From a reader: "Oh wow. Your FT7 coverage is superb. It dovetails with a recent conversation where I was told that headphones are one area where expensive models really aren't earning their place as well as they used to. This might be because headphones must be worn on the head and can't be upscaled as easily as loudspeakers with different sizes, shapes and materials. The HEDDphone's high weight and its AMT's lack of sub bass is one example and there's little visual incentive to go with Focal's Utopia over its Clear. The Abyss flagship is too extreme and with the Meze 109 Pro I already own, I've cooled hard on the Empyrean models. I currently have two maybe three grand to spend on a new pair of fancy cans yet cannot find anything that draws my attention or cash. I don't want big like the Empyreans or heavy like Audeze. Hifiman's lack of QC reputation puts me off their spendier models. The Abyss Diana is closest in form factor to what I'd want but then I question whether it will really sound all that much better than the FiiO planar you just wrote up."
This mirrors my sentiments of the FiiO review. At or somewhat below €1'000 seems to be the currently hottest head action. That used to be quite close to the category's ceiling but has long been shattered and reset to 10 times that. Just so, dynamic driver tech then isodynamic thin-film membranes have become so mature that within the very finite space available to still be a wearable on-head contraption, this can now be maximized within the first grand. Brand cachet, finessed industrial design and elaborate detailing can easily go far beyond. Yet as this reader suspects and whoever he talked to—I'm signing on the same dotted line—dropping €2-3K no longer guarantees any substantial sonic advances. Different is always on the table. But clearly better? That's a very different tune. This sector has become densely crowded with hi-tech players fluent in the most modern production and material methods. Hence I'm personally far more curious about aune's forthcoming AR9000 than anything else I've read about. Still, it has its work cut out against the cat FiiO just let loose on all the other pigeons with their €749 FT7. Hence today's header. In my opinion it's absolutely possible to break even—hit the high plateau beyond which potential advances are mostly a mole hill not mountain—if we allocate one grand to a superb on/over-ear headphone because we mean to play above 90% on what's possible. I really don't think that dropping twice or thrice buys anything significant extra if we shop smart and stick to €1K. At €3'145 with a 3m cable equivalent to FiiO's, one expects Diana to play in a higher league on all cylinders: better looks, comfier wear, lower weight, superior build quality and sound. But will costing four times more buy enough extra all around to feel justified? Let's face it, even €749 for a headphone isn't pigeon crap. Yet it is bird turd compared to what it would cost to get equivalent performance from loudspeakers. That wording simply would have made for one foul header so I decided to go with everybody's favourite tellie meth cook…
