So, I e-mailed Tyll (in a long-winding missive that he probably didn't bother reading because it was so long and silly) about this a while back and asked him to go look for this company on the CES floor this year, but I thought I'd create a thread about it because, frankly, I'm kind of clueless about full-sized headphones when it comes to the really nitty gritty stuff, and I know even less about AMT and ribbon drivers. The following is basically an adaptation of what I wrote:
A few weeks ago, I went to an audio show in Taipei. Probably the most interesting thing I saw was this new headphone offering from OBravo (aka Stymax International), a company that mostly makes small, AMT/ribbon-equipped multimedia speakers. They seem to be fairly competent at making these small-sized speakers, as I heard this small bookshelf setup in their room, and it made decent sound for its size. However, what got me were their new headphones.
Apparently, there are two models: one is a hybrid AMT/dynamic headphone, while the other is a ribbon/dynamic setup, both in a coaxial setup. Such an exotic setup certainly isn't to be ignored!
Here are some pretty pictures from a show report:
http://www.audionet.com.tw/a/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=4815&page=14#pid30572To be honest, I think they sounded pretty bad, especially for the estimated retail price of ~$1600 USD!!
They were a bit closed in, a bit too mid-forward and stuffy with a distinct lack of vocal harmonics in the 3-4k region. I forgot which was the worse offender in terms of sound, but honestly they sounded more like a DIY experiment gone wrong, rather than products that can compete with the likes of the HD800 and the LCD-3.
When I told the OBravo people that I thought they sounded a bit too warm and closed-in, they said that it was their choice of sound signature, though my gut instinct was that perhaps OBravo shouldn't quit their day jobs of making speakers.
I'll admit, I don't listen to full-sized headphones often (sold my HD598 a few months ago), but I do know what the good ones sound like. I heard a stack of STAX in another room afterward and they sounded great, the NAD HP50 in the room after that sounded great, and the HD650 and HD800s sounded great as well. The OBravo headphones clearly weren't in the same league, except for price.
Ergonomically, they're kinda also piss-poor, but then again, a lot of these jerry-rigged headphones are anyway; I don't mind that not everyone has the resources of Sennheiser, Philips, Sony, or Harman.
It could've been that I was listening to the headphones from my DAP, connected to their own, very small-sized headamp (I think they mentioned it was Maxim MAX9722-based, but don't quote me on that) but the headphones themselves were pretty sensitive and could even be powered to pretty loud levels even with my Sony NWZ-F886. Even so, I just didn't think the sound was very convincing, though it's possible the headphones could benefit quite a bit from a proper DAC and amp setup.
However, I do think the headphones have potential. I think there's a lot of untapped ability there, though I haven't heard the ERGO headphones before, so I don't really have a "reference" as to what AMT driver-based headphones sound like anyway. The big huge cups are also user-accessible with a screw-off back, so it's possible to tweak the crossover and introduce special damping to modify these headphones easily, which would make them cool (albeit very expensive) DIY mod projects.
I also spoke at length with one of their product managers, David Teng, and he seemed very enthusiastic about breaking into the mass market with these types of headphones. Apparently
, their plan is to introduce these headphones to the audiophile market, and then to introduce a lower-end product at the $300-400 range (with better aesthetics and ergonomics) for the mass market. Certainly, they talk a good game, and normally I'd directly say "dream on" but Mr. Teng doesn't seem like a dummy and doesn't seem easily deluded. He told me he was a long-time executive at Acer computer, and he definitely had a good grasp on the business scale of semiconductors and microelectronics, at the very least. But I have no idea if AMT or ribbon drivers can even scale down to that kind of price, and most of all, why would the Beats crowd even care that it uses an AMT driver?
So, anyway, long story short (though I guess I already wrote out the long story), they're exhibiting at CES this year, and i hope someone hears them, or better yet gets to review them, measure them, tear them down, and make something useful out of them, because at least the technology is kind of cool, even if the sound isn't.
Facebook (more pictures on there):
https://www.facebook.com/obravo.globalWebsite:
http://www.obravo-global.com/Index/
