[Arcamera]

 

[Arcamera]

Interesting news about the "Zeus." I vote for earphonia to review it

 

[eric65]

This is the "French Touch" and the ultimate in clothing (the French slip customizable, with the logo Kennerton), fashionable "made in France" in Paris!

 

[eric65]

Interesting news about the "Zeus." I vote for earphonia to review it

Yeah!

Me too!

Yes, the high-tech version of the Odin, the "Zeus" using both High-Tech materials (Kevlar, carbon fiber) and luxurious materials (precious wood and leather), without a single piece of plastic, should be a great success despite its price up 22% compared to the Odin mk2. Drivers of last generation, also at the forefront regarding the Planar technology, and with an efficiency (I imagine) stunning, widening considerably the choice of the amplifier. That's good in perspective.

Yes, I also vote for @earfonia for a full review of the "Zeus", the god of the gods of Olympus, just that (uh, The Kennerton Zeus, not @earfonia, although I'm fan of his first review of the Odin on head-fi (at the bottom of the page): https://www.head-fi.org/f/showcase/kennerton-odin.21886/reviews#review-17108, what style, what accuracy!).

The Zeus should respond to the @earfonia criticism made on the Odin in the review above:
Pros - Realistic & lifelike sound quality, easy to drive.
Cons - Heavy, stock cable comes only with 3.5mm jack.

If the drivers of the Kennerton Zeus "High-tech" are even better than those of the Odin mk2 (with an even more detailed sound and with even better bass, which was not until now the weak points of the Odin ...) well, there will not be much argument not to adore the god of the gods in matter of headphones Planar, especially if the "simple mortal" listener is also fan of the brand Kennerton.

 

[1wyseman]

Ooh La La!
I see London,
I see France,
I see Eric's...slip?

 

[1wyseman]

Even though the Odin is a planar headphone needing relatively much current, it should to theoretically be quite easy to drive with its low impedance and high sensitivity. Could you guys please share your opinions on this? Would 8Vrms out of an AK380 amp (balanced) be enough to make Odin really shine? Did anybody try the Odin with DAPs?

I use my Odin mk2 with DAPs often. Works very nicely! No problem.

FiiO X7 (with all 5 amp modules--I especially like AM2a); FiiO X5; Onkyo DPX-1a; HiFiMan HM-802s (with "Musical" amp card)

 

[ithilienrp]

Oops. Zeus. More expensive than an Odin.

Will see the wood options first. Might have to let one of my 3 Odins in the same wood go.

Or just find more budget for a new wood that I don't own yet

 

[eric65]

Hi all.

A little more information from the CanJam London 2017 about the latest Kennerton prototypes (Via Headfonia reviewer at CanJam London 2017, but also present at the Munich High-End 1 year ago).

http://www.headfonia.com/blog-canjam-london-2017-part-2/

And my comments (in French) on HCFR of the English comments of this review

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/post179274618.html#p179274618


EDIT:

Latest comments on the Odin and the improved prototype version (Kennerton Zeus) seen at the CanJam London 2017
(By @glassmonkey)

Quote:

" Kennerton Audio

My final stop was having a listen at the Kennerton stand. I had promised Valentine that I would come back and have a listen when I had been having a go with the Stereo Pravda gear on Saturday. I made good on my promise on Sunday, having a listen to the Odin, and a new Odin prototype."

" The Odin is heavy, with a hard band and fairly high clamp force. It isn’t comfortable for my head at all. It has soft plush pads, but I would like to see even plusher given the clamp strength. Overall, the ergonomics are bad. It is beautiful to behold with gorgeous wood and great looking industrial design. It also sounds beautiful. I listened to the Odin out of the Violectric HPA V2∞1. The Odin was very life-like on Pink Floyd – Hey You, and Patricia Barber was just silky and gorgeous."

" Valentine also handed over a new version 2 of the Odin. The ergonomics were the same, but the sound had a bit more air to it with excellent depth and detail whilst maintaining a smooth tonality. People are going to love this sound."

https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/c...d-july-15-16-2017.855275/page-9#post-13626036

Note: The comfort of the Odin is greatly improved by a precise adjustment of the headphone knob for adjusting the earpads precisely in all axes and rotating the pads (asymmetric), and with a twist of the hoop (arch) to the outside to reduce significantly clamping.
See also (in french) : http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/post179270826.html#p179270826

 

[eric65]

Latest news about the new Kennerton flagship "Zeus" (*),

and the very stunning prototype headphones, over-ear, by Kennerton, with 2 x 18 mini drivers (capsules) electrodynamics.

By Pierre Paya (on HCFR, in French)

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/post179275303.html#p179275303

(*) Estimated weight of this new flagship of Kennerton, the headphones planar "Zeus": 450-500 g (instead of 670 g for the Kennerton Odin mk2), that is approximately the weight of the flagship of Stax, the SR-009.
http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/post179275769.html#p179275769

 

[eric65]

Hello everyone.

Regarding the Kennerton prototype headphones with 18 mini electrodynamic drivers per side, here is a possible arrangement (see the drawing below) of the 18 mini drivers.

For example: 18 mini drivers of 10 mm diameter are holding in a circle of 50 mm diameter, equivalent to a single driver diameter of 42 mm.
(Note: if the circle is bigger: 80 mm diameter (the size of the orthodynamic driver of the Odin), well, it will be 18 mini drivers of 16 mm diameter each that will fit in this circle of 80 mm and which will represent surface of a single driver with a diameter of 68 mm).

Here is a photo of the prototype of Kennerton headphones with 18 mini electrodynamic drivers per side (alas not visible), and an example (found on the web) of a mini driver 10 mm in diameter.

Otherwise, in the attached link, the link to a comment (in french) of Agnostic1er, DIYer recognized on HCFR, concerning the possible use of multiple drivers versus a single.

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/post179277931.html#p179277931



EDIT:

About the Kennerton Odin (mk2) and others headphones.

For Francophones (and also non-francophones using Google Translate), to read, the dilemma of Sylvanor, a French member of the HCFR forum, for the choice of his second headphones (NB: He already has a Stax SR-009).

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/post179279037.html#p179279037

 

[tienbasse]

Multi-driver design in very high numbers is the bane of reliability, because it makes the chance of failure exponantially higher.
Costly to make, costly to maintain, both for the customer and manufacturer.
Not a great idea for audio, since a single driver failure will certainly make the headphone go straight to repair, unlike multi-led lamps and multi-cell batteries which can still operate despite sub-unit failures.

We abandoned this kind of design a long time ago in medical devices because reliability is not an option, but I guess reliability is less of a concern in high-end audio.

Given the sonic qualities of the Kennerton series, I see no need for such cumbersome design.

 

[eric65]

Multi-driver design in very high numbers is the bane of reliability, because it makes the chance of failure exponantially higher.
Costly to make, costly to maintain, both for the customer and manufacturer.
Not a great idea for audio, since a single driver failure will certainly make the headphone go straight to repair, unlike multi-led lamps and multi-cell batteries which can still operate despite sub-unit failures.

We abandoned this kind of design a long time ago in medical devices because reliability is not an option, but I guess reliability is less of a concern in high-end audio.

Given the sonic qualities of the Kennerton series, I see no need for such cumbersome design.

Quote @agnostic1er, in the french forum, about multi-drivers.

"NB: several experts agree on one point: the future of the transducer is likely to be represented by a very high number of nano-loudspeakers, each representing an almost ideal source point."

Read more at http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/...nside-t30059943-6555.html#tCq9AfaMIw0CQIQQ.99

Let us not be afraid of technical innovation, otherwise we would still be today on CRT TV screens!

 

[tienbasse]

Please note that I don't disagree with you, but with 18 mini-drivers, one driver failure is certainly noticeable because they're not nano and not in extremely high numbers.
Going to very high numbers of nano-drivers is certainly a different design, because in this case, a few nano-drivers failing is not going to hamper usability.

I would compare it to flat screens to explain it more easily: the impact of one dead pixel in a 4K screen is nearly zero because it is small enough that you could hardly see it. Now take a dead pixel in an old 1280x1024 flat panel, and it becomes a visible nuisance because it is fairly easy to spot.

But let's top the digression here, it's not commercial yet, so we'll see what they come out with.

 

[eric65]

Hi .

I agree with you. The risk of failure is higher with 18 mini-drivers instead of 1 alone.
But if with a classic headphones the single driver on one side would die, and well the imbalance between the two channels would be 100%, while if one of the 18 mini-drivers (identical), would die, we would then have a loss of level (in acoustic power) of 1 / 18th , or a imbalance (between the two channels (right / left)) of 0.25 dB, within the limit of the acceptable.
Yes, we'll see when they get out

 

[eric65]

...

EDIT:

About the Kennerton Odin (mk2) and others headphones.

For Francophones (and also non-francophones using Google Translate), to read, the dilemma of Sylvanor, a French member of the HCFR forum, for the choice of his second headphones (NB: He already has a Stax SR-009).

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/post179279037.html#p179279037

and the winner is ... the Kennerton Odin (with the Viva 845 amp).

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/post179280104.html#p179280104