DROP + GRELL OAE1
- Thread starter SHAMuuu
- Start date
Luckyleo
Headphoneus Supremus
Maybe I should have kept quiet...... 
FritzS
1000+ Head-Fier
Yes, it is true that Austrian.Audio was founded by some of the former AKG employees in Vienna!
BUT I am referring to the AKG (branding) that was bought by Samsung! That's a big difference!
Hardly anything new comes from this company!
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Rob80b
Headphoneus Supremus
Reminds me of when the National Ballet back in the 90s let go all the dancers because of budget cuts but kept management. lol : (
Initially this headphone was not planned to be something flagship level. But I really hope Axel Grell releases something flagship level with all the new innovations he is trying to put in this headphone. Something like using a ring driver (or something more advanced) but in this new open design ....
Took photos of the latest GrellAudio posting on Instagrram. Only way I know how to share this from the Instagram site. The photographs/ info are/ is, in sequence.
I followed grellaudio on instagram
Well, the HD 580/600/650 were considered flagships at their release! If you’re one of the people who find the timbre of Axel Grell’s designs to be world-class (and punching above their price class), grell spoke at the CanJams about how he was taking his timbre taste to these new innovations for a super open-sounding headphone. I haven’t heard any prototypes, since I left grell in July ‘22, but on paper the OAE1 seems to offer the soundstage and timbre that were on my holy grail wish list, and at a price I might actually be able to afford. I’m honestly hoping I could work with Axel again; it was a bummer to leave (and the second half of ’22 was the hardest time in my personal life), but we didn’t burn bridges.
With regards to the ring-driver design, if you haven’t seen Sennheiser’s latest interview with Jermo and Meike, I think they did a great job explaining why a driver can be too big (modal distortion, basically the transducer wobbles, and the need for a “spider” for speaker-sized transducers which do have a break-in period) or too small (especially for non in-ears):
The ring driver was a great idea to keep a stiff membrane in a larger surface area, but that’s unique to Sennheiser Hearing and for all I know it’s proprietary; they don’t do OEM, but never say never… Sennheiser did a joint-venture with the Demiant group for years to make the EPOS Gaming headsets (RIP).
I’ll add the link too: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1E0Z5aovX8/?igsh=dngzczIzaXpsemtj
Took photos of the latest GrellAudio posting on Instagrram. Only way I know how to share this from the Instagram site. The photographs/ info are/ is, in sequence.
I’m not
% knowledgeable about the production process, but I believe this means the design is *done,* next the tuning has “gone gold” once they do the pre-mass production samples to test the tooling that will be used for mass production/release. It’s a good sign for progress! We usually don’t see the time it takes to develop a new headphone for large companies because they keep it a secret until right before release, but it’s been cool to see the progression for designing the OAE1. I wonder how many prototypes have been made 
Thanks for the detailed info. And hope your life gets only better. To be clear I am not worried about the tuning, I did not have much issue with the tuning of HD 660S and, its the detail retrieval and smoothness of the HD 800S to which it comes no-where near. I just hope Axel's new headphone has that level of detail retrieval and if not, he releases one like that in the future.
For those who may find this video interesting
