When I returned to work last week after the holiday break, I had a belated present waiting on my desk. In December, I agreed to review a pair of graphene headphones made by a Canadian start-up, ORA, which Physics World contributing editor Belle Dumé wrote about back in 2016 when ORA was developing graphene components for loudspeakers. A hitch in the trans-Atlantic post delayed the headphones’ arrival, but now they were here and ready for testing.
As regular readers of Physics World know, graphene is extraordinarily stiff and lightweight. Speaker components made from graphene will therefore vibrate more rapidly (for a given energy input) than components made from materials like polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or cellulose. They will also warp less, which is good news for audiophiles, since warping distorts the speakers’ sound.
At least, that’s what the company claims. Regular readers of Physics World will also know about graphene hype, whereby this two-dimensional form of carbon gets touted as the ideal ingredient in pretty much anything. According to graphene pioneer Konstantin Novoselov, who gave a lecture on “The First 15 Years of Graphene” at the Royal Society last October, the first commercial graphene product was a tennis racket. Since then, graphene has appeared (with, I suspect, varying degrees of usefulness) in several other consumer devices, including motorcycle helmets, bicycle wheels, fishing rods and a very expensive watch made by the Formula 1 supercar manufacturer McLaren.
ORA’s headphones stand out in this gaggle of graphene gadgets for two reasons. One is an endorsement from Novoselov himself, who notes that (unlike some “graphene-enabled” products), the ORA device contains a relatively high amount of actual graphene. The other reason, of course, is that (unlike the graphene motorcycle helmet, watch, etc.), I got to try the headphones myself.
For my first test, I chose the song “Sum” by the Swedish singer-songwriter Loney Dear. I picked it partly because I wanted to see if ORA’s headphones could transport me back to the sun-drenched festival where I first heard it, but mostly because Loney is cool and indie, and if I was going to pretend to be a music journalist for an afternoon, then by God I was going to do it properly.
I started out by listening to “Sum” on my usual ‘phones: a Soundcore Space noise-cancelling model that has seen me through a flight to Boston for last year’s APS March Meeting and numerous full-volume conversations from Physics World’s business development manager Ed Jost, who sits behind me. They’re a decent pair of cans, and I figured their over-the-ears design would make a good form-factor comparison to ORA’s devoce.
After a couple of repeats of “Sum” (and surprisingly few comments from my colleagues about “working” with my eyes closed), I figured I had a suitable baseline. Out came the ORA headphones, and once they paired with the Bluetooth on my mobile phone, I pressed “play” and waited to see if I could hear the difference.
Reader, I could. The opening arpeggios of “Sum” were noticeably clearer, the bass notably more solid, and though the ORA device lacks an active noise-cancelling feature, the shimmering wall of sound in Loney’s mesmerizing electronica meant I had no trouble tuning out the usual office noise (albeit at a time when Ed was temporarily out of the office).
In addition to Novoselov, the ORA headphones have also been endorsed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who says they provide “a level of clarity I’ve only ever experienced from the podium in front of an orchestra”. I’ve never been on the podium in front of an orchestra, so I can’t judge Dudamel’s claim directly. I have, however, spent some time in the choir stalls, so I tried the ORA device on the final movement of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. I found the dynamic range between the chimes and timpani particularly fine, and – in contrast to my experience of standing behind the timpanist during a concert – my ears weren’t ringing afterward.
At that point, I was ready to call the graphene headphones a success. But then my colleague Hamish Johnston – who describes his usual headphones as “a £10 pair of earbuds bought in an airport on my way to Canada”, and whose office pair is currently shedding little bits of black fuzz all over his desk – suggested I get a second opinion. Namely, his.
I handed the headphones over. A few minutes later he returned them. “Those are really good,” he said. He tested them with Miles Davis’ jazz classic “Kind of Blue”, and the main thing he picked out was the (intentionally) distorted sound of Davis’ trumpet in the opening. “That’s not something I’d notice on my usual tinny headphones,” he said. He also tested the Pink Floyd song “Fearless”, and noted that at the end, he could pick out the lyrics to “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as sung by Liverpool football fans. “That was a bit of a revelation,” he said. “I’m tempted to get a good pair of headphones now.”
Hamish suggested trying the headphones on someone with younger ears, so I sidled up to Physics World’s features editor Sarah Tesh. A few minutes later she appeared at my desk, headphones in hand. “Were they supposed to be noise-cancelling?” she asked. “Because I definitely missed that.” She reported that while the bass range was good, the higher tones sounded “a little bit tinny” on Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” and Oh Wonder’s “Hallelujah”, which she describes as “mainstreamy, Radio One-y alternative music”. “They’re quite nice, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by the experience,” she said.
The fourth tester was our production editor Emily Heming – chosen not only for her young ears, but also because (unlike the rest of us) she’s used to listening to music on high-end headphones. “I didn’t expect to notice any difference, but they’re really good,” she said, handing them back. Although she, too, wished for a noise-cancelling feature, and judged the ORA phones to be less aesthetically pleasing than her usual Sennheiser ones, she also thought they highlighted the eerie quality of her test track, which was NAO’s “Orbit”.
By now, people were queuing up to try the graphene headphones. Ed liked the way they handled the bass on Chase & Status’ remix of “Original Nuttah” but thought the headphones’ weight would make them uncomfortable on a long flight. Advertising sales manager Chris Thomas reported that the Wurzels’ “Combine Harvester” had never sounded so good. He also praised the “very deep bass, expansive mid-range and brilliant treble” in “Red Eyes” by The War on Drugs. “I heard previously undiscovered high notes that brought a smile to my face,” he said.
The last tester was Physics World’s editor-in-chief Matin Durrani. After trying the headphones on Mika’s “Billy Brown” (“my daughter put it in my playlist”) and a harpsichord piece by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, he declared himself pleased. “I’m no expert, but all the sounds felt distinct, particularly on the vocals,” he said. “The harpsichord sounded clear and sharp, too.” Though he cautioned that he would need to try other high-spec headphones before he could tell whether the graphene made a difference, his conclusion was positive. “There’s a real depth of sound to them,” he said. “I’d have a pair.”
Alas, these particular graphene headphones are now on their way back to ORA and the eager hands of another tester. However, if anyone wants to lend me a graphene watch instead…well…!
