Interesting post. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but do the 95%/100% statistics mean the version folks are listening to at CanJam NYC is not the final production version?
Seems an extremely logical question to me!
Interesting post. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but do the 95%/100% statistics mean the version folks are listening to at CanJam NYC is not the final production version?
Could anyone tell the difference?Interesting post. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but do the 95%/100% statistics mean the version folks are listening to at CanJam NYC is not the final production version?
Interesting post. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but do the 95%/100% statistics mean the version folks are listening to at CanJam NYC is not the final production version?
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Got it - thanks! It certainly is one of the coolest-looking headphones out there. CongratsNot a dumb question at all! It was a hand-made pre-production model. The final target is to fine tune the bass, so that a frequency curve chart would show a slope down near 100 Hz now and in the final version WILL slope downwards at 100 Hz with a small scooped portion to prevent the bass from bleeding into the mids. Constant pursuit of perfection! Even as-is with the hand-tooled pre-production version we had for CanJam, the vast majority expressed fondness or amazement with the sound, comfort, and aesthetics. We even had someone come back the second day and say it really clicked with him on the second listen!
Edit: to clarify, the bass below 100Hz is elevated relative to the HD 800 S, which is a benefit of the sealed acoustic chamber of a closed headphone, and carefully tuned to fit our research into the average human expectation of a natural-sounding sun bass. Among other things, we use bass ports that allow the lower frequencies to have more energy. The ports are still sealed so the midrange and high frequencies cannot pass through, similar to how people can hear subwoofers through walls but not the higher frequencies.
Thank you too! It’s so great to be able to talk about these now, and to see all the smiling faces and even seated-dancing that occurred at the show! Our babies are off to a great debut :’)Got it - thanks! It certainly is one of the coolest-looking headphones out there. Congrats
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It makes sense that glass was chosen due to its refecting properties rather than its sound isolation properties. The energy of the treble and mids are redirected to the absorbers while the bass is able to radiate... That is if I'm understanding you correctly.Great post!
At first, Axel tried just sealing the back of the HD 800 S so it would be a lower cost, back when he was younger and blissfully naïve. Unfortunately, the sound was... not good, and a more complex solution was needed.
Axel gave a seminar discussing the development process on Sunday, explaining the sound didn’t start to approach flagship-levels until the team hit upon the idea of looking at it as an open headphone in a small room. Make that room smaller and smaller, negate the effects, and massage the development of pads, comfort and weight, an idea with paper filters that were eventually discarded, a stiff “lens” to redirect sound resonance towards absorbers to really try and keep the “open” sound, and also playing with different bass ports to really enhance the sub-bass while also creating a dip around 100 Hz so that the bass wouldn’t blur the mid details. The team even considered how the design could compensate for glasses frames without losing bass. About 5 years later, we’re like 95% towards our target and will be at 100% upon release this summer!
Other than their $60,000 flagships (the best headphones I've ever heard, as expected)
Please be careful when scooping that important frequency regionThe final target is to fine tune the bass, so that a frequency curve chart would show a slope down near 100 Hz now and in the final version WILL slope downwards at 100 Hz with a small scooped portion to prevent the bass from bleeding into the mids.