On the next edition, and what's changed
When we priced Draupnir Launch Edition at £1400, we believed it was right for what we were building, and right for the people willing to back a brand-new headphone from a brand-new company. We're almost finished shipping that run now, and the feedback from owners has been everything we'd hoped for — exactly why we did this in the first place.
Before we open the next edition, I want to be honest about what Launch Edition actually took to deliver, because that context matters for what comes next.
What Draupnir actually is
A bit of context before the rest of this lands, because it matters.
Most over-ear headphones use a single driver per side, with two wires running to it. Draupnir uses two drivers per side, and the bass boost circuit means each cup has nine wires soldered in by hand. Add the mechanical complexity around the yoke and pivot system, and there are simply more places for things to go wrong — more steps where tolerances and precision matter.
That's the headphone we set out to build, and it's the reason we set out to build it. But it's the backdrop for everything that follows.
What the first run really cost
The financial cost was higher than we'd modelled. That much we can absorb and learn from. The harder cost was everywhere else — the hours, the late nights, the days spent chasing a supplier, the parts I ended up machining or finishing by hand in the flat to bring them into spec. Building thirty of something surfaces issues that don't appear when you build one-offs, and we hit a lot of them.
"We" here is a generous term. I do most of the work — design, machining, integration, problem-solving. My girlfriend helps with assembly and QC where she can. My business partner from our cable company makes Draupnir's cables. That's it. So the hand-work I'm describing happened specifically: by me, at midnight, on each unit before it shipped.
It saved real money on the first run, and I'm glad I did it. But it isn't a way of working we can repeat — not at this price, not at our scale, and not if we want to still be doing this in five years.
A note to Launch Edition owners
Before I go further, the important bit: your headphone is right.
The hand-work I'm describing is about how we got each part to spec, not about fixing something wrong with the finished unit. Every Launch Edition was measured, fitted and signed off before it left, and the feedback from owners since is the proof.
The standard the next edition meets is the same standard yours meets. What changes is the production process behind it — we're redesigning things so we don't need a pair of hands closing the gap on each unit. Same destination, shorter road.
The next edition is £1799
There are two honest reasons.
The first is that this price reflects what the headphone actually costs us to make — properly, sustainably, without a pair of hands closing the gap at midnight. We've taken everything we learned from Launch Edition and built it into the next one from day one: the parts and processes that gave us the most trouble redesigned, internal components and materials chosen now for what they should have been from the start.
This isn't a different headphone. It's the same Draupnir, simply called Draupnir this time — no "Launch", no "Carbon", just the standard production model.
The second reason is the world we're making things in. Material costs, manufacturing, shipping — everything has gone up since we priced Launch Edition, and pretending otherwise would only push the problem further down the road.
We'd love to hold the original price. We genuinely would. But doing that would mean cutting corners we're not willing to cut, or another run of by-hand fixes — and neither is sustainable if we want to still be making headphones in five years.
About Carbon Edition
Draupnir Carbon Edition is the future of the platform we've talked about. It will eventually be available as its own standalone headphone too — but on a longer timeline.
What's reserved for Launch Edition owners specifically is the upgrade path. When Carbon Edition is ready, you'll have the option to convert your existing Launch Edition into a Carbon Edition. It will be a paid upgrade, not a free one — but the option to take that route is yours alone, and you'll get there before the standalone version reaches anyone else.
People who bought Launch Edition trusted us with a product that didn't fully exist yet, from a company without a track record. Getting there first, and being the only ones with the upgrade route, is our way of saying thank you for that leap of faith.
The standard Draupnir isn't a version waiting for an upgrade — it's a complete, refined headphone in its own right. Different proposition, different moment. And having a clear standard model in production is exactly what gives us the room to develop Carbon Edition properly in the background.
Wait times will be shorter
One real silver lining of the first run: our supply chain is now properly established. The relationships are in place, the parts are sourced, the workflows are known. The components that took forever last time — the ones that drove most of the delays — we now have in stock, in numbers.
The next edition launches at CanJam Singapore on 16–17 May, with 30 units per launch and further launches following monthly as we scale. Ship time will be around three months from order — a realistic figure based on what we now know, not a hopeful one.
To everyone who came with us
If you own a Draupnir Launch Edition: thank you. There is a version of this company that doesn't exist without you, and we don't forget it.
That cuts both ways. If anything ever goes wrong with your headphone — now or years from now — we will be there. You took a chance on a product and a company that hadn't yet earned the right to ask for that trust, and our commitment to looking after you doesn't have an expiry date. Your feedback over the coming months will continue to shape what we do next, and when Carbon Edition is ready, the option to upgrade will be there for you.
If you're considering the standard Draupnir: you're getting the same headphone Launch Edition owners are loving, now built through a production process we can sustain, at a price that lets us keep making it. We can't wait to put it in your hands — starting at CanJam Singapore, 16–17 May.