[omegaorgun]

He knows his headphones. He’s experienced and well calibrated. He’s also honest.

For -any- headphone, they’re designed to perform across a range of fits, once a seal is achieved. Ora even notes this in their measurements.

He did hate a THX00 but gushed over TRX00. I would say that review was a rant with a partial review thrown in. Generally he does a decent job but sometimes the reviews lack the meat and potatoes of what's needed. I heard nothing on BT, codecs sources or comparisons to other BT cans.

 

[Slater]

Your comment about phase is interesting. I have to think that’s something they test for in QC. If it’s flawed, what would the fix be?

The fix would be to open the cups, and see which one is wired with reverse polarity. Then on that one, resolder the wires the correct way.

It’s a 10 minute job if you’re competent at soldering or working on headphones and/or electronics.

 

[omegaorgun]

Does anybody know what the background of the creators and designers is?

I'm not a ZMF Fanboy but in that instance Zach had experience making guitars and modding T50 drivers before working his way up to his current lineup. I'm also curious as to why they went Bluetooth instead of straight up wired and they are also more expensive than wh-1000xm3, m50xbt etc.

As for soldering be careful as your also dealing with circuit boards unless you do it right on the driver. I would be surprised if such QC tests hadn't been done prior to sending them out.

It's well possible these were defective but I can go get a m50xbt for $150 + angled brainwavz pads and have a solid BT headphone. These really have to be something special for $399 with Sony's wh-1000xm4 on the horizon and something like the Amiron wireless floating about which is kind of in the niche upper end BT market. It wont matter what material it's made of unless it sounds good.

I would have liked Joshua to be more balanced in his approach and get the basic info out of the way first but they must have been pretty crap for him to rant that long. It's up to this company to see what happened, fix it and hopefully they are'nt just trying to aim for the pretentious market and get the basics right. I would recommend doing wired and then learn tuning and move to BT.

I think the review was so hard hitting it was like super humman doing a stunt over and over.

 

[AlwaysForward]

Does anybody know what the background of the creators and designers is?

I'm not a ZMF Fanboy but in that instance Zach had experience making guitars and modding T50 drivers before working his way up to his current lineup. I'm also curious as to why they went Bluetooth instead of straight up wired and they are also more expensive than wh-1000xm3, m50xbt etc.

As for soldering be careful as your also dealing with circuit boards unless you do it right on the driver. I would be surprised if such QC tests hadn't been done prior to sending them out.

It's well possible these were defective but I can go get a m50xbt for $150 + angled brainwavz pads and have a solid BT headphone. These really have to be something special for $399 with Sony's wh-1000xm4 on the horizon and something like the Amiron wireless floating about which is kind of in the niche upper end BT market. It wont matter what material it's made of unless it sounds good.

I would have liked Joshua to be more balanced in his approach and get the basic info out of the way first but they must have been pretty crap for him to rant that long. It's up to this company to see what happened, fix it and hopefully they are'nt just trying to aim for the pretentious market and get the basics right. I would recommend doing wired and then learn tuning and move to BT.

I think the review was so hard hitting it was like super humman doing a stunt over and over.

Yes. Their backgrounds were/are a huge selling point. In general, they’re engineers, scientists & acoustics specialists who come from good schools and research labs.

They really did their research with their design. Frequency response, bio, pad/cup acoustics, how it affects the perception of sound at the ear(accounting for geometry).

again, stuff like this is why I’m so confused about the negative review. I think their backgrounds are orders of magnitude beyond what is common to headphone startups or Kickstarter, for that matter. It was a huge part of why I backed them.

without doxxing myself, I’ve recruited some of the world’s top AI research teams and world class pedigree is something I’m extremely tuned into.

so doubly, the result is potentially quite confusing in context of this team’s makeup.

I’ll keep an open mind but am preparing for the worst at the same time.

 

[human bass]

Well, that review was damn damning lol.

But im still curious to get mine, maybe he got a defective unit (i doubt, but one never knows for sure). Maybe the execution of the final product something changed.

Well, i hope it fits me good and when mine finally arrive I will post my impressions

 

[PockyG]

I'd really like to see someone independently create a frequency response graph to see how the production headphones sound. I'm disappointed watching Joshua's review. But if they're as bad as he says they are, I'll probably have to work on modifying them. I think all it might need is some damping over the drivers based on how he described it.

 

[Slater]

I'd really like to see someone independently create a frequency response graph to see how the production headphones sound. I'm disappointed watching Joshua's review. But if they're as bad as he says they are, I'll probably have to work on modifying them. I think all it might need is some damping over the drivers based on how he described it.

Even if someone makes a graph, I don’t know anything about their particular rig. I always trust my ears when retuning more than some random Joe Shmoe guy’s graph.

I assume you’ve seen the official graph from Ora?

 

[gikigill]

The reviewer had a negative view of these before he even received them.

.

 

[gikigill]

Hey Slater,

The earpads and headband do use Korean "Protein Leather". This was on the specific advice of Paul Barton from PSB who told us that real leather has problems with breathability and longevity.

There is no user adjustable EQ on the headphones. In passive mode, when using an external preamp and a wire, there are no electronics in the signal path. It is possible that Josh didn't properly re-attach the earpads after opening them up but I don't want to speculate.

Could you please confirm what the earcups are made of?

Liquid wood? Plastic? Wood?

 

[SureSh0t]

Could you please confirm what the earcups are made of?

Liquid wood? Plastic? Wood?

It's plastic that looks sort of like wood grain.

 

[Benno1988]

Josh received a unit from the pilot run. All the parts are they same but assembled by hand rater than on the assembly line.

The Oras are not very sensitive to driver position, however, in the video josh describes pulling down the headphones to sit just on the top of his ear and that, as a result, there isn't a good seal at the top. MAYBE he is allowing a leak at the top which would definitely affect the sound.

We did do quite a bit of bio-metric research in defining the size of the ear-cup, the tilt of the cups (the lack of tilt is compensate for the very thick earpads), and the headband length. The earpads are almost 1" thick at the point below the ear, there should not be undue pressure there.

Might be a good idea to send him a different unit stat. A damning review can do damage, especially in a niche area like start up bespoke headphones.

 

[gikigill]

It's plastic that looks sort of like wood grain.

Any source to support that since it was wood or similar material originally.

 

[SureSh0t]

Any source to support that since it was wood or similar material originally.

They explicity said so in their updates to backers.

 

[pila405]

Are we to expect a Kickstarter update soon? Any measurements of the production unit?

 

[MRM22]

It's plastic that looks sort of like wood grain.

It is liquid wood which is suppose to be a premium material. That has been the case since early in the Kickstarter.