Thank you
@Kennerton Team !
After work, gym and a shower, and only quite a few Finns in attendance as it was an early Friday night, I had my most enjoyable expo experience, ever.
Mr.
Valentine Kazanzhi along with his colleagues, on my second stand of the evening, managed to grab all of my attention, for hours ! (Read: rest of the evening, and I thought I'd be just satisfied with one evening in the expo.)
I couldn't even think about pulling away as Mr.
Kazanzhi was explaining about the new products/upgrades to the current products with such enthusiasm and professionalism, and even after details about their own product line, satisfied my curiosity about feelings towards other products, with a friendly jest. (For example I mentioned that the next door stands Chord DAVE wasn't working due to driver issues
) The discussion was awesome!
The amount of information I heard/(understood, as obviously there is a language barrier between us) was vast.
Three products in the pipeline or under consideration under Vali prices, new headband suspension system (excluding Vali and higher up) which is extremely adjustable and lightweight. One was a hybrid open/closed back if I understood correctly, similar to an HiFiMAN Edition S/Monoprice 560.
Trickle down technical upgrades for Odin from "Thor" (Sorry, don't know the correct term yet.) Emphasis on customer satisfaction - any Odin owners are eligible for the upgrades (if there's a fee, it'll be either minimal or free.) Any Odin mk1/2 owner will never be forgotten - and the newer upgrades won't be mk3 - just upgrades for the model, sitting somewhere between the upcoming Thor and Odin mk2. Options for new and better cables as well.
Closed-back version/conversion-option of Vali. (Either user-upgradeable or sending it it to the shop).
Far greater selection for customization options (hopefully), ranging from cups, colours of various parts, and even tuning. Yes, you read that right! Oh, and even a possibility of a video of your personally customized headphone going through various manufacturing processes. (Of course these are serious question marks, but they're basically rather inexpensive to produce, especially on a larger scale, but still, I'm personally wondering about the cost! They should be free from what I understood - just part of the service!)
Discussion about the prototype 18-driver, it's almost science fiction! From what I understood, not eligible for mass production.
A very low end on-ear "33 1⁄3" Fischer Audio model was surprising.
Discussion about exposure of Kennerton (the Massdrop sales were a clever way of exposing the brand to the US customer base), but there's still a lot of advertising to be done! These should be on the mouths of every single headphone enthusiast.
And I probably cannot even remember half of the information as I just got home from a bar, had a lovely evening /w friends after the expo, some food, alcohol and music!
Oh, and if you're a Finn and visiting the expo, there's some unbelievable deals on Vali and Odin. I'd jump on Odin, but as my second daughter was just born in July, I guess I'll have to skip deal for nao, with heavy hearts!
Oh yeah, and did I mention, the Thor prototype (with 3D printed plastic cups etc., and not even close to the production version) was there:
It was quite phenomenal. Concise, coherent and refined.
Even with the pre-production prototype, it was unbelievably light-weight in your hands and your head, but even with this psychological effect - it slammed even harder than Odin.
I was impressed.
And sorry for the babble, a wee bit drunk, and I seriously hope I remembered at least something, and correct!
