Frequently Asked Questions
Why did you start making headphones?
A bit over a year ago, I emerged from a decade-long battle with major depressive disorder—a journey that profoundly reshaped my perspective on life. As a reward from getting a solid life+1 from this experience, I decided to give myself... a new hobby! Something I'd thoroughly enjoy doing, could learn and grow through, and that had nothing to do with work.
Music has always been the greatest inspiration in my life, ever since I was old enough to walk, I’d carry my portable radio everywhere. Yet, I've never been able to play an instrument. So, I turned to creating things that allow others to enjoy music in its purest form.
In the past, I've built loudspeakers and amplifiers, dabbling in the audiophile HiFi world, especially during my time as a student product design engineering at Delft University. So, I decided to allow myself the pleasure to try to build my own headphones, not knowing where this would lead.
Why did you choose this particular design and character?
These days, as a sustainability focused architect, I travel frequently for projects around the globe and found that I couldn't sit and listen to a traditional HiFi system as much as I'd like. I began using headphones more, amassing quite a collection. Some offered spectacular sound but were too bulky, heavy, and fragile for travel. Others designed for portability often fell short—plastic contraptions that sever you from your surroundings, plunging you into an isolated auditory bubble. Noise cancellation, while impressive, often felt like being pushed further into an abyss of sensory deprivation, and reduces the sound quality massively.
I wanted something different. I envisioned headphones that would add the joy of music into life without disconnecting me from the world around me. I wanted to walk in the park with the grand sweeps of Beethoven's 9th or the jazzy beats of Daft Punk infusing my steps—not to escape reality but to enhance it.
So, I retreated to my spare bedroom in Amsterdam and dedicated 18 months to crafting something that embodied this vision. Buying parts, frames, drivers, cables, cushions… trying different combinations. There’s actually a hole world of DIY headphones out there that is lovely and supportive. After building several prototypes—and nearly losing hope as the first ones sounded terrible—I finally developed a design that resonated with me. True audiophile quality, in a portable but durable metal frame. A very wide and open soundstage, with deep warm bass without being overpowering, and crystal clear, musical mids and highs.
When did you decide to produce these for others?
I shared my first sets with some friends to give me feedback, musicians and music producers. Their feedback was overwhelmingly positive; they found the sound astonishing. Rather a lot of people asked me if they could buy some. This gave me the confidence to build a limited series to sell to fellow passionate music lovers.
Creating these headphones was a deeply personal journey—a fusion of my love for music, design, and a desire to bring a little more joy into everyday moments. I still want this to be a hobby though, so I’m only selling a limited series. And I am thoroughly enjoying practicing my skills as a product designer also on all the packaging, and the carry pouch, the identity, the website, and everything else.
What is your inspiration, in terms of headphones?
I have to give huge credit to Grado, a family headphone brand from the USA, which has inspired me for decades. I heard a set of GRado PS1000’s first in the HiFi store Audiohuis Delft, whose owner (Hans Pronk) became a close friend. At the time, these Grados seemed out of this world, and as a student, I couldn’t possibly afford the $1500+ price tag they had.
However, later on, I discovered they had cheaper products, and I have used many of them, and just fell in love with the sound of these open-back designs. At the end of 2021, I was able to get my hands on a used pair of Grado PS1000’s that I could afford, which quickly became my reference headphone. I sold my Audeze LCD-2C and some others, and the PS1000’s are now my favorite headphone to listen to at home. Except, they are so heavy (nearly half a kilo), they fall off my head if I try to dance, and certainly cannot use them away from home. This became an inspiration for me to build the Forever Now headphones; they approach the sound quality of the PS1000’s, while being able to be on my head when walking and traveling.
Why does a DAC matter for sound quality?
Ever since music is stored on digital media, the Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC) plays an important role in reproducing sound. The DAC takes the digital bit-stream of 1’s and 0’s and turns it into an analogue waveform. It is arguable the most important element in the reproduction pathway in any modern listening experience. When you have a beautiful HiFi set at home, the DAC chip is integrated inside your CD player, receiver, or whatever device you are using. If you’re into audio, then surely you’ve seen DA converters of various shapes and forms, if you do not already have one. In a HiFi set these days, it’s often a separate device.
For those unfamiliar with audio technology, it may come as a surprise that there’s a significantly audible difference between different types of DAC chips. If you think about it, it’s really the analogue part of that chip that makes that difference. And there’s a real art to the chip design. Companies like ESS, Burr-Brown, Cirrus Logic, Alcatel, and AKM continuously release new and improved versions.
For portable audio, this DAC is often forgotten. Because phones and laptops have a DAC chip built into them, we often do not give it a second thought. But these devices were not built for exquisite audio quality. The chip that’s built into them likely costs less than 10 cents. It’ll be bottom-of-the-barrel quality, and you can hear his. Clearly. There’s simply not a phone or laptop in the world that has good sound quality for headphones. You can get a decent DAC chip for $10 already, which will be lightyears better than what’s in your phone or laptop, as it’s already 100 times more expensive than that 10 cent chip in your phone.
Therefore, if you love listening to good sound with headphones, you get a separate DAC. For the Forever Now headphones I wanted to match a DAC that is shipped with each pair of headphones, so you wouldn’t have to think about it, but still get excellent sound when listening to a phone or a laptop. So I did the hard work for you, bought over 20 different brands and types, and matched those that I feel match the sound. Also, I found it important to keep everything light and portable, and easy to replace and repair.
Like all things HiFi, you can pay crazy amounts of money for the brand or hot air. I tested many, and found one that doesn’t drive the price of the set up too much, but has a lovely matched sound character with the Forever Now headphones. The DAC I chose for you is integrated into the little USB-C cable to connect to your phone. Yes, inside of that tiny thing is the DA Converter chip. It has an Alcatel 5686 chip, it processes up to 32bits/384KHz, with a Signal-to-noise ratio/SNR: more than 125dB. Its dynamic range is more than 100dB and
Distortion/THD+N: 95db.
These technical details can matter, but in the end it is all about how it sounds. And even compared to some, much more expensive DACs I tested, this DAC matches the FN’s sound profile wonderfully.
The Alcatel 5686 DAC that comes with the Forever Now headphones.
What are the technical specifications of the Forever Now headphones?
Width: 18 cm
Height: 6 cm
Depth: 20 cm
Weight: 265 grams
Impedance: 32 ohm
Sensitivity: 98db
Cable: 1x 3.5mm Audio Jack Stereo to 2x 3.5mm Audio Jack Stereo, gold plated, twister pair OFC copper
Materials headphones: Steel, Aluminum. Headband cover; vinyl.
Materials box: Bamboo
Materials pouch and tote bag: Organic unbleached cotton
Earphone cushions: L-Style foam cushions
I prefer different kinds of cushions, can I change them?
Yes, certainly. Most cushions with inner diameter of 50mm will work. I have different sizes available if you want, for example, a larger set of ‘bowl’ shaped cushions. Mind you, cushions have a rather pronounced impact on the sonic character. I strongly prefer the cushions that the Forever Now sets come with (“L Cush”), but if you request a set of larger cushions (Bowl/”G Cush”) instead of the standard pair, I will send these along. They don’t fit in the box, though.
Why do you not make them Bluetooth?
While Bluetooth is a lovely technology, it is not yet advanced enough to stream the full quality sound signal to allow headphones to reach HiFi quality sound. That’s why all HiFi headphones have cables. This doesn’t mean a Bluetooth headphone cannot be enjoyable, it just can’t reach the quality levels of a HiFi headphone. This is exacerbated because of the fact that in Bluetooth headphones, the amplifier sits inside the headphones. Often these tiny amps with their tiny battery pack do not have enough control and power to drive demanding headphone drivers. This, again, is where the external DACs come in. They have external amplifiers, which are often better quality, driven by more powerful battery packs (in the case of the DAC that comes with FN headphones, the power is delivered by your phone or laptop).
There’s developments in Bluetooth technology that may allow it to reach HiFi levels some years into the future. As of now, this is not yet the case, so therefore, I will not build them.
That said, there’s a way to listen to your FN headphones with Bluetooth if you really want to. You can get an external Bluetooth receiver, such as the UGreen Bluetooth Receiver, and just plug your cable into that. But yes, you’ll still have a cable, and the sound quality will suffer.
I can buy decent headphones for less than $200, why do they cost so much?
Yes, there are ‘good’ headphones for $200, or even less. But ‘good’ is relative. True HiFi headphones are in a different category in terms of sound quality, as well as price. Many people don’t know about these because these are not sold in normal electronic stores. Brands like Grado, Audeze, and Focal produce headphones in the HiFi class, often for far more than $1500. The sound from these headphones are not comparable to the normal everyday stuff you buy on Amazon or in an electronics shop. They also use more durable materials, metal and wood, have carefully tuned sound drivers, and as a package are altogether in a different class.
Forever Now headphones are in this HiFi class. And, as far as that goes, they are priced quite reasonably compared to others. In terms of sound quality, they provide an excellent quality for their price. Besides the headphones an their components, making a “full product experience”, from box to cables to pouch, website, and marketing and all that, it’s actually a lot of work. Considering I build them by hand, and it’s only a limited series, this is what it comes to.
I do host a pre-sale with a 30% discount. And perhaps, in time, I am able to offer a lower price, so keep an eye out if they are above your budget?
Where do you make these headphones? Don’t you need a lot of equipment?
I initially didn’t think I could pull off making headphones on my own. But I quickly found out that isn’t true. Many parts are manufactured by different companies around the world. The skill lies into knowing which ones work well together, where to get them from and in the delicacy of putting them together in the right way.
I assemble the headphones in a spare bedroom, on a lovely antique writer’s desk in my home in Amsterdam. I use fairly common tools like soldering irons, pliers, screwdrivers, vices, etcetera. Some sound testing equipment. I can build a pair, tune and test them in about 3 hours now. Initially it would take me half a day. You get better at it over time. Most time actually went into testing the many different drivers and configurations. Even the foam earpads make a big difference in sound quality, depending on which factory makes them, the density of the foam, etcetera.
Of course, I do not forge the metal parts myself, that’s done by factories that I order from. Same goes for the other parts. For example, I designed the box in 3D on the computer, found a supplier that can work with bamboo, and worked with them for about 12 months, building 4 prototypes. The cables are made to detailed specifications and took 6 versions to get right. And some stuff gets lost in shipping, or gets crazy custom charges… all in a day’s work. I have a collection now of over 20 portable DAC’s from various manufacturers until I settled on the ones I offer now.
Quite a journey to go from one pair, to ramping up to build 100 pair.
What sort of warranty do you offer?
I’ve built the headphones so they are very easy to repair. If they break, you can probably get them fixed for a scratch at any nearby handy shop. That said, you may not want to do that, and I will fix any pair of headphones that fail because of a production fault for the next 5 years. You send them or deliver them to me, and I will send them back to you.
If they were damaged because of them being dropped, exposed to water, normal wear and tear, the membrane pierced due to some object entering the grille, or other membrane damage due to external forces, or some kind of abuse, I may be able to repair them, but will have to charge for the repair.
Are Forever Now headphones waterproof?
Absolutely not. Keep them away from rain, water, splashes and extremely high moisture. The pure sound is partially due to the exposed membrane. Be careful with them, the membranes are sensitive and easily damaged if abused. (As with any HiFi headphone)
Uhh.. so who are you?
My name is Tom Bosschaert. I have dedicated my life to systemic sustainable transformations. I was originally trained as a product designer, and later as an architect and urbanist. At 19, in 1999, I started the sustainability innovation and strategy agency Except, which I have worked on for most of my life, and still run to this day. With Except I travel the world to try to make a difference using innovation and systemic strategy to help our society transition to a sustainable reality. Forever Now is my mental health side-project grew into something quite amazing, and that I love dearly. If you want to know more about me and my work, you can find stuff here.