Lily Audio Genesis One 2nd Headphone Review

[solderdude]

Fun experiment to see if all kinds of speaker amps can be used. The result is caused by the output resistance and inability of OTL tube amps to deliver the required current (to charge/discharge the connected capacitance) at higher output levels.

Best to drive the G1 with a SS speaker amp > 50W/8ohm, preferably not a cheap class-D either.

 

[LuckyNat]

It's such a ... Hmm, I'm not sure how to express what I want to, but it looks too much like a shoe-horning of one product, designed for something else, into a completely different market ..

It is essentially a piezo driver formulation/technology to resonate panels (to create hidden speakers for exhibition or advertising installations etc) and then they have seen the popularity and prices paid in the headphone market .. and had a go with the product unchanged.

You used to be able to send off for a production sample of the piezo strip (at some cost or other) for you to experiment with fit your own applications.

I'm just kind of surprised, when seeking to create a headphone, they didnt look to optimise the technology for the application .. but instead just shoved the same product strip into a headphone enclosure .

I guess it does work to some extent .. but still ..

 

[flitcroft]

It's such a ... Hmm, I'm not sure how to express what I want to, but it looks too much like a shoe-horning of one product, designed for something else, into a completely different market ..

It is essentially a piezo driver formulation/technology to resonate panels (to create hidden speakers for exhibition or advertising installations etc) and then they have seen the popularity and prices paid in the headphone market .. and had a go with the product unchanged.

You used to be able to send off for a production sample of the piezo strip (at some cost or other) for you to experiment with fit your own applications.

I'm just kind of surprised, when seeking to create a headphone, they didnt look to optimise the technology for the application .. but instead just shoved the same product strip into a headphone enclosure .

I guess it does work to some extent .. but still ..

I don't think that's a fair conclusion. The headphones sound great if you can power them. My consumer, non-engineer take is that they wanted a fast open-backed driver with subwoofer-level bass slam, and they achieved it, with lots of asterisks. The power required to drive these is likely a non-starter for many people and this version will forever be a niche product. I got lucky in that my existing amplifier works great. I imagine this is the area they will focus on for the new headphone coming out at CanJam SoCal.

 

[solderdude]

They don't require a lot of power though, just a high voltage which 50W+ speaker amps can easily provide.

 

[LuckyNat]

I don't think that's a fair conclusion. The headphones sound great if you can power them. My consumer, non-engineer take is that they wanted a fast open-backed driver with subwoofer-level bass slam, and they achieved it, with lots of asterisks. The power required to drive these is likely a non-starter for many people and this version will forever be a niche product. I got lucky in that my existing amplifier works great. I imagine this is the area they will focus on for the new headphone coming out at CanJam SoCal.

I'm basing my outlook on the timeline of Dr Tony Nguyan's work as Flora Innovation and then Lily Audio sub-brand (or is it a separate company .. I think just sub-brand).

The piezo strip was marketed in 2023 for signs, bus announcement, bus window speaking adverts and general turn-a-surface into a speaker type stuff.

Here's a demo using a cardboard box:

Note the approximate size and shape of the piezo element there.

You could (and still can) buy a development kit from Flora Innovation.

Then they had some investor rounds and conferences, e.g at SXSW .

In 2025, they came up with a design for implementing the same thing , of the same shape and size, to play music into your ears by vibrating a surface .. a surface inside a headphone enclosure .. and started a Kickstarter for it (likely unsure of the interest and testing how this audiophile headphone market works).

The copy for the Kickstarter gives the impression that this was a technology developed to rival other common headphone driver technologies .. but you can see that it's likely the same element as they already had for other applications.


For me - and I am only speaking for myself - it's just something I can't unsee and therefore so jarring with the audiophile copy, marketing and the audiophile people they have sent it to for review on various channels, no matter how it sounds.

 

[solderdude]

There are electrostatic speakers, planar magnetic speakers, dynamic speakers, piezo speakers, motion transformer, ribbon speakers and all of these have 'miniature' versions of it in the headphone and even IEM world.
I have not seen a speaker based on large versions of multiple balanced armature drivers though.

So why would that not be something logical for the piezo element used in the G1 ?

 

[techgod92]

I can't understand the design of these headphones. They tried to make them look "industrial" but they look rather goofy.

 

[LuckyNat]

There are electrostatic speakers, planar magnetic speakers, dynamic speakers, piezo speakers, motion transformer, ribbon speakers and all of these have 'miniature' versions of it in the headphone and even IEM world.
I have not seen a speaker based on large versions of multiple balanced armature drivers though.

So why would that not be something logical for the piezo element used in the G1 ?

You're talking about the technologies .. Sure Stax made some electrostatic speakers (in the 80s) as well as their headphones . But did they didn't, and people dont, use the exact same transducer in both applications.

The piezo transducer made by Flora Innovations is designed to resonate things like glass windows or hardboard exhibition displays to transmit speech or general music/sound for informational purposes. The headphone uses the exact same transducer element from their signage kit.

i.e. the transducer has not been designed to work as a headphone driver and instead they have shoe-horned the element they already had laying around, from a completely different application and tried to get it it to work as a $1200 headphone .. In my view, however, this is what you'd do as a proof of concept , a prototype. Hence the goofy look !

Selling it as their final product at the going rate of a relatively high end headphone, just seems wrong to me, perhaps a bit cynical on their part, even? Like... Maybe develop the technology for the specific application and then come back and try to price it ?

I often write long posts trying to explain what I'm trying to say .. hopefully no-one mistakes it for me trying to convince anyone to see it from my perspective .

 

[solderdude]

Not much different from the drivers used in Focal headphones which are basically Focal tweeters with a roll-edge (low fres).

What would you like to have seen ? A smaller ceramic driver ?
It's not that the transducer is used in hifi loudspeakers as they would produce too little loudness for that.
What they were intended for is haptic screens and even making small screens act like rudimentary 'speakers' with a very limited loudness and frequency range.
To me using the transsucer in a headphone and still getting decent to good sound out of it in a very comfortable and lightweight headphone is innovative.
Why should they need to design another version than the smallest they already have.
No matter how one looks at this the construction would not change as it needs to bend it has to be rectangular and that has to be coupled to a diaphragm.
That, and the damping scheme and production of the whole headphone is innovative use of something they already have.
On top of that they sound better than the few piezo headphones that already exist.

It would be great if the could get the same SPL at a several times lower voltage though.

So to you the whole idea of using the piezo in a headphone feels wrong, to me it is innovative and a good first attempt.
I hope they can make a transducer that can do the same at a 10x lower voltage and even smaller capacitance.