Lily Audio plans 15 November Kickstarter for Genesis Pure CrystalCore headphones

Lily Audio plans to launch the Genesis Pure, its second CrystalCore headphone, on Kickstarter on 15 November. There’s no price yet. For now, the Genesis Pure product page sells a US$1 “VIP pass” that guarantees access to any kickstarter reward tier, including a Super Early Bird tier the company puts at about 40% off, even after that tier sells out.

The company first showed the headphone to the public at HiFiCon in Newark, California on 1 August. At the time it said it wasn’t ready to share full details. The product page now has a spec sheet, but it describes the specs of the prototype, and Lily says final details, specifications and appearance may still change before production.

The biggest change is the driver. Genesis Pure uses a second-generation version of CrystalCore, the solid-state transducer introduced in the Genesis One series.

Most headphones use either a dynamic or a planar-magnetic driver. Both pass current through a magnetic field to create the force that produces sound. CrystalCore takes a different approach and uses no magnetic field at all. Instead, it uses a solid-state piezoelectric ceramic crystal. When the audio signal is applied across the crystal, the material physically expands and contracts in step with the voltage waveform. That motion pushes the diaphragm against the air to create sound waves, giving an extremely fast transient response.

Because of this, the driver doesn’t depend on raw wattage. It needs a large voltage swing instead, often 10 V to 20 V or more, or a speaker amp or Class A/AB amplifier, to fully pressurise the low end and deliver physical impact. The company says the Gen 2 version needs only a third of the original’s drive voltage. The 75 mm honeycomb diaphragm carries over from the Genesis One. It sits at an angle inside a compact oval earcup finished with stainless-steel mesh.

Lily lists sensitivity at 85dB/V (at 1kHz) and recommends an amp with more than 5V of output. It says the headphone “performs well connected to a powerful portable DAC/dongle”. Those figures are enough for a rough check: at 85dB/V, Lily’s recommended 5V works out to about 99dB SPL, drawing about 17mA and 83mW into 300Ω. Current isn’t the hard part, so whether a dongle is enough comes down to how much voltage it can actually deliver into that load.

Lily says it has tuned Genesis Pure for a “more neutral, relaxed” signature than Genesis One, which is aimed at technical performance. The build uses stainless steel, machined aluminium, genuine leather and lambskin, with a floating suspension headband and low clamping force. Lily says every component can be repaired or replaced. At 305g, it weighs about the same as Genesis One, according to the company.

Specs

Price and availability

The Kickstarter campaign is planned for 15 November, and the US$1 VIP pass is on sale now through Lily Audio’s site. The company currently lists the Genesis One series (Genesis 1 and Genesis 1S) at US$1,200 on its website. Lily hasn’t said where Genesis Pure will sit against that, or what the 40% Super Early Bird discount is taken from. The company says Genesis One reached its funding goal within two days and that backers received their headphones within two months of the campaign closing.