[blumenco]

PFRV1 | Personal Field Speaker Headphones | Sony | SonyStyle USA

I was doing a little research today about permendur for use in magnetic circutis. At the company I work for, our highest end speaker drivers use all permendur magnetic circuits in a field coil configuration. The sound of all permendur is completely bonkers. Unbeleivable (and incredibly expensive, but worth it for the money...). Truely though, there are no words to describe it. Sorry for the ones I already spent. Ill let you read up on it, but even that won't do much good. Permendur is VERY special stuff. the fabric of musical existence perhaps. must be experienced properly to be understood.

In either case, I noticed these Sony headphones. This is a Sony Personal Field Speaker Headphone for 400 bucks. It claims a Neodynium magnet and all permender magnetic circuit. If what happens to the sound given the permendur is what I think will happen, then this might be worth looking into? The sound of Neodynium I am not a particular fan of (yet). No emotional connection to it like I share for alnico. Perhaps I have not heard the right implimentation of it? Truely, I do not want to come across like some seasoned and infallable "expert" on this topic. I have not heard very many neodynium magnetic circuits in the first place.

Of course also we make it back to the sonys where we have no guarantee of what the shape, thickness, or grade of permendur is... if not properly designed, the circuit might not exhibit any real world "torque" characteristics and only look good on paper....the proof is in the hearing.

Basically, this seems like a tiny loudspeaker that sits on your head. kinda cool?

lemme know anyone if you have come across this, thanks in advance!

-Clark

 

[blessingx]

I wonder what a search would pull up?

 

[haarvi]

A least two head-fiers have reported - in this forum - on their experiences with this headphone.
The first report was more or less positive - with one or two particular unresolved reservations.
The 2nd - fairly recent report - was quite unmixed in appreciation, approximating an out and out rave.
I happen to have a pair of the PFVR1s which I snagged off eBay, but, with not yet much experience listening to these phones and as a fairly inexperienced listener with no claim to decent hearing or a critical listening capacity, I am not inclined to write much here on the subject.
If you were to be in New York City, I'd be more than happy to let you come listen for yourself.
But you seem to be in Japan. Where the phones are available.
The last I heard - in speaking to people in the AudioCubes store in New York, the phones could be ordered here, but would have to be shipped from Japan. Whether they have reached the Sony Style store in the U.S. - so that you could listen to them there - is unknown to me.
BTW:
About those marvelous sounding speakers your company makes using permendur in the magnetic circuits:
What speakers are they?
Are they available in the U.S.?

 

[blumenco]

Hmm... so some people seem to think that they sound good...interesting...

Sorry to not search properly prior to putting up a new post. I figured that this would not be a typical phone that would show up here.

I might try to track down a pair to listen to. Thing is out here, I don't speak much Japanese, so if I were to run across them in Akihabara or something, that is one thing.. to try to track them down is another thing.

So I will do my best. Thanks for the offerering that I come to listen though!

The speaker drivers we make are of original design. They are full range drivers intended for use in single driver loudspeakers. (In otherwords, adding woofers or tweeters would just tend to muck things up, and the frequency response of the particular full range drivers we make is easily wide enough to not necessitate the use of any extra drivers). They are a very handcrafted product. Drawing upon many traditional Japanese crafts applied to the engineering conundrums of the modern age. They certainly ain't "old fashioned" sounding though...

Feastrex is indeed available in the U.S. Contact either Joe Cohen (Lotus group, USA distributor) or myself (English speaker and apprentice of Feastrex Japan) for more information.

I have always seen alot of aesthetic crossover between speakers and headphones, especially single driver speakers and single driver headphones. I am always searching for the best of both worlds. In the case of headphones, for me it is the orpheus, or any other truely awesome electrostat. There are some great dynamic phones out there, but I consider electrostats to be my personal ticket. In the speaker world, well, our D9e Type III is prettymuch without appropriate description or comparison. Please...do not ask the price though... (many would think of it as inexpensive actually, considering what it is). There are many other speakers out there which are highly respected. My personal recent favourites beside those of the comanies I have been involved with professionally are the altec/great plains audio 604-8H-II and the special thin wood version of the Kotaro by Micropure.

I mostly do headphone research to keep my own brain up to speed with the market (besides, I am and always have been an avid fan of headphones).

Ok, well later. sorry to blab on.

-Clark

 

[Nocturnal310]

I tried these Sony Personal Field speakers during an exhibition 2 months back
i didnt like how they fit on my head.

i look like a Zombie who is being controlled by a remote operator.

The Sound quality i didnt notice much ...it was very loud outside to be able to hear anything.

 

[Punslayer]

There's a bit of info about these headphones Here in Japanese only though. It does have a diagram of the driver construction; parts "E" are the permendur parts. The dome is silk, although i couldn't tell you anything else and the cone is mino-washi; a kind of traditional Japanese paper. My own Japanese is pretty limited, but my wife helps me figure stuff out.

I haven't had a chance to hear these yet either, but i'm very curious. They're pretty cheap at Amazon.co.jp ~26,000 yen. Unfortunately there isn't too much info out there about these headphones and a lot of it gets bogged down in what they look like. But reviews are generally pretty positive about the sound if nothing else.

 

[blumenco]

yeah, come to think of it they WOULD look a little funny on someone's head...

I guess that for the acoustic design though, it is tough to avoid this sort of look...

hmm... at the same time, they would also seem to me like phones that might not be affected differently so vastly by people's various head/ear shapes...

 

[Punslayer]

but they are designed to reflect sound off your outer ear, i believe to improve the midrange response (?) Also some people have trouble with the bass tubes so there's still a lot of head/ear interaction involved.

The interview on the sony site i posted has a diagram of the reflection idea.

 

[blumenco]

very interesting!

We use washi too, actually (different types used for each part of the entire cone including VC former). I speak almost no japanese, though for this apprenticeship, I have been learning. So all I know now is what your wife told you and then you me.

These headphones on paper just get more and more interesting. Hilarious stuff.

 

[Punslayer]

We noticed the Mino-washi because it's made in (and comes from) the prefecture where we live. It's also a bit unexpected to find a 1300 year old brand of paper in the Sony headphone lineup

I've been trying to decide between these or a pair of Stax SR-001 recently, but i think that my curiousity has pushed me toward the Sonys. At least they should be interesting.

 

[IceClass]

I really, really want to try a set of these but only in the privacy of my own home with no one watching.

 

[BigTony]

I've read a few online reviews, and I guess they are interesting : Mini speakers with a bass port.. but then they sure look like the torture device used on Alex in 'ClockWork Orange'.

 

[fraseyboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by user123456 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I try to avoid earbuds and small headphones, they are known to make people deaf.

I hope your being sarcastic...

They do look interesting, a bit pricey though.

 

[M3NTAL]

They have kind of the same signature as an ER-4S, but presentation is different and bass doesn't dive as deep as the ER4.

A little bright in the highs if they aren't in your ear perfect and the recording is either real low bass or naturally a little bright.

 

[babya]

The PFR-V1 in Australia will cost $599-if you like the unusal design it's worth it.