Popular Post NoisyNarrowBandDevice Posted September 25, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted September 25, 2019 Howdy CA/AS Folks, been a while since I roamed here and dabbled in the MQA-game. Too much work at day job & with Amazons recent announcement I guess the MQA-death-bells got deblurred quite a bit ;) Today I had a little encounter I like to share. Went to the Sennheiser flagship store here in Berlin to give the HD 660 a spin versus the venerable 650 headphones. They got a nice little store at Berlins prime boulevard and besides headphones you can listen to their studio monitors of the 120 and 310 series. No KH420s there sadly (these speakers, espc. the 310s and 420s are awesome and if you get a chance give them a spin). Also almost all Sennheiser studio and consumer microphones are on display and of course the whole range of headphones up to the 60k (your read that right) HE1. They demo their headphones with their HDV820 DAC/Amps (ca. €2,5k) feed by an android tablet running - tada - Tidal! The salesperson explained to me that I am going to be able to hear highest quality mastering files, studio quality files that many of their professional customers use... The poor fella was in for quite a lecture We ultimately struck up quite an interesting conversation and it turned out that he and his colleagues were unaware of Qobuz, Amazon HD and of course of the fact that what Tidal calls "Master Quality" is a lossy codec called MQA. Apparently the store made the decision to use Tidal by themselves based on the size of their catalogue and their marketing of "mastering files." The best part of the whole shebang was of course that the HDV does not support MQA... So far they never had a customer asking specific questions about this but he remarked that they get quite a lot of audiophiles "who are reassured when we tell them that we also carry a cable that costs a 1000 bucks." Needless to say the stores staff now is provisioned with Archimago's excellent "MQA: A Review of controversies, concerns, and cautions" article. Keep up the good work and all the best from Berlin (and yes the 660 is sweet, considering, considering!) wgscott, The Computer Audiophile, jma2 and 8 others 9 1 1 Link to comment
Popular Post The Computer Audiophile Posted September 25, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted September 25, 2019 So many gems in your post. Thanks for the info, the story, and educating people! crenca, mcgillroy, NoisyNarrowBandDevice and 1 other 3 1 Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
Popular Post crenca Posted September 25, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted September 25, 2019 32 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said: So many gems in your post. Thanks for the info, the story, and educating people! I know, it's hard to choose a favorite! 😂 I will go with this one for now: "The best part of the whole shebang was of course that the HDV does not support MQA..." 4est, tmtomh and esldude 1 2 Hey MQA, if it is not all $voodoo$, show us the math! Link to comment
NoisyNarrowBandDevice Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 18 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said: So many gems in your post. Thanks for the info, the story, and educating people! Thx Chris & Crenca! This occasion was quite a lesson in the power of marketing. Another tidbit conveyed during the conversation was that they frequently get customers ready to spend three or four figures on a headphone. They come in interested in the higher range HD-modells. These customers are flabbergasted once they learn that HD800 or HD660 headphones do not include noise cancelling. Bose marketing has managed that people equate expensive headphones with noise cancelling. Moreover when it comes to headphones they have managed that people equate noise cancelling with sound quality. It's quite a challenge to unpack that sentiment at the point of sale. Of course they steer these people to the Sennheiser range of noise cancelling headphones but it seems that many times questions linger in customers minds. On another note: I should have mentioned that the studio monitor range is marketed under the Neumann brand. Neumann of microphone fame - those phat things Sinatra or Johnny Cash have in their face are Neumann's. So don't start looking for Sennheiser speakers, they are called Neumann KH120/310/420. Link to comment
The Computer Audiophile Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 9 minutes ago, NoisyNarrowBandDevice said: It's quite a challenge to unpack that sentiment at the point of sale. Of course they steer these people to the Sennheiser range of noise cancelling headphones but it seems that many times questions linger in customers minds. The salesperson is in a bad spot. If he educates the customer he may lose a sale. That's unfortunate. Sure, he may get a different sale or even a bigger sale with HD800 or something, but the risk probably outweighs the reward. The power of marketing companies that sell audio is very strong. There are a few HiFi brands in this same boat and many people don't realize it. 9 minutes ago, NoisyNarrowBandDevice said: On another note: I should have mentioned that the studio monitor range is marketed under the Neumann brand. Neumann of microphone fame - those phat things Sinatra or Johnny Cash have in their face are Neumann's. So don't start looking for Sennheiser speakers, they are called Neumann KH120/310/420. Not sure if you saw @JoshM reviewed some Neumann headphones. Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
stuck limo Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 On 9/25/2019 at 11:47 AM, NoisyNarrowBandDevice said: We ultimately struck up quite an interesting conversation and it turned out that he and his colleagues were unaware of Qobuz, Amazon HD and of course of the fact that what Tidal calls "Master Quality" is a lossy codec called MQA. This reminds me of when I called Fry's in Phoenix to ask about what Sennheiser headphones they carried. The sales guy in the Headphones department had literally no idea what Sennheiser was. Just goes to show you that a lot of people who work in any particular niche industry are there just for a job, not a passion. Link to comment
Popular Post Samuel T Cogley Posted September 26, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted September 26, 2019 14 minutes ago, stuck limo said: This reminds me of when I called Fry's in Phoenix to ask about what Sennheiser headphones they carried. The sales guy in the Headphones department had literally no idea what Sennheiser was. Just goes to show you that a lot of people who work in any particular niche industry are there just for a job, not a passion. Fry's is exactly the last place I would purchase headphones, right behind Best Buy. daverich4 and botrytis 2 Link to comment
NoisyNarrowBandDevice Posted September 27, 2019 Author Share Posted September 27, 2019 15 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said: Not sure if you saw @JoshM reviewed some Neumann headphones. Yep saw that. Sennheiser acquired the microphone manufacturer Neumann in 1991. To my knowledge Neumann never had build speakers or headphones. Sennheiser is trying to capitalize on the Neumann name and logo which arguably has worldwide recognition and is associated with high quality. Typical brand expansion story of the kind MBAs cook up. Sennheiser did the same with the studio monitors. Originally these came under the name "Klein & Hummel" - which was a high-end studio monitor house mainly catering the vast (and mostly great) public broadcasting system in West Germany - the east German broadcasting system had a shop called Geithain, similarly high-end monitors. Geithain is one of the very few east German companies that successfully survived the transition from communism to capitalism and is going strong today. Great speakers - but that's another story. Klein & Hummel also build analog tuners which are still highly sought after. Sennheiser acquired Klein & Hummel in 2005 and eventually rebranded the studio monitors as Neumann KH to market them worldwide. I guess with some success - even though they choose to demo them with MQA in their flagship store Coming to think of it I wasn't offered to test NDH20s at the store. Explaining those two brands is probably another tough spot for the sales people there. Link to comment
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