Sony claims "speaker on your head" headphone design

[DrBenway]

Audiocubes is advertising a wild-looking new Sony headphone design, the PFR-V1 Personal Field Speakers. Ducts extending from the bass driver appear to go in the ears, while the the highs and mids are delivered via two cups that do not physically touch the ears at all.

Sony claims that these external drivers behave like "two perfectly positioned speakers." One would hope so, since the phones cost $539. I'm guessing that they provide little or no isolation, but this looks to be a potentially interesting design.

Not in my budget at the moment. Anyone wanna pony up and report back?

 

[jinx20001]

with a frequency response on 35hz-25khz my guess is bass is going to be a bit of a weak point of these,and the max input of 60mw could be troublesome aswell,the ipod 30gb and 80gb have 60mw amps built in so bearing in mind this is 60mw max,this could be an issue for those that like volume.

first impressions is im not impressed,frequency response seems pretty poor considering price and the design looks downright ugly

 

[IPodPJ]

Well, several things in these specs killed it for me:

Specifications
Impedance: 16 ohms at 1 kHz
Mass: Approximately 7g (the cord/code excluding
Frequency Range: 35-25,000Hz Doesn't extend low enough.
Sensitivity: 93dB/mW
Max input: 60mW So basically, you can't use even a decent portable amp with it.
Power Source: 2 x AAA batteries Self powered? Sounds like a toy.
Playback time: Approximately 45 hours
Cord/code: 1m
Plug: Gold plated stereo mini- plug
Weight: 93g

Oh yeah, and let's not forget the price for these toys, $539. And 21mm ultra-large driver? Sorry, that's hardly what I'd call ultra-large.

So who here is going to take the bait and buy them? Surely some of you rich folk here have an extra $539 you wouldn't mind blowing on these. Take one for the team!

 

[jinx20001]

oh and it gets worse they require batteries,oh dear

 

[Assorted]

mmm I can just imagine what kind of awesome soundstage you can get from those.

 

[jinx20001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPodPJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, several things in these specs killed it for me: Specifications Impedance: 16 ohms at 1 kHz Mass: Approximately 7g (the cord/code excluding Frequency Range: 35-25,000Hz Doesn't extend low enough. Sensitivity: 93dB/mW Max input: 60mW So basically, you can't use even a decent portable amp with it. Power Source: 2 x AAA batteries Self powered? Sounds like a toy. Playback time: Approximately 45 hours Cord/code: 1m Plug: Gold plated stereo mini- plug Weight: 93g Oh yeah, and let's not forget the price for these toys, $539. And 21mm ultra-large driver? Sorry, that's hardly what I'd call ultra-large.

x2 looks like real poor specs

 

[ericj]

The lean bass is due to the inherent lack of backwave control in 'float' designs.

Bass goes everywhere, and the wave coming out the back of the driver can cancel out the wave coming out the front of the driver.

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPodPJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, several things in these specs killed it for me: Specifications Impedance: 16 ohms at 1 kHz Mass: Approximately 7g (the cord/code excluding Frequency Range: 35-25,000Hz Doesn't extend low enough. Sensitivity: 93dB/mW Max input: 60mW So basically, you can't use even a decent portable amp with it. Power Source: 2 x AAA batteries Self powered? Sounds like a toy. Playback time: Approximately 45 hours Cord/code: 1m Plug: Gold plated stereo mini- plug Weight: 93g Oh yeah, and let's not forget the price for these toys, $539. And 21mm ultra-large driver? Sorry, that's hardly what I'd call ultra-large.

Yeah, these are valid objections. Thing is, it's a mantra among headphone listeners, even around here, that you don't get speaker imaging from headphones. I'm curious about whether these get around that at all because of the off-ear drivers. Seems similar to the concept of the AKG K-1000s, which I've never heard. Supposedly the K-1000s achieved stunning, speaker-like imaging by placing the cups (squares?) off of the ears.

I'm curious, as I said. Not $539 worth of curious, however.

 

[gz76]

Oh, they look quite different to what I expected. I was thinking something the size of Jecklin Floats or K1000's.

 

[braillediver]

“frequency playback of 35Hz to 25KHz”

+- how many db? As is it’s a completely meaningless statement.


Mitch aka Born Again Skeptic

 

[003]

Those bashing it due to 35Hz low response ... that is exactly the same as the K1000. Bashing these is also very immature, and while I have not heard them yet I have very high hopes. Lets take some things into consideration here, shall we?

Firstly, let's brush up on our knowledge of the K1000 a bit. It is extremely hard to drive and requires a speaker amp to sound it's best.

I am guessing these new sonys had a similar problem of being extremely hard to drive. Sony, realizing this and that most people would not have the know how or means to properly amp these, probably designed some kind of amp or signal booster that runs off batteries so that it could sound good out of the majority of devices that people use headphones with and not require a massive amp.

This brings me to the 60mW max input. Firstly, that may be a typo and was supposed to be 600. If not, I am guessing that the built in battery powered amp would not be able to handle a high input.

It is my guess that this battery powered amp thing will be easily bypassable and then the headphones could handle much more power input and be hooked up to a real amp like the K1000.

Has anyone even thought about contacting Sony?

 

[jinx20001]

well among that praising (or non bashing) you obviously did not see the 16ohm impedance,let me guess thats a typo aswell and most likely 160ohm no?? the fact is its not just the frequency range its a number of things that dont paint a good impression, and its the impression they give that we are bashing.

 

[rb67]

From the Japanese site:
総合出力 60mW
(Composite?) output 60 mW

Also about the battery thing. From the website, from what I have come to understand, the battery thing ("Booster") is only used when necessary.

I'm slowly working on a complete translation of the official page.
http://www.sony.jp/products/headphon...-v1/index.html
Specs:
http://www.sony.jp/products/headphon...r-v1/spec.html

 

[jinx20001]

i think what i am getting at is the specs seem to me very ipod or dap friendly,maybe thats the aim so its not blowing any specs out of the water

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 003 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Firstly, let's brush up on our knowledge of the K1000 a bit. It is extremely hard to drive and requires a speaker amp to sound it's best.

Yes. Here's what the description at headphone.com says on that issue:

"The biggest downside is that the K-1000 were VERY, VERY, VERY inefficient -— they require a bare minimum of 7 raw watts of headphone amp output power to drive properly... That's huge!"