Redefining "Good Sound" Onkyo Headphone Development Secret

As a HiFi audio manufacturer, Onkyo has gone through more than 60 years of history, and with the arrival of the headset sales boom, Onkyo has also launched a series of earphone products such as ES-HF300 and ES-FC300, as a newcomer to the earphone industry. Inevitably will be questioned by the market, where is the design inspiration for Onkyo headphones? Why use a changeable line design? The story behind the birth of the headset may be more exciting.

Onkyo ES-HF300 and ES-FC300 are closed earmuff headphones, the main difference is the headphone cable and color: the higher end ES-HF300 is equipped with a 6N (99.9999%) ultra-pure copper core with elastomer sheath The headphone cable is only black, and the relatively low-end ES-FC300 is only equipped with a flat elastomer-sheathed headphone cord, available in black, white and purple. However, both headphones are equipped with a detachable MMCX connector, allowing users to freely change the line.

Shiko Azuma, head of Onkyo's product planning department, commented on this headset: "As a manufacturer of high-fidelity audio components, we have been in business for more than 60 years. We want to adhere to the business philosophy of Onkyo. First of all, as our main concept, We put forward the concept of 'high-quality music with you', not just portability.” In order to achieve high-quality music playback on the headset products, Onkyo spent a lot of time to adjust the time, which also led to the time-to-market of the headset. A lot later than planned.

Shiko Azuma also said that the value of the bridge is infused with the value of Onkyo. In fact, in addition to the quality of music and sound, the appearance and feel are also very important to the user experience. Considering the experience of Onkyo in the field of high-fidelity audio, Ann The bridge also wants to provide a consistent texture on the headphones.

The shape of the unit casing of the ES-HF300 and ES-FC300 headphones is easily linked with the knob of the Onkyo audio product. The concentric metal brushed surface on the aluminum casing reflects different gloss with the angle change, and the overall style of the earphone Ryuta Nakadai, the chief designer of Onkyo, has his own opinion: "This design unifies the impression and style of Onkyo's high-fidelity products, and out of shape, we also pay special attention to colors and materials."

The Onkyo headphones are made of aluminum metal. Usually aluminum is more rigid than resin. This makes the outer casing of the earphone thinner. Compared with the same size resin case, the thinner aluminum casing can provide more. The large volume is good for bass reduction, so Anqiao acoustic engineers prefer to use aluminum as the headphone casing instead of resin. In addition, the aluminum casing is colored with a prototype oxidized coating to ensure a uniform color without fading, and the artificial leather earphone cover provides a comfortable wearing feeling. In addition, in order to ensure the consistency of the design, even the small parts such as the MMCX linker are made of aluminum, which overcomes the challenges of curved edges and small aluminum parts in the manufacturing process.

We have doubts about Onkyo, which entered the headset market for the first time. As a long-established audio company, how many earphone technologies does Anqiao have to ensure it enters the headset market?

“The auditory environment in the home and the mobile environment is completely different,” said Hiroyuki Asahara, sound quality engineer at Onkyo R&D. “In consideration of outdoor noise, we have to redefine the standard of sound, adhering to the principle of good high fidelity, we will Vocals are in the first place. According to the survey, most users want to have headphones that faithfully reproduce the nuances of female voices, and maintain a certain sense of rhythm. Onkyo will define the good sound on the headphones.

Asahara also said that Onkyo headphones not only emphasizes the low frequency and high frequency range, but also pays attention to the dynamic charm of the sound. Even if you put the headphones on the table and put them out with headphones, you can feel high quality music. Usually when we take off the earphones and listen to them, the general hearing is noisy and harsh, but the two headphones of Onkyo sound like small speakers: the voice is clear, the instrument is accurately restored from low to high. Even if you put your headphones on your neck or put them on the table, you can enjoy the music. This means that Onkyo headphones can output sound in any environment.

For the material of the headphones, Ashara insists on the use of aluminum metal casing: "In order to have the best sound, the shell material can not be too hard, but it needs to be rigid enough, also for speakers and instruments, based on our experience in the speaker. The aluminum casing is the best choice at the moment."

However, in the early development process, Onkyo also inevitably experienced some errors. For example, in the first prototype earphone, the headphone strap was too short to match the user's ear. Later, Onkyo passed the statistical simulation experiment and let hundreds of staff try on it to design the most ergonomic shape. .

The MMCX linker and the changeable line design are the selling points of the two bridges of Onkyo ES-HF300 and ES-FC300. This point is mainly taken into consideration by the users of the fever. The changeable line means that the user can improve the sound quality through DIY and will choose The device is handed over to the user, so that open-minded ideas are rare in headphones.

In addition to the interchangeable features of the headset, Onkyo is developing a headset-specific app for iOS to enhance the music experience. According to an interview with Anqiao engineers, this headset-specific music app is compatible with all current audio formats (including DSD). Integrating an FIR (Finite Impulse Response) equalizer is more conducive to sound quality tuning than Other types of equalizers. However, the Onkyo headset app is still in the stage of confidential development, and the information such as the date of the shelf is unknown.