New Debussy headphones boast OLED touchscreens and AI smarts

The Debussy brand is owned by the Funky Sound Studio, a startup whose members include a number of experienced audio engineers and designers.

At the heart of all three models is Iris, which Debussy is calling a 'smart sound system'. Iris is the system behind the headphones and includes a powerful processor, an OLED touchscreen display, USB-C charging, and both voice and gesture controls.

You can use Iris to stream directly from services such as Tidal, Spotify and Qobuz over 4G, Wi-fi and Bluetooth, or you can store music on the 32GB of built-in storage.

Iris also includes Debussy's Sound Signature Technology (SST) and Accurate Natural Sound Technology (ANST) with the headphones in the range boasting 20 hours of battery life.

Nathaniel is a design named after Nathaniel Baldwin, the inventor of the very first pair of headphones. It's a high-end over-ear design, available in a trio of luxurious finishes: Midnight Blue (with silver plating), Dark Shadow (with dark chrome) and Gold Ruby (with gold plating).

All versions feature a combination of leather and velvet fabric, while the interior of the headband shows music from Debussy's famous Suite Bergamasque. You'll be able to pre-order these headphones from March 2018.

Clair De Lume (pictured above) brings a more elegant and minimalist look to the range, and is available in both over and on-ear versions with a choice of six different finishes.

Finally, the third pair (which wasn't on display at CES 2018 was Prelude, a $500 model which is due to launch as part of Debussy's Kickstarter campaign in early 2018.

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Andy Madden

Andy is Deputy Editor of What Hi-Fi? and a consumer electronics journalist with nearly 20 years of experience writing news, reviews and features. Over the years he's also contributed to a number of other outlets, including The Sunday Times, the BBC, Stuff, and BA High Life Magazine. Premium wireless earbuds are his passion but he's also keen on car tech and in-car audio systems and can often be found cruising the countryside testing the latest set-ups. In his spare time Andy is a keen golfer and gamer.