Designing AB1266
Designing AB1266
Designing AB1266
The AB1266 is all about the sound. Our goal was to capture the sound of the finest speaker systems and music rooms in the world. Most importantly, they had to convey music as naturally as if you were sitting in the room with the band. This was a huge undertaking for a small company.
The first thing you notice when you hear the Abyss AB1266 headphone is what the human brain is so good at recognizing, natural musical sounds, freedom to the music. The headphone is not producing weird sounds that tell the brain it’s a headphone. Instead, you hear cymbals ring out in time without hard metallic sounds, guitar strings resonate inside the guitar body, not some tubby or tin box. Drums have real impact, you hear the rolling of the drum skin, not a thump and it’s over.
Let’s start with the most important component, the speaker or driver. The AB1266 driver must transform an amplified signal to motion so your ears hear only music, not some vibrating plastics or metallics. Getting it right here is most critical, and most difficult.
We started from scratch with an open mind, and used up nearly 5 years of our lives to create unique materials, magnetics, and acoustic design never before thought of in any full range headphone driver. This patented speaker design is unique to the world, hearing them in action is never boring.
Next up was the structure or frame upon where to mount these fabulous drivers. Our extensive knowledge of high-end loudspeaker design and materials told us the finest loudspeakers have minimal cabinet resonances, meaning they do not vibrate and produce a sound of their own that would interfere with the beautiful clarity of our drivers. Typically with loudspeakers this equates to a very heavy multi-layered cabinet, not something you can wear as a headphone.
Headphones tend to be riddled with lots of plastic, moving parts, all sorts of loose fitting components that translate into rattles and noises not part of the music. There was no way we were going to let that happen here.
The AB1266 was designed with a lightweight rigid frame, machined from solid aluminum. Dozens of prototypes were built, and at each level greater intricacy was obtained in it’s anti-resonant construction and artistic detail.
El mecanizado a este nivel de detalle es nada menos que arte en programación y herramientas, tanto es así que compramos nuestras propias máquinas CNC y nos capacitamos durante más de un año para hacerlo nosotros mismos en el oeste de Nueva York, EE. UU. Era la única forma de controlar la calidad final de lo que sería el mejor auricular del mundo.
Once we engineered the main frame components, adjustability was necessary, every persons head is different. Trouble is adjustments mean vibration, noise, and points where failure ultimately occurs. We wanted the AB1266 frame to withstand most any abuse, never requiring maintenance or repairs due to broken parts; durability was key.
Engineering boiled it down to a single pivot point on the top of the headband. It took another 6 months designing just this pivot point, ultimately machining our own unique screw and slot design that allows not only width adjustment, but also height, toe in or out, and clamping force. Simpler is better.
Así que ahora tenemos los drivers de los altavoces, la estructura antirresonante y la capacidad de ajustar el ajuste. Lo siguiente es cómo apoyar el AB1266 en la parte superior de varias formas de cabeza de la manera más cómoda posible. En esencia, tenía que flotar y actuar como un sistema de suspensión que aislara el movimiento de la cabeza de la música. Y qué es más cómodo que una hamaca. Trabajamos para perfeccionar esta forma, ajustando el grosor del cuero y la espuma, la suspensión, tantos pequeños detalles para que este auricular relativamente grande se asiente en cualquier cabeza sintiéndose ligero y cómodo. Estudiamos las fuerzas en juego utilizando la estática y la física para ajustar hasta la forma en que se cosieron los cueros.
Por último, pero no menos importante, la acústica: cómo crear un espacio acústico en miniatura casi perfecto, como si estuvieras escuchando a tu banda favorita en una sala abierta. Las almohadillas, las espumas, las formas de la superficie y las dimensiones tuvieron que derivarse experimentalmente durante cientos de horas de escucha de muchos géneros musicales diferentes. El objetivo era mantener un delicado equilibrio entre la máxima resolución y la musicalidad, recreando al mismo tiempo, lo mejor posible, el espacio acústico original en la perspectiva adecuada.
Al final, todo lo que se escucha es la hermosa onda de música de los drivers acoplados directamente a sus oídos en un espacio acústicamente afinado con los sutiles detalles de los instrumentos, las voces y la sala que los micrófonos captaron durante la grabación: música en su propio espacio privado en Abyss.
