Renderings and prototypes of Aedle’s VK-1 headphones have been circulating the designier corners of the Internet since last spring for no reason besides their stunning design. If you fall in love with your eyes and not your ears, get excited because a limited run of 500 headphones is now up for grabs.
What’s interesting about the homegrown French audio company is that the two entrepreneurs have billed themselves as artisans. The headphones took two years to develop and the effort certainly shows. They’re built of polished aluminium and cloaked in plush leather, which is all assembled together into a subtle but elegant shape. The VK-1 headphones are available in equally beautiful carbon and silver finishes and sell for $US350. They ship in February.
Up until now, all anybody has done is look at the headphones. The technical information about the cans doesn’t tell us a whole hell of a lot about what they sound like. They’ve got the same basic specs as comparably priced headphones, which means that we know nothing. That’ll all change in a few weeks when we finally put a set on our ears at CES.
[Aedle]