[SilverEars]

Just out of curiosity, does anybody know how the HD800(S) drivers were made? What type of materials?

 

[daltonlanny]

Sennheiser HD800/800S uses Duofol plastic.
Same material as HD580/600/650/660S, except it's in the form of a ring radiator driver.

 

[Slater]

Will they make a passive version? They go on about the graphene and the sonic advantages and then proceed to say, oh yeah we are putting a battery, sensors, buttons, chips in the housing and make it bluetooth.

I'm excited about Ora, I agree 100%

Yes, I know it can be used passively, but why cram it down my throat if I have no plans to use it, don't want the extra bulk, extra weight, extra complexity (which will eventually fail), and extra expense?

They could cut the retail price by $100-$200 by deleting all of the electronics stuff. Make 2 versions, and let the customer decide if they want/need the extra weight, complexity, and expense. Beats (as an example) did just that with the Solo and Studio - you could get it wired or wireless.

It seems a truly passive version could also be put out a lot faster, as there would be no extra development/debugging/programming/manufacturing time needed for the touch functions and all of the active electronics.

 

[Blinxat]

yeah exactly, plus you have more acoustic space to work with and tune with the cup. Instead of the space taken up by electronics.

I mean I understand that wireless is a huge thing these days, but I think the purists should get a go too.

 

[oyobass]

yeah exactly, plus you have more acoustic space to work with and tune with the cup. Instead of the space taken up by electronics.

I mean I understand that wireless is a huge thing these days, but I think the purists should get a go too.

I have a feeling that since this is (eventually) going to be the first run of a new technology, they wanted to take the "concept car" approach- All singing, all dancing, with all the bells and whistles.

Once they clear that hurdle and get production going, they can produce variations on the graphene theme, or maybe licence the technology once having put out a Cadillac or Lexus product, and leave the production of Chevy- and Toyota-level headphones to others.

Wild guesses on my part, of course.

 

[Midgetguy]

yeah exactly, plus you have more acoustic space to work with and tune with the cup. Instead of the space taken up by electronics.

I mean I understand that wireless is a huge thing these days, but I think the purists should get a go too.

IMO, this is exactly the reason why the this headphone is only in wireless form. Remember that regardless of how much they made on their crowdfunding campaigns and how much progress we've been seeing them make, they are still a small startup company. They're in the infancy of their product and business ventures. At this stage, it makes a lot of sense to develop a single product rather than two, even if technically, the route they've gone is one with a more complicated product. What we've got to keep in mind is that removing all the electronics makes for easier electrical design, but that means research and study into a different enclosure shape as there are differences for how the sound is affected by the physical surrounding structure. I think they're being smart to not stretch themselves too thin on resources (work and material) right off the bat after launching so recently.

As you said, wireless is huge, so naturally, creating a product for a larger market audience is what's going to bring in the revenue. And not only that, there's the idea of innovation on multiple fronts. The way I see it, they're not just trying to show off what can be done with a new material, but also that you can make a wireless product with sound quality worthy of its price tag, which is a hard thing to do still. As far as I'm concerned, in most wireless products, even pretty good-sounding ones, you're still paying more for the convenience of wireless rather than a more even split of wireless and sound quality. The idea is "this headphone sounds like it's worth the money. And it also happens to have wireless capability" rather than "this headphone's got wireless capability. And it also happens to sound pretty good". In one scenario, the bonus is the convenience, but in the other scenario, the bonus is the sound quality. I'm hoping that ORA's headphone strikes me as the former rather than the latter.

 

[dhruvmeena96]

Well there is one more advantage to their graphenes, if we add noise cancelling circuitry, grapheneQ Is still way more stiffer, lighter and harder....so it can eliminate the NC distortions...





Now ora should make a propriority magnet with high flux and Tesla force....

 

[Victorfabius]

Well there is one more advantage to their graphenes, if we add noise cancelling circuitry, grapheneQ Is still way more stiffer, lighter and harder....so it can eliminate the NC distortions...





Now ora should make a propriority magnet with high flux and Tesla force....

I really, really, really, super-duper hope that there's no noise cancellation for this particular headphone.

I'd like to have it as an option, just not at the time expense of a complete redesign of the internals to get it done. It's already delayed to August, and that's making the assumption nothing goes wrong between now and then.

I'd like to know whether Ora's headphones are able to deliver close to what they claim before we start packing it with optional features. Who cares if your brand new Fiat has leather seats, butt warmers, a fantastic sound system, intrgrated GPS and is more fuel efficient than a Tesla if it also lacks the ability to steer. Now if Ora delivers all that, then maybe we can talk about what they can do to improve on a V.2... like ANC. Or a bag of potato chips.

 

[DixieLandBlues]

I really, really, really, super-duper hope that there's no noise cancellation for this particular headphone..

Ora have said on the Kickstarter comments page that there will be no ANC - they are pretty unequivocal about it:

"There will not be any Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) on the GQ headphones."

It's also worth noting that while the headphones are wireless, they are not wireless only. They will support 3.5" jack and USB audio, and if I recall correctly ORA said that the last two will bypass the onboard EQ and go direct to the drivers. I can't find anything supporting the bypass bit though, so I may be mistaken on that.

 

[AlwaysForward]

Yes they have clearly communicated bypass for passive input

 

[Slater]

So I like the other graphene stuff** I own so much, I went ahead and signed up for the Ora Indiegogo. I'm looking forward to hearing them once they are finally ready.

** Yes, I'm well aware that current "graphene" stuff is just graphene sprayed onto a standard (usually mylar) diaphragm, which differs from Ora's true graphene diaphragm.

 

[HungryPanda]

welcome to the club

 

[Midgetguy]

welcome to the club

As long as they don't join the club of complaining about delays . I just hate when people order a KS item acting like they bought something from Amazon. 2-6 month delays seem very common to me; if you don't have the patience, wait until the product release to buy it.
"I bought it as a birthday gift for someone and now it's going to be 3 months late, waaaahhhhhh, I want a refund". Don't EVER buy something on KS to use as a specifically timed gift.

 

[Slater]

As long as they don't join the club of complaining about delays . I just hate when people order a KS item acting like they bought something from Amazon. 2-6 month delays seem very common to me; if you don't have the patience, wait until the product release to buy it.
"I bought it as a birthday gift for someone and now it's going to be 3 months late, waaaahhhhhh, I want a refund". Don't EVER buy something on KS to use as a specifically timed gift.

I learned patience as a young child.

I have dozens of other headphones to use in the mean time, and only 1 pair of ears. I'll wait another year for all I care, as long as I know that they won't go out half-baked.

 

[AlwaysForward]

I feel like being an early backer on the Mobius is going to make the wait a little easier once those sweet wireless planars hit my mailbox, then these things (hopefully) land at the end of summer.

Wireless headphones are getting a little exciting.