Lithium Headphones

We’re close… I’m going to be doing final assembly and testing of the final build of my cans tonight. Pics, MiniDSP Ears graphs and (very biased) impressions coming!

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Yes, it’s called, ‘‘Verite’’ by ZMF Headphones. :grinning:

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Pics! This is what the final model looks like!




Uploading: IMG_3520.jpg…

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Wow! Will you be doing a tour soon?

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Plan to, yes. As much as anything else I want feedback on how people think these sound.

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Great looking headphones!! Very cool. Congrats

Definitely interested in more details on them and if a tour is an option too!!

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Neat-o. How much does it weigh, if you don’t mind my asking?

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They weigh 430 grams

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OK, so I’m ready to kick off a listening tour. Here’s the dealie:

I’ll be sending around 2 pairs of my first headphones, the Lithium Headphones LH1X (super clever name, I know - stands for the Lithium Headphone 1 eXperimental). One has 300 ohm drivers, the other has 600 ohm drivers. Unfortunately this tour will have to be restricted to CONUS due to the hurdles of international shipping.


The one on the left is the 600 ohm version (denoted by the navy grey cups) and the one on the right is the 300 ohm (dark blue). Please note that the 300 ohm one comes with a headband with “devil horns” uprights which are a bit of a test right now to give both vertical and horizontal adjustment to the fit. I’m undecided right now if they just look too goofy, but the adjustability is pretty fantastic.

They’ll ship in the Monoprice case that will be included with purchased sets.

I’ll ship to the first person on the tour, and the expectation is that they will ship within a week to the next person, who will ship within a week to the next person, and so on. You should expect to cover shipping to the next person - I’ll try to line it up so nobody has to do anything crazy like cross-country shipping.

I’m specifically looking for your personal feedback on what you like and don’t like about the headphones - design-wise, comfort-wise, and (of course) sound-wise. Direct feedback to me, or posts on forums, or however you want to convey your thoughts are all welcome.

To request to be included in this tour:

Please send an email to me at dan@lithiumheadphones.com with the following information:

  • Name
  • Phone number
  • Shipping address
  • Impedance preference (300 or 600 ohm)
  • Relevant username (here, Head-Fi or Reddit… if there’s another forum you participate in, you can send that as well)
  • Equipment you’ll be listening on
  • Your favorite headphones you’ve ever heard (optional, but helps me get an idea what you like in a set of cans)
  • Whether or not you’d like to be notified of Lithium Headphones updates

Please note that I will NEVER share or sell your information; if you do choose to be notified of updates, I’ll only be sending things like releases and the occasional progress update, and if you don’t choose to be notified, I’ll only contact you regarding logistics affecting you on this tour.

I may end up limiting the number of people who participate, but I really am looking for as much real-world headphone audiophile feedback as I can get. Much appreciation in advance!

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Sincerely wishing you are successful. More choice is always good.

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This is awesome. I wish you much success!

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Happy Headphone Community Anniversary to you Nuance!

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Thank you - much appreciated! :grinning:

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Good luck with the tour, I hope it goes well and you get the feedback you need!

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The last bits I don’t make myself have arrived - I’m very pleased to have a bunch of custom cables by Hart Audio. Their quality is really impressive, super soft! Listening tour shipping should kick off tomorrow!

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Just applied for the tour! Its awesome that you are doing this!

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Thanks man! A quick update for folks, the very beginning of the tour brought a couple of issues to my attention. I’m doing a few revamps and will continue the tour ASAP

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Hi all. It’s been a minute… listening tours and in-person meetups really pointed out some flaws in my earlier designs - lack of bass, sounding in-a-tube-y. I’m happy to announce though that I finally have these sounding the way I want - enough bass (not like 99 Noir bass, but what I think is a nice balanced amount), lovely soundstage, great separation and a really enjoyable listen. They’re very detailed; my personal headphone preference is as much resolution as I can get, without sucking the fun out of the sound.

They look better, too:

Settled on a nice off-the-shelf headband with a comfortable comfort strap. I should note that I’m putting speaker cloth behind the grills, despite the photo showing straight into the driver.

The trick, in the end, was balancing the amount of open space in the baffles - too much drained all the bass, too little makes it sound enclosed - as well as a lot of tinkering with how thick the front damper is and thus how far from the ear the driver is.

If anyone has any questions about the cans or my process, I’m more than happy to share. They’re up on my site - lithiumheadphones.com - and I’ve sold a few so far, so I’m hoping to see some opinions out in the wild and get some feedback. As it currently stands, I’m printing, assembling, QCing and shipping every pair myself. Turnaround time has been a matter of 2-ish days.

This has been a long process, and I’ve learned a TON about a lot of things (headphone design, obviously, but also 3d printing, CAD designing, and bog-standard business crap). Oh, and if anyone has a nice measurement rig, I’d like to post FR graphs, but all I have myself is a MiniDSP Ears which is sub-optimal.

Thank you, and to those of you who even remembered this thread existed in the first place, thanks for the patience!

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Oh, and if anyone is going to CanJam Chicago and wants a listen, I’ll be there wandering around with a pair or 3.

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