Kaldas Research

[jose]

I would like to think that yes ... I have it in my sights.

Edited March 21, 2019 by jose

[Aumkar Chandan]

11 hours ago, jpelg said:

^Bet that price doesn't hold...

Hi Jpleg, 

I don't think that should be a concern. I don't see myself jacking up the price. 

Let me give you a quick background about me and my Company. My company is "Kaldas Research"- as the name suggests, we are a Research company. Our main Business is contract R&D and Manufacturing. "Kaldas" is named after my Grandfather Mr. Gokaldas Chandan who was a big inspiration for me as he started with absolutely nothing. 
Making my own Headphone was a very old dream. I started as an enthusiast with my HD650 around 8 years ago, what rekindled my dream was when I visited Beyerdynamic in Heilbronn back in 2015. The factory and family owned spirit of Beyerdynamic was a big moment for me to consider making my own Headphone. I have been lucky enough to visit G.R.A.S. in Denmark as well as Klippel GmbH, all of them had an impact on me in one way or another. 

As to your concern, why am I selling at $500? Is the Headphone cheaply made? Does it sound like Garbage? For me, it's simple. I am personally sick and tired of the over-inflation in prices of recent Headphones. Most people are trying to get into the Headphone industry to make money. I am not. I think there are better ways to make money than to get into an overly crowded industry. 

At the end of the day, I'm just a kid with a passion. The skepticism people have is beyond my control. 

Regards,
Aumkar 

[nopants]

I'm interested at the intro price, hopefully there are no snags in their launch

[Rossliew]

Interesting..should get me a pair as well. When will they be ready for order?

[Aumkar Chandan]

4 hours ago, Rossliew said:

Interesting..should get me a pair as well. When will they be ready for order?

We will be exhibiting at a certain Headphone show in SoCal this June. I think by then I will start taking orders. 
I didn't do any pre-orders because I don't like holding my customer's money like a lot of other companies. I will only take orders when I have enough inventory to sustain a ship within a day or 48 hours policy. 

Currently, production is my main issue as all our Stators are Aluminium and require strict dimension accuracy while drilling. Aluminium unlike FR4 can be easily bent and cause several non-linearity issues. There are better ways to machine a Stator other than on a CNC but it understandably increases the production cost and complexity. 
Our D/S gap is 0.45mm and our spacers have a maximum tolerance of 0.005mm measured across 250-200 points which is as good or even better than STAX. STAX uses brass to combat machining challenges, we use Aluminium with more methodical operations. 

I am trying my best to increase my production output but there's only so much I can do without comprising QC. If I was here to make a quick buck, I would take taken pre-orders already. 

Regards, 
Aumkar 

[chinsettawong]

Hi Aumkar,

Wow, 0.45 mm D/S distance is nice.  How big is your diaphragm?

Wachara C.

[Aumkar Chandan]

27 minutes ago, chinsettawong said:

Hi Aumkar,

Wow, 0.45 mm D/S distance is nice.  How big is your diaphragm?

Wachara C.

Wachara,

Total area is 80 x 70mm, well...79.90 x 69.90mm to be exact. Diaphragm is a in-house sub-2 Micron PET. We tried 600Nm but due to the poor Young's Modulus, it was almost impossible to tension and/or get any decent bass. To successfully use a Nanometer film, I personally think the Matrix requires better filler geometry to improve the Young's Modulus but, with current Polymer technology it is difficult to produce such filler based thin-films at such thicknesses. 

Diaphragms are manufactured by our other family owned Polymer company. 

[jose]

Your policy about pre-orders seems to me quite logical and honest.

I want to try one of your headphones. Will you do direct sales (through internet) or through suppliers?

[chinsettawong]

Nice!

Is the property of your film any different than a typical Mylar film?  

 

 

[Aumkar Chandan]

1 hour ago, jose said:

Your policy about pre-orders seems to me quite logical and honest.

I want to try one of your headphones. Will you do direct sales (through internet) or through suppliers?

HI Jose, 

Majority of sales will be through my website (direct). Distribution will be hard to achieve but of course, if I can strike an acceptable deal with distributors then we will definitely build a network. 

1 hour ago, chinsettawong said:

Nice!

Is the property of your film any different than a typical Mylar film?  

 

 

Wachara, my film isn't different from regular PET. We just make it ourselves which I find a little cool!
Kinda like how Grand Seiko grows their own Quartz crystals. 

The RR 1 Conquest is almost 98% made in-house. The only part we don't make ourselves is the Earpad, I spent a year trying to make one that looked production quality but did not succeed. I finally had to go to China for it. Our Earpads are made at the same factory where many big name Manufacturers get theirs made as well. RR 1 Earpads are bespoke, not off the shelf. 
 

[ktm]

I'm looking forward to reviews.

Looks like you have approached this with a great deal of thought.

I used to work in industrial support for lens and camera production.

So manufacturing process details are of interest. 

I might have to start saving up my $$$. 

[DefQon]

Sounds promising. But the proof in the pudding is the final product when they start flying off the shelves to the customers heads. Anyways I'll be putting down my interest for a unit when they are released. 

You've nailed quite a few good points about the headphone industry (actually the audio industry in general). 

 

Cheers

[nopants]

I noticed that you mentioned bespoke options on the site, can you give any details and how you plan to temper/control requests? 

[Aumkar Chandan]

7 hours ago, nopants said:

I noticed that you mentioned bespoke options on the site, can you give any details and how you plan to temper/control requests? 

Yes, there will be a "Bespoke" program where the RR1's can be customized to whatever you desire. 
I'm still working on my website where all the details will be mentioned with lead times for production, costs & other customization possibilities (technical as well as aesthetic) 

[nopants]

Yes, there will be a "Bespoke" program where the RR1's can be customized to whatever you desire. 
I'm still working on my website where all the details will be mentioned with lead times for production, costs & other customization possibilities (technical as well as aesthetic) 

best of luck, catering to the whims of audiophiles' personal tastes is an ambitious undertaking haha

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Aumkar Chandan]

This is what a "Bespoke" RR1 could look like, this is just a pretty random spec I came up with. Anything is possible, really. 



This is the regular production spec (full stealth) - 

[arnaud]

Hi Aumkar,

This is an interesting development and I am curious about how you came up with some of the design aspects.

For instance, we can see that the open back baffle is quite deep and has non symmetric shape. Does this measurably affect the response on your kemar?

Also, my recollection of 009 measurements is that is has ~80Hz resonance frequency loaded (~150Hz in free air) with a non-ported design. How about your prototype? From the measurements you published, it looks more like a ported design with ~45Hz resonance frequency?

I'd be keen on making acoustic simulation of the housing + ear pads if you are willing to share this information,

cheers,

arnaud

[Aumkar Chandan]

7 hours ago, arnaud said:

Hi Aumkar,

This is an interesting development and I am curious about how you came up with some of the design aspects.

For instance, we can see that the open back baffle is quite deep and has non symmetric shape. Does this measurably affect the response on your kemar?

Also, my recollection of 009 measurements is that is has ~80Hz resonance frequency loaded (~150Hz in free air) with a non-ported design. How about your prototype? From the measurements you published, it looks more like a ported design with ~45Hz resonance frequency?

I'd be keen on making acoustic simulation of the housing + ear pads if you are willing to share this information,

cheers,

arnaud

Hi Arnaud, 

Yes, the design does have some impact but is negligible compared to spatial tolerances in the FR due to the inherent, narrow dispersion patterns by Electrostatic transmission. 

The RR1 initially wasn't an Electrostatic, I was developing a new transmission type which was an Electrodynamic derivative with a key component eliminated to reduce mass but because of budget/technical constraints, I had to stop the R&D. The system was designed to be angled. Hence, we took the same chassis and engineered an Electrostatic system around it. As you might know, Electrostatic drivers are useless at an angle. 

Yes, my design is indeed ported but not for Acoustic reasons. The port is a pressure/humidity relief port. My drivers don't use a traditional dust cover system like others and hence have a different reaction to turbulent patterns which make the diaphragms sensitive to collision to the Stator only if there's a sudden pressure change when the system is operating at an high SPL or if the system isn't coupled to the head while it's is baised. 

The port reduced the effect to a certain level but is still a characteristic of my system, no big deal to be honest but is a place where I think I can definitely improve upon.
 
The port also helped to reduce moisture build up which was a very critical issue I was facing in the R&D - voltage breakdown. I'm in Mumbai so this triggered it more than it would elsewhere. We also experimented with Hydrophobic coatings but had no success. 

Without the port, the bass extension was among the flattest I've measured on an Electrostatic but, to address the stability issues, I had to port for all the above reasons. 

Hope this answers your questions, don't worry about me not sharing something. I could care less about keeping trade secrets. No progress can be made without sharing your findings. I've read your posts over the years and I really appreciate your service to the community. Same can be said about Wachara, Birgir etc.....
 

[Torpedo]

I wish you provide some sort of dust protection for the membranes and the stator, that scared me a bit.

So on places of lower humidity than Mumbai it'd be OK to close the ports? I'm all in on great bass response. Not the quantity but the quality and depth.

[Aumkar Chandan]

59 minutes ago, Torpedo said:

I wish you provide some sort of dust protection for the membranes and the stator, that scared me a bit.

I agree, that is what any logical person/company should do . That's why STAX has been doing it for years and what many industry people have told me as well, but..there is dust protection. The only difference is the form. 

STAX uses crumpled PET as well as almost everybody else. I use a Polyester based fabric which is TPU gasketed to the entire Driver from both sides.

If we talk numbers, dust particle size averages from 5-500µm compared to a diameter of 12-15µm fiber diameter for Polyester. That's just the fiber diameter, not the inter-weave distance. 
Now, even if the Headphone was positioned with gravity, the chances of dust getting through the fabric is slim. Not to mention the inherent tensile strength advantage for the fabric over a crumpled PET which is known for tearing and infamous for a certain headphone that was opened up on this very forum here which had holes in the dust cover from the factory. 

Another thing, I didn't enjoy the Manufacturing process of crumpling dust-covers and don't find the Acoustic trade-off worth it. Some say it doesn't make an Acoustic difference, it did for my system hence I chose not to use it. 
 

1 hour ago, Torpedo said:

So on places of lower humidity than Mumbai it'd be OK to close the ports? I'm all in on great bass response. Not the quantity but the quality and depth.

You could but I don't recommend it as the RR1 front area is quite hermetically sealed and will inevitably lead to sweating. 

[Torpedo]

So if I understand correctly it's as though your drivers were put into a polyester bag covering them from dust. No idea what's TPU.

Then for relatively short listening sessions on a dry and fresh climate it'd be OK closing the ports. Will that be easy or needs some complex dismounting to be done?

[Aumkar Chandan]

13 hours ago, Torpedo said:

So if I understand correctly it's as though your drivers were put into a polyester bag covering them from dust. No idea what's TPU.

Then for relatively short listening sessions on a dry and fresh climate it'd be OK closing the ports. Will that be easy or needs some complex dismounting to be done?

Hello Sir,

Yes. you could block the port on a dry day. The port is easy to access. Here's a picture : 



TPU : Thermoplastic Polyurethane,  an industry common thermoplastic used for gasket/bushing applications. Our Dust Covers are glued to it and are fully sealed on top of being mechanically torqued by the housing. 

[Torpedo]

Very interesting, thanks for your replies

[Laowei]

Very interesting the design innovation and manufacturing development you are sharing here, Aumkar.

It’s a pleasure to see such openness and transparency in this over hyped headphone market.

Looking forward to hearing them when available.

 

[EdipisReks1]

On 3/22/2019 at 5:35 AM, Aumkar Chandan said:

The only part we don't make ourselves is the Earpad, I spent a year trying to make one that looked production quality but did not succeed. I finally had to go to China for it.
 

Respect. After all, why re-invent the wheel?