Sennheiser Unveils New $55,000 Orpheus Headphones - But Who Will Buy Them?

Got an extra $55,000 sitting around? If you said yes, then Sennheiser has the answer to listening to music at the very best quality. The audio technology company has revived their vaunted Orpheus line after over ten years of development. The hand-crafted headphones will run consumers a staggering €50,000 ($55,000), if you can afford them.

The new pair of headphones are crafted using over 6,000 different components including gold-vaporized ceramic electrodes, platinum-vaporized diaphragms, and Carrara marble amplifier housing from Italy - the same used by Michelangelo, according to The Verge. This pair of headphones may just become the most opulent piece of hardware in your entire house.

It is not designed to listen to your low-quality rips or Spotify free streams on an iPhone. This is designed to listen to high-quality audio like a vinyl player or FLAC or Lossless digital files. If you have regular mp3s, it has eight digital-to-analog converters to get the very best out of those less than ideal audio files.

"With the new Orpheus, we once again push the boundaries and show that we can repeatedly set new benchmarks in excellence and with that shape the future of the audio world," said Sennheiser CEO Daniel Sennheiser in a statement.

The new iteration of the Orpheus headphones come nearly 25 years after Sennheiser created the Orpheus HE90 that quickly because known as the best headphones money could buy. Only 250 were ever made and now go on the re-sale market for nearly three times their original price.

The headphones won't become available to the public until mid-2016 and there will only be 250 produced "from next year onwards." With this attempt, Sennheiser is attempting to make the world's best headphones that deliver the best audio quality. It would be a shame if they fell short. Be on the lookout for these next year if you have the cash.