Personal style headphone brand from Hong Kong, interview with RHAPSODIO leader Ah Yin

In today's booming headphone market, in addition to the existing time-honored headphone brands and cross-sector operations that have entered the headphone market from other fields, there are also many small-scale headphone manufacturers that focus on personalization, and those from Hong Kong Although RHAPSODIO only has a history of three years, its personalized products are gradually showing off in some international exhibitions, and its head, Ah Xian, has also come to Taiwan several times to communicate with Taiwanese headphone enthusiasts. Taking advantage of his recent visit to Taiwan, he also Chat with Ah Yin about his philosophy on products.

Ah Xian said that although they are a headphone brand with only three years of history, they have their own dynamic unit factory, so their knowledge of dynamic headphones is far better than those who buy units from other manufacturers. The brand has come even deeper; three years ago, RHAPSODIO launched the first generation of ring-iron hybrid single-unit headphones and gained popularity. Now, in addition to owning a headphone brand in Hong Kong, Ah-Yin also has a sales store displaying its own products and products he recognizes. Xian also revealed that he plans to set up a directly-operated store in Taiwan next.

When Ah Yin opened his product display box, he was surprised to see a lot of RSD wires made of different materials. Ah Yin said that the wires are a very popular product, with at least 50 customers sold every month. sales; these upgraded lines are carefully selected by him, and they are all high-quality wires that have passed military regulations, including pure silver wires, OFC wires and other upgraded lines using Liz structure. However, A-yin also said that in the future The product line will be limited to seven types, and they will all be quite elite products.

In addition to wires, RHAPSODIO’s main product is its earphones, and it has recently adopted metal as the shell material; A-Xian emphasized that although the in-ear headphones on the market use metal There are many headphones, but after considering the material properties and weight, RHAPSODIO does not use zinc-chromium alloy that is common in the market, but uses lightweight aluminum alloy. However, the best material in his mind is titanium alloy, but because it is difficult to process, Not available yet.

The reason for using metal is very simple. It is not just for good looks or texture, but also for the characteristics of dynamic headphones. The reflective properties of metal reduce distortion and also have the effect of suppressing vibration; Ah Yin It was also revealed that after finding a metal 3D printing partner, future balanced armature headphone male model products also plan to use metal casings.

Why set up your own moving coil unit factory? A-Yin believes that compared to balanced armatures, due to technology patents and production processes being restricted by a few suppliers, they have less flexibility in terms of sound quality. Although the balanced armature monomer has a detailed sound, its frequency range is limited and the sense of space is mostly flat. , the dynamic coil has a natural sense of space, and having an independent factory is also his personal persistence in pursuing the natural sound of the dynamic coil.

The photo is the customized version of RTi1, and the silver color in the middle is the dynamic driver.

In view of the fact that the sound of dynamic drivers is generally not delicate enough, RHAPSODIO uses the exclusive UltraMag technology to match the titanium vibrator. The model provides a delicate and natural sound; the dynamic monomer package adopts a funnel shape, so it can be made into customized dynamic headphones; although RHAPSODIO currently only provides metal casings in the male model, A-Yin revealed that he An engineer with 3D drawing capabilities has been hired to assist in product development, and we hope to provide customized metal headphones in the future.

However, because RHAPSODIO’s dynamic coil technology requires a relatively strong driving force, it is difficult for high-end products to produce excellent sound for ordinary mobile phones, so he also started designing a matching headphone amplifier, but he did not plan to add a DAC line. , mainly based on analog amplification, allowing players to match their favorite player products, and then use the amplifier to meet the needs of the driver unit. As for the product design, it is flat and thin, making it easy to carry with the player.

However, due to market demand, RHAPSODIO still provides customized headphones equipped with balanced armature monomers, including ten monomers and six monomers. Currently, they are all produced using traditional injection molding methods. However, Ah Yin said that due to the upcoming new generation of balanced armature monomers, the sound of the new balanced armature headphones will be improved, especially the low-frequency performance will be more ideal than the current one.

However, if we take a closer look at RHAPSODIO’s current product line, we can see that the dynamic-coil and balanced-armature hybrid single-unit headphones that were originally tried and tested are now extinct. Ah Yin said that this is mainly due to some business conditions. In addition, he personally prefers the naturalness of dynamic earphones, so the current product line is all single-unit technology. However, this does not mean that RHAPSODIO will no longer launch hybrid single-unit earphones, because he has his own new ideas for hybrid single-unit earphones. .

The photo shows the first-generation hoop-iron hybrid headphones

A-Xian believes that the biggest problem with hybrid monomer headphones is that it is difficult to achieve a sense of coordination between two monomers with different tonality, and it is easy to During tuning, in order to emphasize the performance of the two monomers in high and low frequencies respectively, the sound curve presents a V-shape with a severely depressed mid-frequency. However, due to the characteristics of the two monomers, a unique figure-8 sound field is formed, which is also a mixture. The charm of single-body headphones.

A-Xian also made his own comments on the characteristics of the product lines. The dynamic product line is biased towards a natural and delicate listening experience, while the balanced armature product line is biased towards a natural balanced sound for monitoring. However, The new generation of hybrid monomer headphones plans to use "crazy" as its product feature. It hopes to use a dynamic driver with strong low frequency combined with a moving arm with good high frequency ductility to present a more comprehensive and personalized headphones. It is different from the other two product lines; currently it is planned to launch a four-iron circle and a six-iron circle.

Since A-Yin came to Taiwan and had contact with many Taiwanese audiophiles, the author also asked A-Yin what he sees as the difference between Taiwanese and Hong Kong audiophiles. Ah Yin believes that compared to Hong Kong brand enthusiasts, Taiwanese enthusiasts have fewer myths about brands and have no obvious preconceived notions. They are willing to test new brands based on their reputation rather than having a predetermined stance because of low brand awareness.

And A-yin is also a boss who is quite confident in his own products. He believes that the most important thing about the sound is that he likes it. He is not willing to change the tuning style to meet the market preferences. If he already has a strong subjective awareness of the brand and sound he likes, he will buy the product from that company directly. He is also quite confident that as long as he has no preconceived notions, people who have heard of RHAPSODIO products will also recognize the value of its products.

Regarding future product planning, Ah Yin said that with the addition of engineers specializing in 3D rendering, the next product development will be more active. In addition to using a newly designed metal casing, he personally also has He is interested in launching large earmuff headphones; and he revealed that he was very surprised after listening to HiFiMAN's HE1000 before. He also believes that the sound of HE1000 will be his reference direction for designing earmuff headphones in the future.

The photo is RD3

The author listened to the RHAPSODIO? products brought by Ah Yin. To be honest, I was not too impressed by the balanced armature series. However, the use of metal The RTi1 and RD3 dynamic earphones with outer shells are quite refreshing. The sense of space of the two dynamic earphones is like pursuing large-sized closed earmuffs. However, the human voice is not excessively receded, presenting a natural vastness without losing resolution. The style is not as dark as the Senheiser IE800, and the overall tone tends to be bright.

The sound field of RTi1 is also quite impressive. At first glance, the position of the monomer seems to be outside the ear, which is not like the performance of in-ear headphones; however, these two headphones also require quite large earphones. The driving force, especially RTi1, is basically terrible when driven by mobile phones. Although RD3 performs better on mobile phones, it still fails to deliver ideal performance. I can even expect that these two headphones will not be used with most music players. Can perform well.

The photo is RTi1

Because the author used the borrowed HiFiMAN 802U with the Gold MiniBox headphone amplifier card that emphasizes driving performance as a reference benchmark. I tested it with RTi1. Under low gain It has to be turned to a volume of nearly 5 to be close to the volume of the single-ended RE400 headphones. I am afraid that it is difficult for a model that focuses on battery life to meet the needs of RTi1.

In addition, A-Xian also provided several headphones for testing and that he made for listening, including his own one-ring two-iron headphones as a tuning reference, and quasi-monitoring headphones that use high-purity silver wires. Dynamic earphones and an entry-level earphone targeting the low-price market. From these products, you can hear the ambition of RHAPSODIO, a brand that is only three years old; perhaps the sound style of RHAPSODIO will not be the most elegant and popular, but The personalized sound is bound to attract some players who pursue a unique style.

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