[planx]

From simple images, the first thing that comes to mind is Orthodynamic
 
http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/150646-berkeley-creates-the-first-graphene-earphones-and-unsurprisingly-theyre-awesome

 

[tattoohooligan]

Read this article this morning, sounds like good things are a foot

 

[gnosp]

any estimate on how it will be before this technology is adapted into any production hps?

 

[tattoohooligan]

18 to 24 months before we see consumer product. I hate waiting

 

[Tom Yum Goong]

Graphene is the best thing that happens to mankind since silicon, carbon fibre and whatnot! This stuff offers soooo many possibilities

 

[kmhaynes]

Interesting, but we should wait to see a comparison against something a little higher up the audio chain than the Senn MX-400!

 

[spaceace1014]

Quote:

From simple images, the first thing that comes to mind is Orthodynamic
 
http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/150646-berkeley-creates-the-first-graphene-earphones-and-unsurprisingly-theyre-awesome

 
Electrostatic actually and I'm willing to bet this doesn't actually get picked up. Electrostatic seems to be too expensive for the average consumer and since you absolutely need a special headphone amp that can provide exceedingly high voltages to the stators (580v in the case of Stax) it turns out they aren't terribly portable. The only currently available portable electrostatics are the Stax SRS-002 ringing in at $650 and those are ear buds... they do come with the required amp though.

 

[planx]

Quote:

 
Electrostatic actually and I'm willing to bet this doesn't actually get picked up. Electrostatic seems to be too expensive for the average consumer and since you absolutely need a special headphone amp that can provide exceedingly high voltages to the stators (580v in the case of Stax) it turns out they aren't terribly portable. The only currently available portable electrostatics are the Stax SRS-002 ringing in at $650 and those are ear buds... they do come with the required amp though.

 
No, not really. It's not fair to compare Orthos and Estats with the graphene driver. Like you said, the Stax SRS-002 needs it's own source of power, and from the looks of it, this new technology doesn't have the same kind of power demand. Also, graphene is much lighter than the material used in estats, hence the reason why (from the looks of it) it doesn't require heavy power demands. Still, I'm very curious how this will progress. Who knows, maybe this might be the"new" wave of IEMs and headphones

 

[spaceace1014]

I hope we get a new wave of higher quality headphones that cost lest and you might be right it might have significantly lighter power demands but that was never stated.

Why wouldn't it be fair to compare a Mylar against a Graphene electrostatic diaphragm? From their diagram and indeed their description it appears to be the same thing with a different material used in the construction of the diaphragm.

What they could end up doing if you're correct in your assumption of significantly lower power requirements is create an electret version which would obviate the need for an external amplifier... that could be very interesting. 

 

[planx]

Well Graphene is much lighter than the graphite coated mylar, and if we use logic (i'm not an engineer or anything, so don't try to bash my assumptions), it should be much easier to "move" and produce sound waves, meaning less power can be used. That might correlate to higher efficiency and we might be able to have a new generation of Estats, without the power-hungry specifications.
 
We also need to consider the fact how this is the "first" graphene EARPHONE, and being an earphone, the only thing I can think of is "darn, it must've been hard to make a driver that small". Imagine the possibilities with full-size cans, that is IF they manage to outperform traditional estats