V1
The V1 is the smallest headphone in the current lineup of LTS designs, and can be a full sized over-ear or a smaller on-ear headphone depending on the ear pads and drivers used. Despite currently being an entry level LTS model, it's intended to be a high-quality headphone in all aspects. Inspired by a headphone style that's been very popular for decades, the V1 has been designed as an improved and more modern take on it, featuring a beautifully minimalistic and timeless appearance combined with finest materials, exceptional build quality and a high level of attention to detail. It also stays true to the core LTS values, such as heavily relying on state of the art additive manufacturing methods and materials previously unseen in the headphone industry, using unique design solutions, as well as being completely modular with all components easily replaceable. The headphone has been designed with a minimalistic and elegant external appearance in mind, completely hiding the high levels of internal complexity and intricate interactions between the components. It will be available as a fully finished headphone built specifically for the costumer, using CNC machined components, or 3D printed, hand finished components, as well as DIY kits for costumers who would rather build their own headphone. The V1 range will cover anything from the basic headphones, produced out of the more affordable, but still great, PA12 plastic, all the way to the high-end versions with Carbon Fiber reinforced Polyamide and CNC machined Aluminium parts that will offer amazing levels of quality in terms of aesthetics, durability, feel, and sound.
In terms of the sound, much of this headphone's character depends on the drivers and ear pads it uses, and there are many choices of both on the market, at various price points. It's a fairly easy headphone to tune, because there aren't too many major variables to play with, and most of the aftermarket drivers designed for this sort of headphone are already tuned to worked with the widely available ear pads, and the sort of physical characteristics these headphones poses in terms of driver-to-ear distance, or the dimensions of the ear cup. At the same time, even the basic PA12 parts are very rigid and acoustically inert, allowing the drivers to shine. For that reason, simply installing a pair of good drivers into raw V1 shells, without any additional acoustic treatment, results in a fairly impressive sound quality, but with more potential left for further improvements through use of superior materials, and for tuning the sound to ones own preferences through an application of various acoustic treatments.
In terms of the sound, much of this headphone's character depends on the drivers and ear pads it uses, and there are many choices of both on the market, at various price points. It's a fairly easy headphone to tune, because there aren't too many major variables to play with, and most of the aftermarket drivers designed for this sort of headphone are already tuned to worked with the widely available ear pads, and the sort of physical characteristics these headphones poses in terms of driver-to-ear distance, or the dimensions of the ear cup. At the same time, even the basic PA12 parts are very rigid and acoustically inert, allowing the drivers to shine. For that reason, simply installing a pair of good drivers into raw V1 shells, without any additional acoustic treatment, results in a fairly impressive sound quality, but with more potential left for further improvements through use of superior materials, and for tuning the sound to ones own preferences through an application of various acoustic treatments.
KEY FEATURES
- Components produced out of high-end Carbon fiber and Graphite reinforced plastics, as well as PA12 plastics using cutting edge SLS and MJF additive manufacturing methods, previously unused in the headphone industry.
- CNC machined key mechanical components using 6061 aluminium and „aerospace grade“ 7075 aluminium.
- High level of modularity, with easily replaceable components for future upgrades, modifications or repairs.
- Will be available as DIY kits, as well as hand built and/or assembled headphones depending on materials and production methods used.
- Micro-machined aluminium or stainless steel grill in various designs.
- In case of higher volume production runs (25+ headphones), versions with an aluminium CNC machined driver baffle will be available as well.
- Can be paired with multiple types of high quality 46 mm diameter drivers from several manufacturers.
- Adapters for drivers with diameters below 46 mm will be developed.
- Driver depth adapters allowing for fine tuning of driver to ear distance.
- Removable ear pads with a large selection of aftermarket solutions available.
- Double sided high quality Hirose connectors with full metal construction and gold plated contacts allowing for use of various aftermarket cables.
- Comfortable headband with a high quality, fully metal adjustment mechanism and 360° of ear cup rotation.
- Use of high quality damping grease on all hinges for silky smooth and damped operation.
- Use of rubber pads as soft stops on the cup hinge mechanism to prevent unwanted noise.
- Various types of dampening materials and acoustic adapters available for personal fine tuning of sound.
- Will be shipped in high quality, foam padded, aluminium cases.
- Customization available for special orders, including custom paint jobs, laser engraved designs, names, as well as custom modifications of the actual component designs for deeper levels of customization previously unavailable in the headphone industry.
V1 RENDER GALLERY
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DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS & GOALS
- Angled drivers: This is one of the most unique features of the V1, not found on most headphones of this type. Fully using the limited space available in the small ear cups, the drivers are slightly angled with a slight forward offset, putting them at a more natural position relative to the listeners ears, slightly improving the focus of central sound image. The angled driver also enables the helix and the antihelix of the listeners auricle to sink deeper into the rear part of the ear pad without actually touching the driver, which improves the comfort and the seal of the ear pad around the ear, in turn improving the low frequency performance, especially beneficial while using L-cushion ear pads. The decision to utilize this idea introduced a lot of complications into the ear cup design because it required the entire internal structure of the ear cups to be angled as well, with a slight forward offset on top of it. Various challenges had to be solved in order to enable the utilization of an angled design, while still enabling simple assembling and disassembling of the ear cups, making the headphones fully modular, with components easily replaceable and upgradeable in the future. On top of that, this unique internal design resulted in an improved solidity, tightness and durability of the entire assembly once put together.
- A hidden ear cup hinge mechanism: This decision was made with an intention to make the ear cups more elegant and minimalistic, while still allowing enough articulation around the hinge axis to maintain the highest level of comfort regardless of the wearers head size and shape. Keeping the mechanism completely hidden led to a lot of internal design challenges and was very difficult to accomplish, especially considering the fact that the rest of the internal components had to be designed at an angle, while the entire hinge mechanism had to be perfectly parallel to the listeners head in order to enable proper hinge articulation and therefore a high level of comfort. On top of that, the hinge axis had to be placed very specifically relative to the position of the cable connectors, ensuring that the forces of the cable pulling on the ear cup won't rotate the ear cup in either direction and degrade the level of wearing comfort. At the same time, despite limited space available, high component strength and rigidity goals had to be reached. All of this required an extremely tight assembly of internal ear cup components with literally not a single millimeter left unused.
- Hidden assembly complexity: Making sure that no fasteners or assembly method clues were visible on the external parts of the fully assembled ear cups was a big part of the design process, as that would ruin the appearance of the headphone. At the same time, because ease of disassembling and complete modularity was very high on the list of priorities, all of the components were designed to be removable. High quality brass threaded inserts had to be introduced for connecting the two main parts of the ear cup as well, for additional strength. However, because the space available for fasteners was very limited, and because the internal structure of the ear cup was angled and therefore limited the choice for fastener locations, some clever assembly solutions had to be employed. All of the main components were designed in such a way that their assembly with adjacent components doesn't just rely on fasteners, but also on certain features of these components interacting with each other in specific ways, enabling the main components to slide into each other at a set angle and direction, utilizing friction, pressure and a slight elasticity of certain plastic features in a way that enables the components to „lock“ together securely even without the use of fasteners. At the same time, this method differs from a typical snap-fit assembly, because there are no individual snap-fits. Instead, the entire contact surfaces add to the solidity of the assembly, while the fasteners, which are at an offset angle relative to the sliding direction of the aforementioned features, add an additional level of tightness to the whole structure, acting as a final element of security, making sure that the assembled structure is perfectly solid and leaves a monolithic impression. On the other hand, removing the fasteners enables all of the main components to be disassembled multiple times, with absolutely no damage done to them. This method combines the benefits of using both the fasteners and friction in the assembly, instead of only relying on one of the two, and is possible largely due to the use of additive manufacturing methods.
- Combining materials and manufacturing methods: Each component of this headphone has certain mechanical, acoustic and aesthetic properties achieved through specific combinations of design, materials used and manufacturing methods employed. For example, the main baffle is designed to be built out of two separately manufactured components. The majority of the component which is not visible on the assembled headphone, which contains the angled driver socket, the hinge attachment points, the cable connector attachment and the ear pad attachment, can be made out of the extremely rigid, strong and durable carbon fiber reinforced plastic material, or even be CNC machined out of a solid block of aluminium, depending on the headphone version, offering slightly different acoustic properties in each case. At the same time,the outer part of the main baffle, actually visible on the assembled headphone, is made out of the MJF PA12, because it's a very aesthetically pleasing material that gives the final component superior appearance, while at the same time removing the need for time consuming and expensive post-processing of the carbon fiber or aluminium component. In a similar fashion, the rear segment of the ear cup contains three components, the complex internal main part made out of the MJF PA12, combined with the outer shell and grill which can be made out of a different material in order to give the ear cup a different appearance, additional rigidity, wear resistance and obvious aesthetic and tactile advantages of a CNC machined metal ear cup, or a hand polished, high gloss component finished in any color desired. At the same time, this eliminates the need to CNC machine the complex internal component which can be produced using additive manufacturing, saving cost and reducing weight, without losing any functionality. In addition, it simplifies the customization process, enabling owners to change only the grill or the outer shell of the ear cup for a different appearance and feel, while keeping the rest of the headphone the same. Producing components this way increases the initial assembling complexity, but also enables far more design freedom, simplifies future modifications, increases the amount of control over acoustic and mechanical properties of the components and enables each component to fulfill multiple roles without the need to compromise on either the functionality or the appearance.