écoute: the world's only vacuum tube-amplified headphones

Umm, brilliant or idiotic?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ecoute/ecoute-the-worlds-only-vacuum-tube-amplified-headphones

 

How will they solve the microphonic problem?

 

hello,

seems pretty vaporwareish.

"CONCLUSION

Though it certainly won’t make conventional small tubes like the 12AX7 obsolete, the Korg Nutube can be a useful device in audio. I expect it will find many uses in musical instrument amps, guitar effects, and high fidelity. Its low power and low operating voltage makes it a natural for experimentation by those not familiar or comfortable working with the high voltages usually used with tube circuits."

from: https://diyaudiostore.com/products/korg-nutube

also:
https://www.korgnutube.com
http://www.nutube.us

strange, just strange.
ymmv

 

Fill out the sound and add warmth to digitally compressed music

Good for a cold climate, eh?

Partly from pure prejudice and ignorance, I'd say... idiocy.

Didn't spend long looking at their site, but it rings all the alarm bells as pressing all the anti-digital/solid-state buttons of their potential customer base. And serious tube lovers will be using tube amplification anyway.

I say bull !

But plainly, I am not part of that target audience. Did I mention my prejudices already?

 

Rrrubbish

 

I mean it's just a portable tube amp stuck into a headphone enclosure with a sleek look and marketing campaign designed to rope commuters into the audiophile market... here comes another 100K subs for Josh Velour I guess.

 

I would only consider tube headphones if the tubes stuck out sideways. And glowed.

Well, ok, maybe an array of tubes across the headband...

 

It looks like they are using korg nutubes, though unclear what the actual topology looks like. I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to gear using nutubes myself, but haven’t heard much for positive comparisons to traditional vacuum tube amplifiers.

I think the skeptics have good reason to doubt on this one.

 

Poll added for you voting pleasure.

 

This. The Korg is microphonic enough that it has been a problem in desktop amplifiers. Using it in a portable amplifier is silly. Using it in headphones themselves is just *facepalm*.

 

The nutube is interesting to me and I've been curious about the amps using it (if I had any inclination towards DIY I would've built a Sangaku for sure), but I really think this could be in the running for most microphonic audio design ever.

The price isn't the most obscene thing ever seen in audio, but you don't get to save for the nice stuff if you make a habit of buying things like this. They only needed like 30 people to back it though, so of course they managed to clear that bar.