These graphene headphones are super light and super responsive

Graphene is great for audio. It’s a light material and offers exquisite audio performance when formed correctly. The folks at Ora-Sound have figured it out.

Their new GraphenEQ headphones look like fairly typical wireless headphones. They have a nice tapered design and spacious ear cups. But when you turn them on you find out what graphene headphones can really do.

This is an initial design but the sound quality is surprisingly clear and pleasant. The big ear cups reduce outside noise without active noise canceling and the total frequency response is superior to mylar.

The real benefit, to my mind, is the weight and battery savings. These things are amazingly light for the size. The entire kit weighs about a pound – it feels far lighter – and the wireless connectivity is excellent.

The team already ran an Indiegogo campaign and it appears to have been successful – although many are complaining of missed shipments. That said, the unit I tried worked well and had acceptable build quality.

The sound is what makes these things stand out. Music through these things is clear and crisp with an almost wooden/natural cast. Bass is quick and crisp and treble mixes nicely throughout. Young Dumb & Broke, for example, sounds wildly bass-heavy with wonderful separation over the lower end. A more classic song like The Gambler also mixes the clarity and bass in a package that you’d expect to be much denser.

In all I’m quite impressed by the sound and quality of these indie headphones. While they’re not yet perfect, I suspect a few more generations of technology will get them super light and super polished. That said, they’re pretty super great.