[Geared4me]

Will the Carbon have a detachable cable?

 

[XERO1]

Yes! Here's what I wrote over in the CanJam London thread:

Back to the new unit, Periodic Audio C for Carbon. Dan encouraged me to listen to it before he told me anything about it, and I did. Friends, this earphone is like sinking into a big soft leather armchair that is so soft and comfortable that all the tension leaves your body and you just don't want to move. Layers and layers of smooth clean bass, again without sacrificing mids or any clarity up top, but the bass really dominates.

So what is it? For this earphone's diaphragm, Dan has grown a layer of industrial diamond on a light substrate. It's incredibly rigid, so it approaches ideal pistonic motion with less of the flexing you see in other materials. But this diaphragm has more mass than in Periodic's other drivers, and it resonates longer — the driver doesn't come to a stop as quickly when the signal stops. So you get a little bit of extra sustain on those low, long-excursion bass notes, and it's a little like being in a big room whose acoustics make all the low notes extra luscious.

Bassy and smooth, the C is so very, very much not my regular preferred sound — yet I kept coming back for more. I'm going to wind up buying one of these.
​

From a followup post, the price will be $399 and for sale soon but I'm not sure how soon.

The price is $399, in other words it follows the pattern of previous most exotic material (Be) + $100. Be is still the "best/preferred sound by most people" (including Dan himself) and C is more of a "for people who like something different" offering. Dan said reactions to C were split along love-'em / hate-'em lines with nobody really being in the middle (sort of like Marmite if you're in the UK ).

Availability: he had one prototype with him, but he says now he's got the process worked out and he can go to production really quickly. Whether that means there will be availability in time for RMAF I don't know, but from his confidence about the process I'm really sure he'll at least have more than the one sample with him by then.

Edit: Dan also said he has something else really interesting to show at RMAF, not under the Periodic Audio company but a separate startup making high performance speaker drivers. He didn't describe any of the tech, but the specs he quoted were pretty insane.

Editing again to namecheck @DanWiggins so he can correct any misstatements on my part.

Interesting... Can't wait to hear 'em!

 

[jant71]

No offense but my logic is if BE is still "best/preferred" what does $100 extra get me? Plenty of Diamond Like Carbon coated drivers out there now and others with rigid diaphragm coatings. I don't go gaga for the materials since the proof is still in the execution and a driver is more than just the diaphragm.

 

[mochill]

I would love to review the carbon as well

 

[XERO1]

No offense but my logic is if BE is still "best/preferred" what does $100 extra get me? Plenty of Diamond Like Carbon coated drivers out there now and others with rigid diaphragm coatings. I don't go gaga for the materials since the proof is still in the execution and a driver is more than just the diaphragm.

I think the logic is that some people will like them better than the Be's, and some wont. Dan is just giving us another flavor, which happens to be more expensive.

Kinda like what Campfire Audio does. They offer a bunch of different flavors, with may actually preferring a less expensive model over the more expensive ones.

 

[Ra97oR]

I am glad that I bought the Beryllium at CanJam, it truly punches above the price point and even out perform more expensive IEMs in certain areas, totally love the no BS approach, with thin flexable cables and zero bling.

While I do find my multi drivers CIEMs performing better on very busy but less well recorded music, the Be just sounds so cohesive and dynamic.

I will be the first to jump in if Dan making a pure Be foil driver full size open back headphone at a more sensible price than the Utopia.

 

[episiarch]

No offense but my logic is if BE is still "best/preferred" what does $100 extra get me? Plenty of Diamond Like Carbon coated drivers out there now and others with rigid diaphragm coatings. I don't go gaga for the materials since the proof is still in the execution and a driver is more than just the diaphragm.

The C just has a different sound. It's not the most reference sound, but it's a sound some people will want in their collection. That's really all.

Of course a driver is more than the diaphragm, but in the Periodic offerings the diaphragm is the difference between models, and they really do sound impressively different.

 

[Pinkus]

I saw on twitter that they are coming out with a new cable with less microphonics and a new grille for the right side that has a molded in red color for easier R/L differentiation. Ahhh,the pitfalls of being an early adopter Gives me an excuse to hand these down to my wife and get another pair, haha

Hi, just catching up on this thread and doing some research, has the improved microphonics come to pass since you posted this?

 

[Pinkus]

@DanWiggins I'll see you in London and I'm very much looking forward to your new product whatever it is. I love my Mg and Be (and I'm also looking forward to getting Snugs, who'll also be exhibiting, to make custom sleeves for them).

stupid question but are they definitely compatible with Snugs? i'd like ideally to get custom tips as my ear canals are troublesome (i'm pretty sure one has a different shape to the other)

 

[episiarch]

stupid question but are they definitely compatible with Snugs? i'd like ideally to get custom tips as my ear canals are troublesome (i'm pretty sure one has a different shape to the other)

I've ordered a pair and will let you know once I have them. That should be in a couple weeks.

Snugs were at the show and we tested that a very similar existing template (Soundmagic E10) seemed to be a perfect fit on the Periodics. It really did snap on perfectly as far as I could tell. Of course that sample wasn't built for my ear, so I wasn't able to check the sonics.

 

[episiarch]

Hi, just catching up on this thread and doing some research, has the improved microphonics come to pass since you posted this?

I listened to Ti and C on the new cable, but I didn't specifically notice a difference in microphonics — probably because that hadn't been much of a problem for me with the old cable, but I know experiences vary. The new cable at least seemed a little less tangle-prone, though.

 

[DanWiggins]

Will the Carbon have a detachable cable?

No.

 

[DanWiggins]

No offense but my logic is if BE is still "best/preferred" what does $100 extra get me? Plenty of Diamond Like Carbon coated drivers out there now and others with rigid diaphragm coatings. I don't go gaga for the materials since the proof is still in the execution and a driver is more than just the diaphragm.

IMHO, the failure here is thinking there is a "best" sound. I am a firm believer that preference is incredibly personal and individual and quite subjective; I know there are studies and such saying "everyone likes this so design this", but that doesn't bear out in real life. For example, Ti is not held in high regard in the US - but it is the top selling unit in Japan, Russia, and Ukraine. Mg rules SE Asia, while Be is preferred in the US. This is all borne out by actual sales volumes.

So - is Carbon "better"? Well - that's for you to decide. If you prefer it, then it's better. If not - then it's not. The process is much more expensive, and a pure diamond lattice does have some great mechanical properties (even higher speed of sound and stiffness than beryllium) but some penalties, for example density is higher so they are a bit lower efficiency.

 

[DanWiggins]

Hi, just catching up on this thread and doing some research, has the improved microphonics come to pass since you posted this?

That happened back in November last year... Everything since then has the new 90 durometer SBR splitter and 3.5mm jack reinforcement and the even-lower microphonic cable.

 

[Pinkus]

That happened back in November last year... Everything since then has the new 90 durometer SBR splitter and 3.5mm jack reinforcement and the even-lower microphonic cable.

this listing on Amazon says it was first listed on July 2017, so i was wondering if it's the updated version? https://www.amazon.com/Periodic-Audio-Be-Beryllium/dp/B073TVZRV4

sorry for the annoying Q's, cheers... Seems to be out of stock on the Periodic Audio site.