We’ve all heard about graphene, the so-called ‘wonder material’, discovered in 2004. However, in the intervening 13 years, we haven’t seen any significant products take advantage of the material’s extraordinary properties. That’s until the GrapheneQ Headphones from Montreal-based company ORA.
While the headphones themselves have initially been targeted at consumers and hi-fi enthusiasts, these wired/wireless headphones have properties that would work equally well in the studio for mixing and mastering. The company claim that these headphones offer the smoothest frequency responses recorded, zero distortion, and crystal clear resolution across the entire audio range. Even top recording engineer and inventor George Massenburg has given them the thumbs up.
“As a trained audio engineer I have dedicated my life to the study and practice of accuracy in sound reproduction,” said Co-Founder Robert-Eric Gaskell. After completing their PhDs, Robert-Eric and his brother Peter worked together designing and building audio equipment with ribbon mic makers AEA. Robert-Eric continues, "It became clear to us that graphene had the ideal mechanical characteristics for loudspeakers and microphones. We patented the idea and wrote a paper for the Audio Engineering Society on the use of graphene in ribbon microphones. Shortly thereafter we were approached by a technology incubator and assembled a team to explore its potential.”
The result was the development of GrapheneQ, a proprietary nanocomposite formulation consisting of 95% graphene. The process actually uses flakes of graphene oxide that are bonded together to make a multi-layer material. Speaker membranes made with this material display a rare combination of high stiffness and low density, claim ORA, which translates to acoustic qualities on par with the highest performing materials on the market at a significantly reduced cost. In theory, this means fewer and less pronounced resonant peaks, minimal breakup at higher frequencies, better stereo imaging and all-round improved efficiency.
“Digital processes (DSP) have become a band-aid for masking the limitations of audio technology,“ said Co-Founder Ari Pinkas. ”While DSP is a powerful tool, improving the fundamental technology is a far superior approach.”
GrapheneQ Headphones feature GrapheneQ membranes which ORA allege provides excellent tonality and superior dampening, high efficiency drivers for extended battery life, touchpad controls to skip songs, control volume and answer calls, a built-in electret microphone for hands-free calling, and ear-shaped design optimised for fit and ergonomics.
Richard King, a 14-time Grammy award-winning recording engineer is sold on them: “there’s a tightness to the low end that’s impressive, it’s really fast... I can't wait to hear a loudspeaker implementation!"
ORA are now running a Kickstarter campaign from June 20 to July 20, 2017. For a full rundown of the pledge levels visit the Kickstarter page. At the time of writing, they had already raised $109,000 of their $135,000 goal. You can currently get ORA GrapheneQ headphones for $199 USD with prices increasing to $499 USD after the campaign finishes. But be quick, as certain backing options have already sold out.
Don’t expect these headphones to be the only product from ORA, though. They are already in talks wth some of the biggest names in tech about providing miniature speakers for phones, laptops and tablets. This is not only because they consume less power, but also because they can allegedly produce four times the output of other speakers of the same size.
