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Abyss Diana V2 2nd Review (Headphone)

the_brunx

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Abyss marketing at work?:
D2A6212C-7DAE-4194-B7FB-EB792FCD56C6.gif
 

Jimbob54

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That was pure fraud along the lines of Social Security but with less means of obfuscating the ponzi scheme in the long run.

These headphones are much more like bottled water or "luxury" liquors - there is some value in the product... but the packaging is 90% of both the cost and the ultimate appeal. What's inside is often practically worthless by comparison. I'm sure you could take a $20 headphone, wrap it in $300 worth of aluminum and leather, put it in a $100 velvet-lined wooden box and sell them all day long for $3K. Most reviewers would rave, audiophiles would swoon, and Amir would switch to the 650's in about the same time. ;)
Exactly!
 
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NDRQ

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"For the price of four Diana Phi headphones they could buy a GRAS 45c for heaven's sake!"

They just probably dont care with measurements..

1621778599941.png
 
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Zensō

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More snake oil from Abyss, handily beaten by the $200 HD6XX. How do these manufacturers live with themselves? It’s shameful.

This is more confirmation that price and sound quality have zero correlation in headphones. Buyer beware!
 

Jimbob54

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"They just dont care with measurement..probably." :D

If they measured exactly the same as the Hifiman he6se (which best I can tell are possibly amir's current fav planar) they would likely sell not one unit more or less. And indeed if they trumpeted the fact, they might sell even less (can't allude to being mysteriously superior).
 

Robbo99999

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Headphones are boring. More power amps and high performance, DACs, please.

P.S. I notice that my $100 contribution to the cause goes unacknowledged. If that is more than 115 dB below your detection threshold,
let me know. I might send more.
Stick around, but DACS aren't really the most interesting products to review, simply because we've already reached transparency and arguably cost effectiveness. Headphones & speakers is where it's at to create some real differentiation and the sensible place to focus your efforts on choosing good examples.
 

PeteL

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I don't want to doubt the process, and it can be just coincidence, but two headphones measurments back to back from different brand with such a huge deviation in mesured impedance vs specified? I don't know, but it does seem unlikely. Measurment equipment can break like any electronic equipment. Maybe just for sanity check try the good old scope?
 
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So you get better SQ with the Bose QC 35 for $200 (plus good ANC) than with this for $3,995. Even if it is also true that one gets more precision with a $100 Swatch than with a $10,000 Rolex imho this is really nuts.
 

roskodan

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But then again, this is a high end audiophile product, and as such, worth every penny. Even without EQ, it will provide an ample amount of distortions, satisfying even the most demanding audiophile.

True story.
 

dmac6419

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Again, no. They make, advertise and sell vastly overpriced headphones. I'm pretty confident every customer got exactly what they paid for. I think you need to look up what a scam is vs what this is, which is a triumph of marketing over engineering.

If I was to try and sell a pair of $5 plastic supermarket earbuds for $1500 nobody would buy. Why do these sell? Why are forums not full of people baying for blood on receiving their massively overpriced, underperforming Abyss headphones?


PS, for the record, what this is in reality is exploitation. Not fraud.
I can agree with you on that too.
 

MDT

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Stick around, but DACS aren't really the most interesting products to review, simply because we've already reached transparency and arguably cost effectiveness. Headphones & speakers is where it's at to create some real differentiation and the sensible place to focus your efforts on choosing good examples.
It is still good to measure them, if only to confirm there are no issues.
 

Thomas_A

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So you get better SQ with the Bose QC 35 for $200 (plus good ANC) than with this for $3,995. Even if it is also true that one gets more precision with a $100 Swatch than with a $10,000 Rolex imho this is really nuts.

You can get even better SQ for less money than the SC35. IMO.
 

Sonny1

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Wow! Another great review by Amir and another super high priced poorly designed product. Sad to see but I’d be even nmore disappointed if I owned them and paid full price.
 

markanini

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That was pure fraud along the lines of Social Security but with less means of obfuscating the ponzi scheme in the long run.

These headphones are much more like bottled water or "luxury" liquors - there is some value in the product... but the packaging is 90% of both the cost and the ultimate appeal. What's inside is often practically worthless by comparison. I'm sure you could take a $20 headphone, wrap it in $300 worth of aluminum and leather, put it in a $100 velvet-lined wooden box and sell them all day long for $3K. Most reviewers would rave, audiophiles would swoon, and Amir would switch to the 650's in about the same time. ;)
A better comparison would be Apple products. You can spend ten grand on an a top speced Apple workstation that performs no better than a two grand PC. Is it a scam? No the consumer is willingly paying for the extras, branding aesthetics etc. If that gets you outraged why stop at the company? The consumer is the only real enabler, and in the case for audio products the community is cheering on the decision.
 

KxDx

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But then again, this is a high end audiophile product, and as such, worth every penny. Even without EQ, it will provide an ample amount of distortions, satisfying even the most demanding audiophile.

True story.
No doubt will be drastically improved with tubes and quantum fuses.
 

NDRQ

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A better comparison would be Apple products. You can spend ten grand on an a top speced Apple workstation that performs no better than a two grand PC. Is it a scam? No the consumer is willingly paying for the extras, branding aesthetics etc. If that gets you outraged why stop at the company? The consumer is the only real enabler, and in the case for audio products the community is cheering on the decision.

Thats a little different, since the Apple product+iOS is really different from a PC,; if u want to use those programs, you just dont have any other option, you have to buy it. While here, you dont get really get anything.

This is just another anomaly of the "audiophile" market...where many people tend to believe in every random sht. Its the same when people buying power cable for thousand bucks, because they believe in the audiophile blabla. This is like a cult, a grey zone for suggestible people. They believe rather than confront the incomprehensible science.
 
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