I ended up ordering those liquid wood AudioQuest Nighhawks I alluded to in January of 2016 in this thread, but was disappointed by the pronounced dark sound signature of the model. I found that I much preferred the neutral frequency response of my Sennheisers which were several hundred dollars less than the Nighthawks.
Ever on the quest for better sound, I decided to take advantage of the discounted Kickstarter promotion and pledged toward the development of the revolutionary new ORA Graphene Q headphones. GrapheneQ is a revolutionary new nano-material composed of a single layer of carbon atoms, making it 200x stronger than steel, one of the lightest substances on earth, and resultantly the most energy efficient speaker cone in existence. And because of its stiffness, it keeps its shape when it moves, eliminating the distortion associated with normal mylar speakers. The result is one of the most neutral frequency response graphs ever recorded from a speaker cone.
Montreal’s ORA, who developed and patented the 95+% Graphene material is about to debut their first GrapheneQ headphone, which in addition to its brilliant sound boasts numerous other features like my beloved liquid wood ear cups, the largest soundstage of any closed-back design, both cable and Bluetooth functionality, and gesture controls on the earcups. Swipe in a circle to dial volume up or down, tap once to play/pause, and tap twice to answer a call. The project gained the support of sound engineers and LA Philharmonic conductor, Gustavo Dudamel who fell in love at first listen.
I pledged to ORA’s Kickstarter campaign and they’ve made more than seven-times their goal for funding. The headphones are scheduled to ship in August. As a fan of studio monitors with transparent sound signatures, (and a fanatic for liquid wood gear), I couldn’t be more excited about this project and its potential for loudspeakers in the future.
I’ll be publishing a full feature once I’ve received and tested these cans. If you’re curious, check out their promo video below and explore all the details on their Kickstarter page! Once the Kickstarter promotion ends, these are set to retail for $500, and it will be interesting to see if they outperform mainstay models at the $1000+ price point.