Valco's Great Headphone Odyssey 2019!

Does that sound like a pompous headline? Well, that’s exactly what this thing we’ve taken on is.

But let’s start right from the beginning of the year, when I jumped onto this steerless, brakeless sled. 

Oh, who’s “I”? Don’t get ahead of yourself, the name-dropping will come later, enough to make the faint-hearted nervous and the average Finn ashamed.

At the start of the year I realized I needed a decent pair of noise cancelling headphones for the road, and lo and behold, the Facebook algorithm read my alpha waves and shoved a Valco ad in front of me that was selling me, or talking shit straight to my face, I’m still not sure, Pulasorsas and Sorsas or some other weird headphones.

So right there on the spot I sent the boys an email, politely introduced myself, and asked for the chance to put their cans through their paces and write my enlightened feedback on the contraptions.

(A little side note and some context here before we continue: I’m pretty passionate about headphones, and my understanding of them runs fairly deep.)

I listened to them and abused them for a good while, took them apart, looked into what they’d actually eaten, and after that I sort of praised-by-insulting the current models a bit, like, pretty good for the price, but a horrifying amount of potential is being wasted in them.

The comeback, Valco-style, was: 

”Well f*cking design better ones yourself, then, and we’ll put them up for sale...”

Well, they didn’t have to encourage me much more. Before long I found myself at the boys’ office, drinking beer and sketching a church boat on the flip chart. From there, little by little, the recipe for excellent headphones started taking shape with a couple of engineer boys. 

Now seems like a good time to introduce myself and drop some names

My name is Jasse “Jazmanaut” Kesti and I’m an audiophile.

I’ve been doing audio work for a living for a bit over twenty years now, both in the studio and in live gigs. 

The internet can find well over a hundred records with my name on them, and you’d have to dig pretty damn hard to find a form of music I haven’t gone poking at, from Tehosekoitin to Jorma Hynninen. From Texas Faggott to the National Ballet.

In live work, over the past few years I’ve mixed, among others, Tuure Kilpeläinen, Elastinen, Laura Närhi, Jukka Poika, Emma Salokoski, Soul Captain Band, and countless other artists from the front row and the back. Not to mention system design and audio mastering.

These days I also run my own Kesthouse mastering studio, which you can find at www.kesthouse.com

So on that basis, uncompromising sound reproduction is hugely important to me, and I've been chasing it my whole adult life. And this isn't some tiny topic. Engineering tinkering alone and a comprehensive understanding of the physics of sound are not enough by themselves, you also have to bring psychophysics into the equation. In the end, the biggest variable is the human being the final product has to be aimed at, whether we're talking about the music itself or the device used to enjoy that music.

In other words, if I designed myself a microscopically accurate and extremely neutral pair of headphones, most consumers would find it boring and lifeless. 

Then again, if all you want from headphones is pure vibe and you forget about accuracy and the so-called science side of things, you end up with Beats and similar monstrosities that sound impressive for the first few minutes with their mega turbo bass, but very quickly wear you out with their mushiness and lack of detail. 

But we weren't setting out to make decorations, we were making fucking good, usable headphones. At this stage we focused most on what matters, meaning the listening experience, and we're polishing it into top shape not just by ear, but with precise measurements too.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that the headphones look good too.

Since none of us are obscenely rich, the headphones obviously had to be something people could actually afford too. We skipped the gold-plated wiring and ostrich leather padding this time and focused on making headphones that are just simply damn good to use and listen to.

The first headphones we designed in Finland are soon ready to go on sale jbeta testers around the world have sent in such glowing comments that I have a strong feeling we've outdone ourselves. Of course next year, and after that, we'll outdo ourselves all over again, and even better.

It is, folks, an awkward feeling when you put headphones on someone and after a while they start crying, throw their iPhone earbuds into the bushes, and refuse to give the headphones back. And those were only beta versions at that point. I kid you not!

The first small batch will be up for presale soon, but judging by the interest it'll be gone in a day. As our headphone project moves forward, we'll keep the info coming.