedance and a balanced XLR4 cable.