Capital headphones from AIAIAI

Aiaiai Capital Blogpost 01 5626

The coolest-looking new headphones announced this week aren't at CES. My friend Jens Martin Skibsted and Lars Larsen from KiBiSi designed the Capital headphones from AIAIAI. Jens says that the adjustment system was inspired by snowboard bindings. Capital headphones

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Snowboard bindings that were themselves adapted from ski boot fastenings. And I’m sure the latch mechanism on ski boots was adapted from somewhere else further back in history.
Frank Diekman

They look Tron-tastic!
Palomino

Ozzy Osbourne, Crazy Train: “All aboard, hahahaha, ai ai ai…”
morkl

[insert EIEIO joke here]
Monsyne Dragon

Hmmph. looks like a rubbermaid version of a pair of Grados. Probably does not sound nearly as good.
- togi
  
  Well, reviews of AIAIAI’s older TMA-1 headphones over on head-fi are very favourable, with some reviewers preferring them to the awesome ATH-M50s. So while I can’t find any direct comparisons between AIAIAI’s products and Grado’s, and nobody’s yet had a chance to try out these new Capitals, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were in the same ballpark as a pair of Grados (at least, their cheaper models, which is assumed – matching like-for-like).
  That said, I get the feeling the AIAIAI’s are closer matched to electronic music/hip hop than they are to rock, which is where I hear the ‘Grado sound’ excel. Different strokes…
  
  Design-wise, insofar as these are two round speaker cups connected by a band that goes across your head, yes, they do look similar to a pair of Grados. Much in the same way as a pair of Grados look like [insert brand of headphones with round cups]. Other than that, this is a pleasantly modern chunky-plastic take on headphone design which doesn’t have much to do with the retro ’30′s radio station’ look of the Grado cans. Similar, sure, but there’s only so much you can do with a headphone design before you start adding superfluous details.