salanos
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2012
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So I heard recently about an ongoing Kickstarter for the Glow, a "smart headset" designed for smartphones, and in particular to cater to Android users who have up to now not really had a third-party headset that fully offered controls.
The Glow's most defining feature is its use of a laser-illuminated Fibrance by Corning (the same company that markets Gorilla Glass, yes), which can be set to pulsate to the audio signal being played. To be available are three colors (red, green, blue), and a Engadget preview stated the earphones produce a "rollercoaster" of rhythmic pulsing rather than sharp flashy beats, which is a bit more discreet. If the project reaches a milestone, the Glow headset will also include a heart-rate monitor which it can also pulsate to.
The Glow has a controller unit that pairs via Bluetooth LE in addition to the 3.5mm TRS connector that delivers the audio, and the controller is expected to be usable as media keys (e.g. skip forward, back, pause) and some handy auxiliary features like a camera shutter key. There's also, of course, an inline mic. The catch is that the controller has a limited battery life of 8 hours, but should charge to full in 30 minutes.
Besides that, the part everyone here is probably interested in is that as per the title, it's said to be developed in collaboration with Knowles, which I understand has been responsible for a number of armature gems (including the bang-for-buck Astrotec AM-90 which I have). It should have a pair of "premium balanced armatures", with a current specification of 20~20,000Hz with a 37 ohm impedence. Sensitivity is rated at 109.5dB.
The same Engadget preview stated that the sound quality was "impressive", but inconclusive.
Current kickstarter price gets you one at US$149, which is... sort of around there for moderate premium armatures. It's clearly more of a future-fashion-forward looking headset targeted at the smartphone crowd, though they don't appear to be trying to neglect the higher-taste club. Be interesting to find out Head-Fi's thoughts.
The Glow's most defining feature is its use of a laser-illuminated Fibrance by Corning (the same company that markets Gorilla Glass, yes), which can be set to pulsate to the audio signal being played. To be available are three colors (red, green, blue), and a Engadget preview stated the earphones produce a "rollercoaster" of rhythmic pulsing rather than sharp flashy beats, which is a bit more discreet. If the project reaches a milestone, the Glow headset will also include a heart-rate monitor which it can also pulsate to.
The Glow has a controller unit that pairs via Bluetooth LE in addition to the 3.5mm TRS connector that delivers the audio, and the controller is expected to be usable as media keys (e.g. skip forward, back, pause) and some handy auxiliary features like a camera shutter key. There's also, of course, an inline mic. The catch is that the controller has a limited battery life of 8 hours, but should charge to full in 30 minutes.
Besides that, the part everyone here is probably interested in is that as per the title, it's said to be developed in collaboration with Knowles, which I understand has been responsible for a number of armature gems (including the bang-for-buck Astrotec AM-90 which I have). It should have a pair of "premium balanced armatures", with a current specification of 20~20,000Hz with a 37 ohm impedence. Sensitivity is rated at 109.5dB.
The same Engadget preview stated that the sound quality was "impressive", but inconclusive.
Current kickstarter price gets you one at US$149, which is... sort of around there for moderate premium armatures. It's clearly more of a future-fashion-forward looking headset targeted at the smartphone crowd, though they don't appear to be trying to neglect the higher-taste club. Be interesting to find out Head-Fi's thoughts.
