CES 2019 • TABlog
RA is a Canadian startup whose first and only consumer product, the handsome GQ closed-back headphones ($499), are available through a Kickstarter campaign that has over 3000 pledged buyers so far. But the company is selling something other than headphones -- its technology for creating transducer cones, one use of which is in headphones.
Graphene, from which ORA fashions its cones, is a material formed from a single layer of carbon atoms, and it has some significant advantages over even the best current materials for speaker drivers.
These include high stiffness and low mass, a combination that improves driver measurables, including efficiency. Graphene drivers also boast of better power handling, better bass from smaller cones, faster transients and lower cost, compared to that of exotic driver materials used today. Right now, ORA's GrapheneQ driver cones are used only for
the company's headphones, but that is only the beginning. The headphones seem to be more a
proof of concept than a first product from a budding manufacturer of consumer electronics.
ORA is clearly looking to license its technology for use in a wide array of products, most
specifically, I would guess, cell phones, laptops and tablets. But how long will it be
until a manufacturer produces an audiophile speaker that uses graphene-based drivers? |
