The 3D Audio Company from San Diego Raised Over $2.7 Million on Kickstarter
OSSIC successfully completed their Kickstarter campaign today, finishing with over 9,600 backers and $2,708,472. That puts them ahead of any VR Kickstarter product ever, including Oculus, the old record holder, who raised $2,437,429 in 2012 before being acquired by Facebook.
The company released a new video today explaining the difference OSSIC X provides over traditional surround sound headphones.
If you missed the boat, fear not. You can still preorder the OSSIC X headphones for $299, which is $100 below MSRP. OSSIC also announced a referral program where those who have preordered or backed on Kickstarter can save an additional $20 for every friend who buys.
Audio Files
Everyone at OSSIC used to work in audio at Logitech. CEO Jason Riggs started the acoustic department there about 10 years ago. Many of them worked on developing surround sound gaming headphones. Riggs said he and his four co-founders started OSSIC because they knew 3D audio could be done better.
“We found there’s a cap in how accurate you can render 3d audio in headphones if you don’t take into account the device and the anatomy of the listener. When asked about OSSIC’s reason for being, Riggs told us “We started this…to push that final frontier in 3D audio and create something that was a lot more accurate and immersive…It was not the type of breakthrough product that you could do within the confines of a large company…focused on churning out products every 9 months, not digging in for 2-3 years and changing the way products work fundamentally.”
So he and three other co-founders left Logitech and started OSSIC, and for the past 20 months, 10 employees have been working full time on doing just that. The product went through nine versions of architecture to become what it is today. They say the OSSIC X headphones are the only headphones that auto-calibrate to the listener’s anatomy (also known as their HRTF), meaning that the headphones can accurately recreate sound for an individual just as they would hear it in real life.
Abbey Road
The OSSIC team might be most excited about their new partnership with Abbey Road Studios in London. Today they announced that they’ve joined Abbey Road Red, a music and technology incubation program within the world-famous studio. The incubation program will give OSSIC access to some of the best audio engineers in the world, who will be providing feedback and guidance on the OSSIC X headphones as they develop.
If you’re wondering where you can try these headphones for yourself, the OSSIC team will be at the SVVR Expo next week.
