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Ares78
1502
Keyboard Club Member
May 4, 2019
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Focus on the necessities before you try to go all fancy with the Bluetooth 5.0 and etc.
Start with something that sounds good on a passive wired connection. Don’t rely too much on dsp. Then add the wireless components. Make sure it has adequate battery life (I’d say 24 hours). Make sure they’re comfortable (either lots of padding or a soft comfort strap). Make sure it has solid passive noise isolation before you start tinkering with ANC.
Will
8470
Chief Product Officer
May 9, 2019
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Ares78Hah, nice post! All of this aligns with the approach we're taking. Minus the "don't get all fancy" part, you bet we're getting fancy.
First we focused on the passive platform. Our perspective: If this isn't the best closed back audiophile headphone, what's the point of adding wireless? We'll disclose more details when we can, but we're trying to revive the community's driver platform (used in a closed back headphone). We aren't planning to integrate DSP at this stage. An EQ App may come along later, but that's not a focus for the launch. You'll be able to run these headphones from your favorite amp in passive mode.
Then we focused on usability, which includes (but is not limited to) battery life, charging time, comfort, and execution of wireless (does it pair quickly and perfectly every time? etc). Generally our perspective on usability is: you shouldn't have to think about it. Low end of our spec is 30hrs, but we're expecting to hit ~40hrs. On the comfort side, we're working to keep it lightweight, but we're not compromising on the materials (metal where it counts, specific plastics where we can reduce weight without losing integrity, etc).
When you think about comfort in designing a headphone, the earpads and headband are essentially a hedge against poor ergonomics. If your ergonomic design is good, the weight of the headphone will be evenly distributed across the structure, allowing you to use low profile pads made of premium materials (eg, HD800, ATH-ADX5000). If you don't manage ergonomics well, you need big cushions to deal with the force/weight (eg, DT770, HD555). We've taken a lot of steps to manage the ergonomics in this design and we've coupled that with plush earpad, so we're confident it will be comfortable for 5-8 hr listening/gaming sessions.
The noise isolation in this headphone is passive, there's no active noise canceling. The active noise canceling solutions available make it impossible to hit our sound targets, and the passive isolation of the headset is strong.
Thanks for your interest and feel free to respond with more questions. Without folks supporting and participating in our product development, none of this would be possible.
Ares78
1502
Keyboard Club Member
May 9, 2019
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WillWill you release things like FR graphs during development?
Will
8470
Chief Product Officer
May 9, 2019
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Ares78We'll post more updates throughout the development of the headphone. I'd expect an FR graph to be among those updates, but we always offer measurements during the pre-order and in-store stages. We'll also have units sent to reviewers across the community.
Ares78
1502
Keyboard Club Member
May 9, 2019
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WillWill you guys be sending units to regular (non-reviewer) community members?
Will
8470
Chief Product Officer
May 9, 2019
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Ares78Mind diving into what you mean by "regular" community members?
When I say "reviewers across the community", I'm talking about a mix of the community members that most people find credible, those who produce genuine reviews and content, not "pay to play" reviewers at publications.
If you you're asking "Will you send these to random community members with no community credibility", probably not. We'll only have a limited number of sample units and we're going to send them to those individuals the community values.
If you have suggestions for individuals the community values, please share them! It's always cool to learn about new people providing value to the community.
Ares78
1502
Keyboard Club Member
May 9, 2019
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WillJust community members who aren’t necessarily reviewers like Metal, Joshua, Z, etc. But are say, fairly active and have been on Massdrop for a fairly long time.
Evshrug
3772
Community
May 15, 2019
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WillI appreciate the omission of ANC... if I want max isolation, I go for IEMs, but closed headphones are enough for the home or typical on-the-go use.
Any name proposals for this headphone yet? Picking a name is fun!!
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