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John
If you had to put money on which country would be first to market with a Transformer-esque headphone you’d probably be safe betting on Japan. And sure enough, at e-earphone’s Portable Audio Festival last weekend in Tokyo, Nakano’s Toon Workshop debuted their THP-01, a collapsible headphone whose folding mechanism has all the hallmarks of Optimus Prime.
The THP-01’s designer Mechikuro-San shows us what’s up:
Some vital statistics: this headphone took three years to go from drawing board to manufacturing house and contains over 150 parts. The earcup conceals a dynamic driver that’s rated at 30 Ohms and 96db. In use, the THP-01 need more juice than the Sony NW-ZX2 can provide but the soundstage offered ample inner spaciousness. Bass bloat is kept on a tight leash. In not sounding terrible, these Toon foldables defy (the lower) expectations often associated with lifestyle branding.
Pricing? 45,000JPY (~US$400). Colours? Stealth Black, Stealth White and an (unnamed in English) red, white and black combination.
Further information: Toon Workshop
