[PETEREK]

  very strange design indeed !  why do the TOL headphone need to be ugly or strange ??

Well we're talking about it aren't we? Haha THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT.

 

[bmichels]

 
By the way the sensitivity of the HE1000 is 90dB/mW.

 
IF this is correct then it has the same efficiency than the HE-560, and therefore it is MUCH more efficient than the HE-6 !! 

 

 

[Mr calvin]

very strange design indeed !  why do the TOL headphone need to be ugly or strange ??

besides the fostex,sennheiser,and beyerdynamic, every other headphone isnt great looking. I understand if they need to be giant, but they dont have to be ugly! Jeez

 

[conquerator2]

Subbed.
Though I fear the price might be far too high for my blood .
Regardless, this is the HE-6 successor, right?
So one down, one electrostat to go

 

[Dopaminer]

I think they look super freaking cool.  
 
By the way, does anyone else find it odd to release a new headphone next to THE ORPHEUS ? 

 

[reiserFS]

This hopefully will sound glorious, because it sure does look ugly. Might still be a prototype though? 

 

[TonyNewman]

   
Why would a thinner diaphragm equate to lower efficiency? It's less mass to move, the efficiency should thus be higher if all other factors are equal (magnetic field strength, tracing properties).

 
Because that is why the HE6 is hard to drive. Thinner membrane requires more energy to move the same amount of air as a thicker membrane. Don't ask me why - Dr Fang (HiFiMan headphone designer) explains it better than I can in the video posted in the HE6 amping thread and elsewhere.

 

[TMRaven]

A thinner membrane moves the same amount of air as a thicker membrane.  It's not like these membranes are porous and air flows through them.  

 

[dill3000]

Its true - See video - Dr. Fang explains planar magnetic headphones and why the HE-6 is so inefficient. The HE-1000 would even be more inefficient i'm thinking.  
 
 
 
 

 

[TonyNewman]

  A thinner membrane moves the same amount of air as a thicker membrane.  It's not like these membranes are porous and air flows through them.  

 
It takes more energy to do it with a thinner membrane - that is the point.
 
Nobody suggested the membranes are porous.
 
Listen to Dr Fang for yourself - he talks to this point from around 3:10 in the video.
 
Thinner membrane = less energy transfer from the driver = less efficiency.
 

 
This is the guy who designed the HE6, for those that might not know.

 

[TMRaven]

I think he's talking about planar magnetic technology in general.  Since the diaphragms for planars are so thin, very small excursions are required to keep them from tearing apart when playing music, which translates to very low amounts of air moved.  The magnets aren't physically connected to the membrane itself either, unlike a traditional voice coil on a high-excursion cone driver, which also translates into low efficiency.
 
I don't think making a planar magnetic headphone with an eighth inch thick diaphragm would make it have 130db+ sensitivity. 
 
 
 
One thing I found interesting was that in one of those translations, they were talking about high z drivers?  I'm wondering if this employs the same tech that the new 1200Ω audeze prototype has or not.

 

[lofthanza]

Why is it so difficult to design decent-looking headphones?
I am sure even the people making these headphones do not like the way they look.

 

[TonyNewman]

  I think he's talking about planar magnetic technology in general.  Since the diaphragms for planars are so thin, very small excursions are required to keep them from tearing apart when playing music, which translates to very low amounts of air moved.  The magnets aren't physically connected to the membrane itself either, unlike a traditional voice coil on a high-excursion cone driver, which also translates into low efficiency.
 
I don't think making a planar magnetic headphone with an eighth inch thick diaphragm would make it have 130db+ sensitivity. 
 

 
Did you listen to what Dr Fang had to say? He is talking very specifically about the HE6 and why the efficiency is so low.

 

[TMRaven]

Yea I've watched the video multiple times, including when it was originally linked months back.  He has an HE-6 in his hand, but never in the video does he make a distinction between the HE-6 vs any of his other planar offerings.
 
The core argument here is-- does a thinner diaphragm pressurize less air than a thicker one?  The answer is no.  Other things play into sensitivity.  Given the advances in the technology since the HE-6, I'm willing to bet the HE-1000 is not as inefficient as the HE-6.

 

[DoctaCosmos]

What he'ssaying is that the energy or amount of sound pproduced is low because of how thin it is so you have to pump a lot of juice into it to pproduce the full bodied sound you would get in a different design with more radiating mass