I love headphones. They’re my go-to accessory. The way some people are sneakerheads, that’s how fanatical I am about headphones. I have a literal wall of them about three pairs shy of spreading onto one another. And while I’ve tried all manner of headphones in my lifetime, I have never seen anything remotely that looks like the Ol’ Thumpy cans from Pud’s Small Batch Headphones. According to PC Gamer, Pud’s is a small shop in California that hand-makes custom headphones with unique aesthetics, for lack of a better word.
I mean, take a look at Ol’ Thumpy there. The guy wearing them looks like he’s making a bad impression of a stalk-eyed fly. I can only imagine the neck strength needed to wear them. And yet, I’d endure the potential neck strain. Not because I love outlandish tech but because I really, really do. As wild as these headphones look, there is a method to Pud’s madness. In this case, Ol’ Thumpy is designed to deliver some of the best bass you’ve ever heard.
Those massive spheres on either end of these wacky cans contain a Helmholtz resonator. It’s a component designed to force air into the cavity, essentially absorbing sound while vibrating at a specific frequency to produce a specific sound. In the case of Ol’ Thumpy, it’s a 60Hz bass note. You find these resonators in various musical instruments, including violins and violas. They’re also found on mufflers. Again, it’s a wild concept.
But who’s responsible for this acoustical whimsy? That would be Pud, also known as Distrokid founder and writer Philip Kaplan. He’s also a drummer and headphone artist — that’s right, artist. That’s because, besides Ol’ Thumpy, he has several other headphones listed on his website. I’d personally love to try the Blasphemy and the Cephalopods Max cans. Laden with faux bull horns, the Blasphemy headphones are designed with a “wool-filled transmission line to dissipate back waves,” while the Max has a “nautilus-shaped back wave dissipation chamber.”
