Ultimate Ears
Get with the Times
It's an exciting time to be an audiophile. It seems like every year, new and ground breaking audio products are being released. From the Sennheiser HD 800 in 2009 to the HiFiMAN HE1000 in 2015, manufacturers in the industry are furiously innovating to bring you, the customer, the latest and greatest goodies money can buy.
It might not be quite as sexy to talk about, but upgrades to existing infrastructure and manufacturing equipment are just as important as research and development. At the invitation of Mike Dias, Director of Sales at UE, I flew down to sunny Irving, California to check out how the times have been a-changin' for Ultimate Ears.
Impressions Please
When you place an order for a custom in-ear monitor, the first step is always the same. The manufacturer needs impressions of your ears to get the order going. Ultimate Ears has pretty typical requirements - impressions must pass the second bend of the ear canal and include the full helix, crus of the helix, tragus and antitragus. If everything looks okay, the creation of your CIEMs begin. Here's where things get interesting: Ultimate Ears is innovating the manufacturing process, and moving things to the digital realm.
The Good Ole Days
The shell creation process was originally done entirely by hand. Ultimate Ears’ team of experienced technicians would cut, detail, and shape your impressions to the perfect size before pouring in a thick liquid that is cured to create the cast. From there, your liquid color of choice was poured in and cured under UV light to create shells that are buffed and polished to a brilliant shine.
The Rise of 3D Printing
This was all well and good, but the process caused a couple of less-than-desirable problems that were difficult to solve.
- Because impressions were cut by hand, UE technicians had to be very careful with the shaping process. A minor slip of the hand would result in a less-than-perfect shell.
- Variance in technique - Technicians take a unique approach to crafting shells. The same pair of impressions could be cut and trimmed slightly differently depending on who was placed in charge of your order.
- Production bottleneck. Because every order required its own time in the sun (or UV light in this case), creating shells to fulfill existing orders was a time-intensive process.
Not satisfied with the status quo, Ultimate Ears made the call to invest in finding a better way to deliver their product to the end customer. Enter 3D printing, which has had the following benefits:
- UE technicians learned how to cut and trim shells digitally with 3D printing technology. The new software allows technicians to reverse imperfect cuts and trims with a simple Control + Z, meaning they can get more aggressive in shaping your shells to fit you perfectly.
- The software system makes it possible to standardize technique across the board so that regardless of who you have working on your order, it comes out perfect. Since moving to the new electronic system, Ultimate Ears has seen a dramatic reduction in the number of refits required (to <3%).
- Because the 3D printer is capable of spitting out multiple units at a time, this has had a tremendously positive impact on lead times. Ultimate Ears now aims to keep their production time frame within an industry leading 3-5 business days.
- In interesting news, if you have CIEMs from another manufacturer that fit like a glove, you can send them in to be scanned and have a UE pair made that fits identically.
Ultimately Modern
Nowadays, impressions received are electronically scanned by a 3D scanner to create a CAD (Computer Animated Design) file, tagged with a unique ID, and compared to the physical impression. A quality check is performed to make sure the electronic and physical version are identical before continuing.
The digital file is then passed to UE’s technicians, who cut and trim your impressions to the perfect shape. If the resulting e-file passes the test, off to the 3D printer they go. The shells that come out are compared to the electronic impressions to ensure accuracy, then sent to an ultrasonic cleaner to tidy up before the real work begins.
The Human Touch
Despite the fantastic advances in manufacturing, some things still require the touch of a skilled craftsman. Once the shells are clean and polished, they go into an order pouch which specifies the model the customer ordered. A technician takes the right mix of UE’s proprietary balanced armatures and tunes the drivers to match the “golden curve”. You'll be glad to know that very strict requirements are in place to ensure both sets of drivers sound identical to the ears.
Once tuned satisfactorily, the balanced armatures are then outfitted and secured into the shells. There's another quality check performed to make sure dB and frequency response haven't changed after being handled. After that, faceplates are attached, cut, buffed, and shined to perfection. If you asked for a custom faceplate, rest assured that each one is made under the watchful eye of UE’s talented designer.
Following yet another round of testing, everything comes together – the specific cable you asked for, your laser-engraved case, your cleaning tools and all the paperwork are tidily packaged together in a plastic container, then taken to a table to undergo a final quality check. If everything tests in the green, the order is put in a box, sealed, and ready to ship out to the end customer.
If you read back through this process, it’s amazing how many quality checks UE has in place. Every step taken is followed by a test to make sure nothing’s gone wrong. Speaking as an owner of multiple CIEMs (including UE's), this kind of obsessive attention to detail is exactly what you want to see from a manufacturer.
The Show Goes On
Just when you’re ready to give Ultimate Ears a round of applause for their new 3D printing system, UE has more in store.
Getting ear impressions can be a trying process. If it's not done right the first time, a frustrating second trip to the audiologist means spending extra time and money. Identifying this as an area that can be improved, Ultimate Ears is looking to streamline the process.
Unveiled at the beginning of 2015, Ultimate Ears partnered with United Sciences and is working on rolling out 3D digital ear scanning technology to their dealers. I got some hands on time with the scanner, and it’s an amazingly cool (and costly) piece of equipment. Lots of sensors and cameras packed into some cutting-edge technology.
The tip of the scanner goes into your ear, and by skillfully angling the device in various ways, it constructs a 3D image of how the inside of an ear looks. The electronic files can be shot over to Ultimate Ears immediately, further reducing lead time between when you buy the CIEM to when you receive the product in-hand.
What’s even cooler is that Ultimate Ears loaned Massdrop one of these nifty gadgets, so I’ll be practicing on poor, unsuspecting co-workers of mine until my electronic scanning chops are up to par.
To Sum it Up
Probably my favorite manufacturer visit to-date, Ultimate Ears gave me a really neat behind-the-scenes look at a company that makes really neat stuff. A special thank you to the following people:
Mike, for bringing up the fantastic idea to come check out how UE does things.
David, for being a killer host and connecting me with all the right people to talk to for this article.
Noy, for a detailed tour through Ultimate Ears’ manufacturing processes. What a rock star.
If you're ever in the Irvine area, give Ultimate Ears a call and go check out their facilities for yourself. Whether you're a manufacturing geek, a CIEM enthusiast (they have every model they sell in a demo version), or just looking to kill some time with some cool people, it's definitely a visit worth making.
