Problems, issues, desperation

A lot has happened lately and because so many are repeatedly asking about the eventual release of the UBOOM L I finally decided to share this info with you as I want to remain as transparent as possible with what I am doing.

I received the first production sample of the UBOOM L some days ago which nearly made me quit and abandon the entire project. With the experience I managed to make with most audio products so far I was somehow afraid of sample variation from the very beginning therefore I also stopped shooting the spontaneous video which was planned to celebrate and demo the final production unit as the difference in sound compared to my unit was just too high. The entire essence of my sound was gone, although my wife didn’t notice any difference and claimed I was crazy, when looking at the measured delta between the production unit and both my pre-samples I was using for tuning the deviation is simply too high.

A 6-7db peak at 11khz with a dip above is definitely hearable and makes the treble sound just as crappy as from all those Tronsmart, Mifa, Zealot and all the other Chinese wannabe crap speakers. I told Earfun that I am immediately abandoning this project and don’t want my person to be involved in any marketing or promotion of this product as I would be ashamed of letting people pay money for this and hear that kind of sound with my name standing behind. It’s still unclear if I want to continue or if I should throw in the towel and forget about everything and rather warn you not to buy it. It all depends on what kind of solution Earfun wants to offer. For them the difference in sound doesn’t matter as they only want to sell those products, I actually don’t care about the product if it doesn’t even remotely sound close to what I intended. I prefer doing without any sales provision which won’t make me rich anyhow, than promoting some product which I cannot stand by. That’s the current problem I am dealing with, which makes me depressed.

Although Earfun claims that there is no difference in materials or parts between the production unit and the preproduction units I was using, there must have been some obvious change in the driver as the driver resonance obviously shifted down. I hardly doubt that this is just due to too high tolerances or sample variation because in reality the new driver seems to even perform better with a more even dispersion off axis which would indicate a different dust cap or some other change of the driver’s features.

After the first shock and a sleepless night I tried my best and wasted the next day to retweak my EQ towards this new unit and managed to make it sound even better than my previous units because it remained smoother and clearer sounding off axis. This should also be visible from comparative off axis measurements with both drivers side by side which I haven’t performed yet, but I used this given opportunity to also optimise other features of my tuning like an additional compression on higher frequencies at higher levels to avoid any shrillness if bass gets reduced but treble seems rather boosted, at the same time I readjusted the bass compression at high levels to get an even fuller sound with most tracks I tried being still played clean. And on top of this I also readjusted the outdoor tuning because it appeared a bit harsh to me so far but due to better off axis performance this new driver (in case it’s really some significant design change and not just some random variation) doesn’t need such a strong boost, thus outdoor mode sounds smoother and more natural now with less treble but better defined. On top of this the new driver seems to also reach slightly lower in bass as visible from the measured delta, it has slightly more response at 60hz although I couldn’t consciously notice such a big difference, it’s definitely better to have more bass than less.

Now it’s up to Earfun to decide how to proceed. I suggested a new firmware for all units produced so far, which means with most units already shipped to the Amazon warehouses, it would require a manual update by the end user once he receives his unit. But I already foresee all those other problems: I have no Windows PC, I am on Mac, I have only an iPad, blah blah. The firmware update must be performed manually with an own Pc tool, there is no OTA option etc.

Another unknown factor is if really all produced units will have a similar driver performance like the unit I just received or do all drivers do their own thing? That’s why Earfun wants to send me another production sample as soon as possible but I requested at least 2 further units to check how much they all differ. Now the weekend came in between, therefore I have no idea what they decided. But only then I can offer them to optimise my tuning towards these new units in case they all resemble each other, if the other 2 units will again be different, it simply doesn’t make any sense from my side to waste any further minute on this project and I can only ask for apologies having you excited about it in the first place.

As I never signed any contract so far, I can easily tell them to leave me alone with all this which would definitely also mean the end of any possible future collaboration with Earfun. As mentioned financially this wouldn’t be such a huge loss especially thanks to all the support I am getting from you, but my hope was to maybe get more involved into a possible Free Pro 3 in future to finally get a decent IEM with all tunings accessible through an app with additional access to the fully parametric EQ.