3D Headphone Startup Shut Its Doors After Raising $3.2 Million in Crowdfunding

[mak1skav]

I am shocked... NOT

 

[yotano211]

If it was only that many idiots in total, I'd be jumping for joy.

The world has many many more but 99% of them wont confirm it.

 

[R0H1T]

Between ICO, kickstarter & gofundme - I wonder which con will pay me the most

 

[bug]

I vote the title of this new be changed to "a fool and their money are soon parted".

 

[Melvis]

I wonder how much there wages were? a million each? lol

 

[Vya Domus]

Someone should make a Kickstarter about an insurance service for backing Kickstarter projects ... and then it turns out it's a scam as well.

 

[Vayra86]

Someone should make a Kickstarter about an insurance service for backing Kickstarter projects ... and then it turns out it's a scam as well.

No its a secret gov project for a new spaceship to select the 'best' humans for the first interstellar journey

 

[R0H1T]

Some interesting tidbits from the official website ~

WHY WAS THIS SO EXPENSIVE TO DEVELOP?

Inventing something new while also developing complex hardware is expensive. The addition of stretch-goals to add mobile support increased the software scope from two operating systems to five, added an incredibly powerful 32-core processor onboard the headphones for processing, and required us to enter into substantial business development with mobile manufacturers to support multi-channel connectivity. It ultimately doubled the size of our development.

The unknowns that come from grounds-up development with so many new features ultimately stacked up to create delays and cost overruns.
What made this project so exciting, and ultimately ended up being its Achilles heel, was the complexity and scope. This project was complex because it had 3 large categories of development, all with new and unique elements: 1.) Hardware, 2.) Software, and 3.) Audio Ecosystem.

Hardware new/unique/different features: A typical headphone would only have 2 playback transducers, but the X has 8 playback transducers, 6 microphones, and multiple sensors. In addition to the complexity of more elements, head-tracking was a new feature, yet the trackers on the market were too slow. Thus we needed to upgrade mid-stream to achieve smooth tracking.

The software was complex because it required new algorithms to dynamically incorporate sensor information and beamform across the playback transducers. Additionally, with the stretch goals, we needed to support 5 different platforms: embedded-DSP, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android for both UI and custom signal processing. A typical headphone has no software at all. The initial headphone units successfully incorporated custom algorithms and played back over Windows, macOS, and 3.5mm platforms. The iOS and Android app were created and were were on track to be finalized after working through the UI/UX with Beta backers on Windows and macOS.

Additionally, the audio ecosystem itself is complex as 3D audio continues to rapidly changing/developing. VR, gaming, film, and music workflows are different, with tools and formats varying across sectors, and VR/AR workflows were still being defined as we developed. 3D audio information is present in much of the media, but remained inaccessible to the user. Our goal was to ensure compatibility with as many devices as possible, and to give the best experience required ecosystem development and exploration of developer tools. To that end, developer tools including a VST plugin and FMOD Plugin were created, and released in beta to select developers.

As some of the backers rightly said ~ very light on details & tons of hot air! Also wth is that 32 core onboard the headphones, surely that's a typo or missed punctuation

 

[ErchAngel]

WOW!
It was not 3.2 million... it was a total of $5,932,914
Indiegogo = $3,224,442
Kickstarter = $2,708,472
Plus (not included) approx. $100,000 plus at StartEngine

TechTimes : 3D Headphones Start-Up Ossic Shuts Down After Raising Almost $6 Million: New Entry In List Of Crowdfunding Failures
Quote from TechTimes article:

Incorrect, the Indiegogo figure includes the Kickstarter campaign. See the update at the bottom of this article: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/20/a...h-end-3d-headphones-startup-ossic-disappears/

 

[bug]

Some interesting tidbits from the official website ~
As some of the backers rightly said ~ very light on details & tons of hot air! Also wth is that 32 core onboard the headphones, surely that's a typo or missed punctuation

Also, what five operating systems for mobile?

 

[ErchAngel]

Looks like a major part of the funding went into Marketing and not R&D (page 27) https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1731373/000166516018000113/offeringmemoformc.pdf

 

[Vya Domus]

added an incredibly powerful 32-core processor onboard the headphones for processing

Maybe they should have ditched the incredibly powerful option , might have been more affordable then.

 

[R-T-B]

Between ICO, kickstarter & gofundme - I wonder which con will pay me the most

Don't quit your dayjob, man.

Also, what five operating systems for mobile?

Three. It increased from "two to five."

 

[bug]

Three. It increased from "two to five."

Not sure I follow. I assume it was initially Android and iOS. It probably picked up Windows Phone at some point. But what else?

 

[Vayra86]

Not sure I follow. I assume it was initially Android and iOS. It probably picked up Windows Phone at some point. But what else?

Symbian and Meego

 

[bug]

Symbian and Meego

Or PalmOS and Windows Mobile.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Good luck with the class action lawsuit...unfortunately most of them won't get their money back I think if you want to support a kickstarter you have to do it with small amounts to minimise the lose in case smth goes wrong

I had a school I was attending - just started, literally spent about 45 days at it - and one day my class, teachers and other students show up to find out the doors were locked with a sign on the door saying that the school has closed.

The company that owned the school dissolved and the bank took ownership of any accounts/financial stuff. The bank froze the accounts and held on to whatever money was in there.

With the company dissolved, there was no one to sue to get our money back. Teachers were SOL for a month of work and got no pay and students were SOL that they were out thousands for tuition with no way of getting any of it back to repay the loans that just sent payments out on for the tuition (literally two days prior to the school closing). The bank wouldn't renege on the payments received and return them to the loan companies to offset a large chunk of tuition fees that students now owed. There is a class action lawsuit out against the whole thing, but it's just in limbo since the company is dissolved.

If the company here dissolves, there will be nothing for the angry people to do but keep bitching. They won't have anyone or any company to sue. The people have every right to be pissed about the direction and actions taken, but they should just chalk it up to a lesson learned and go about their lives. Even if they can get a class action lawsuit to stick, they'll see very little in return and it may take years to resolve.

 

[R0H1T]

Symbian and Meego

Well since we're playing bingo ~ how about Blackberry (10) OS & Sammy's Tizen

I had a school I was attending - just started, literally spent about 45 days at it - and one day my class, teachers and other students show up to find out the doors were locked with a sign on the door saying that the school has closed.

The company that owned the school dissolved and the bank took ownership of any accounts/financial stuff. The bank froze the accounts and held on to whatever money was in there.

With the company dissolved, there was no one to sue to get our money back. Teachers were SOL for a month of work and got no pay and students were SOL that they were out thousands for tuition with no way of getting any of it back to repay the loans that just sent payments out on for the tuition (literally two days prior to the school closing). The bank wouldn't renege on the payments received and return them to the loan companies to offset a large chunk of tuition fees that students now owed. There is a class action lawsuit out against the whole thing, but it's just in limbo since the company is dissolved.

If the company here dissolves, there will be nothing for the angry people to do but keep bitching. They won't have anyone or any company to sue. The people have every right to be pissed about the direction and actions taken, but they should just chalk it up to a lesson learned and go about their lives. Even if they can get a class action lawsuit to stick, they'll see very little in return and it may take years to resolve.

I've always wondered how people get away with that & then I'm reminded of the current POTUS. I'm not steering this discussion anywhere but it's obvious that the modern capitalistic societies are setup to protect the top 1% or 0.1%ers while the rest of us keep bitching about our utility rates going up, sh!t broadband or cable options et al

 

[Vya Domus]

The people have every right to be pissed about the direction and actions taken

Sure they can but then again were they born yesterday ? Kickstarter is a breeding ground for scams and e-beggars , although that's a minority. The majority of projects are actually genuine but are still abolsute junk and have zero chance to succeed because they are started by people who have zero experience and knowledge.

Crowdfunding is simply a horrible idea , you give people who potentially have no idea as to what they are doing the chance to start projects way out of their reach and potentially rise insane amounts of cash in the process because what the hell do the backers know about any of this anyway ?

I wonder how many of these "entrepreneurs" took business loans or tried their chance with venture capitalists? Probably a small percentage because by then most of the dumb shit they are trying to make would get filtered out. That's the thing , crowdfunding has no filter and it's too exposed to scammers , beggars and most importantly , people how haven't got a clue as to what it takes to manage a project like this. In my opinion they don't really have a right to be pissed at all , they literally threw their money at some unknown entity bound by little obligation to even do anything at all. What kind of right to be pissed does that give you ?

 

[Vayra86]

Well since we're playing bingo ~ how about Blackberry (10) OS & Sammy's Tizen
I've always wondered how people get away with that & then I'm reminded of the current POTUS. I'm not steering this discussion anywhere but it's obvious that the modern capitalistic societies are setup to protect the top 1% or 0.1%ers while the rest of us keep bitching about our utility rates going up, sh!t broadband or cable options et al

People who think survival of the fittest is past tense are horribly mistaken. In all fairness the people who got scammed here are also a product of evolution - they get eaten. The more interesting question beyond this little Kickstarter is why the vast majority is now suffering the same fate. Most of us included. Tiny little bites, every day so we don't notice enough to go wild about it. But yes, way offtopic...

Normally, I'd agree... It's like those headsets that claim to increase spacial sound by providing multiple drivers inside the ear cups... As if the sound isn't all going into the same ear lol...

However, I think their idea here was pretty solid, if too expensive to be feasible.

By providing head tracking, you could control the spacial sound direction with your head, as opposed to with the mouse in a first person shooter, for example. The application would be severely limited, mostly to people with multiple monitor setups, or ultawide displays... Currently, if you have an ultrawide display, and you turn your head to look at something in your peripheral without turning your character ingame, you're still going to hear spatial audio from the point of view of your character, even though your character isn't "looking" in the same direction you are. Head tracking would allow that extremely small detail to allow for turning of your head, and track sound accordingly. And without some pretty powerful onboard processing, it would require each game to explicitly support it. Adding onboard processing would allow it to be game/system agnostic, while also allowing spatial sound on systems/games that didn't support it to begin with, like mobile.

All that being said... The application is SUPER niche, as I said above... It's no wonder it failed, as business-wise, it's a terrible work/reward ratio. But that doesn't change the fact that the applicable scenario isn't a real one. So for those who understood the real implications, and the real application scenarios, I wouldn't deem those people as idiots.

If one just looked at the market speak and said "OMG 3D audio, I need that" .... Yea, idiots.

Thats an awful lot of text to conclude that realistically the idea was retarded anyway

 

[Papahyooie]

To me, even if the headphones had been delivered, they're idiots. $300 for crappy plastic "3D sound" headphones from an unknown company? People have too much money, not enough sense. Why do they need "head tracking technology"? Relative to the sound, your head will always be in the same place - right between the ear cups. And custom profiles to "match the shape of your ears"? The people who pre-ordered these really are nimrods, looking for something to make them feel "special". They may deserve what they got, but shame on Ossic for preying on the young and stupid ones, even if their con game is technically legal.

Normally, I'd agree... It's like those headsets that claim to increase spacial sound by providing multiple drivers inside the ear cups... As if the sound isn't all going into the same ear lol...

However, I think their idea here was pretty solid, if too expensive to be feasible.

By providing head tracking, you could control the spacial sound direction with your head, as opposed to with the mouse in a first person shooter, for example. The application would be severely limited, mostly to people with multiple monitor setups, or ultawide displays... Currently, if you have an ultrawide display, and you turn your head to look at something in your peripheral without turning your character ingame, you're still going to hear spatial audio from the point of view of your character, even though your character isn't "looking" in the same direction you are. Head tracking would allow that extremely small detail to allow for turning of your head, and track sound accordingly. And without some pretty powerful onboard processing, it would require each game to explicitly support it. Adding onboard processing would allow it to be game/system agnostic, while also allowing spatial sound on systems/games that didn't support it to begin with, like mobile.

All that being said... The application is SUPER niche, as I said above... It's no wonder it failed, as business-wise, it's a terrible work/reward ratio. But that doesn't change the fact that the applicable scenario isn't a real one. So for those who understood the real implications, and the real application scenarios, I wouldn't deem those people as idiots.

If one just looked at the market speak and said "OMG 3D audio, I need that" .... Yea, idiots.

 

[Athlonite]

1: So they tried to do to much to soon they went from supporting 1 OS to trying to support 5 bad move that was, should have stuck with just the 1 OS until things were up and running better
2: Why aren't the like of kickstarter and indiegogo taking a more active role in overseeing these start ups they originally wanted 100K they got that which means they should have been able to deliver 333 pairs of headphones they didn't even do that many this is where KickStarter or Indiegogo should have stepped in and said whats going on fella's
3: People tend to over donate and then get all pissy when it turns tho shit point being don't donate more than you're willing to loose

 

[bug]

I had a school I was attending - just started, literally spent about 45 days at it - and one day my class, teachers and other students show up to find out the doors were locked with a sign on the door saying that the school has closed.

The company that owned the school dissolved and the bank took ownership of any accounts/financial stuff. The bank froze the accounts and held on to whatever money was in there.

With the company dissolved, there was no one to sue to get our money back. Teachers were SOL for a month of work and got no pay and students were SOL that they were out thousands for tuition with no way of getting any of it back to repay the loans that just sent payments out on for the tuition (literally two days prior to the school closing). The bank wouldn't renege on the payments received and return them to the loan companies to offset a large chunk of tuition fees that students now owed. There is a class action lawsuit out against the whole thing, but it's just in limbo since the company is dissolved.

If the company here dissolves, there will be nothing for the angry people to do but keep bitching. They won't have anyone or any company to sue. The people have every right to be pissed about the direction and actions taken, but they should just chalk it up to a lesson learned and go about their lives. Even if they can get a class action lawsuit to stick, they'll see very little in return and it may take years to resolve.

You're making a blanket statement, but, if I'm not mistaken, all the above applies to LLCs only.

 

[95Viper]

Incorrect, the Indiegogo figure includes the Kickstarter campaign. See the update at the bottom of this article: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/20/a...h-end-3d-headphones-startup-ossic-disappears/

Yep thanks, I updated my post to reflect the update.

 

[yogurt_21]

12,800$ per headphone set... (based on the amount raised vs the number produced)


http://www.businessinsider.com/new-sennheiser-orpheus-headphones-cost-about-55000-2015-11

and yet nowhere near the most expensive