How HARD is it to make your own earphones? 

This video is more focused on IEM _production_ rather than tuning, but it's already half an hour long so I'll probably do the "How hard is it to tune IEMs" version of this video separately later on. Maybe. Eventually. We'll see.

Making your own IEM brand means gambling with your own money, collabs are much safer!

*Crin makes video explaining how hard manufacturing is.* - *Crin makes video explaining how hard tuning is.* - *Crin makes his own IEM now that he’s finished doing the research.*

Excellent vid. A lot of people have no idea about all the different costs go into this stuff. Part of the issue as well though is that there absolutely ARE brands that are scamming folks and releasing products at absurdly high price tags as well. I think this is at least in part the cause of some dissonance in the community on this topic - even the more reasonably priced stuff gets painted with the price gouging brush, and then we see dumb reactions like "it's not proportional to the material cost!!" when that's not really the issue in the first place.

i love it when crinacle drops a iem collaboration and starts crining all over the place

There's a reason why MANY one-man DIY'ers start in China, more specifically, Shenzhen, China. First, in Shenzhen, you can get raw material for CHEAP, almost near bulk pricing if you can haggle hard enough, or have connections, just be careful to not get scammed. Second, you can rent or buy secondhand molds, stamps, etc, maybe from other brands/factories that didn't use it anymore, and that will save you maybe some tens of thousands of dollars, at least in upfront cost. Third, Shenzhen is electronics prototyping heaven, any driver you can imagine, any cable material, any... anything, someone probably sell it there that you can grab and start testing with it immediately instead of waiting for it to be sent from China to Singapore for example. And fourth, assuming you already made it into the big league and have a factory making stuff for you, the factory will most likely be in Shenzhen too, so if you encounter any weird yield issue with the IEM for example, well, you can just visit the factory or talk with someone there to figure out what the problem is and maybe try to fix it if possible. And of course, even with ALL those advantages, starting a brand is still not an easy task to do, even for someone in Shenzhen. Many tried and many failed, most didn't even reach our ears. And I guess taking this road is VERY risky, labor intensive, with not a lot of initial return. You need connections, lots of $, skills (in audio, management, marketing, and potentially many others), and a pair of steel balls. Now, crin isn't even in Shenzhen and that will be a HUGE handicap right from the get-go. Not to mention the initial cost... Unless he can woo some bigshot investor with millions of dollars, I don't think making his own brand will be a realistic goal.

My Favourite Measurbator 🤤

00:24 - Oh, I do know, yes. Now add "Brazil" to the equation and you unlock the Ultimate "Beelzebub" Boss Level.

I'm impressed. Not a lot of youtubers these days will tell you how to make your own stuff. They're always pushing for a certain brand. Thanks for explaining to a layman like me that it's not rocket science to make an IEM. That is the sign of a great man who wants others to succeed too. You have my sub.

Thanks for letting the community know how hard it can get to make an iem. Cheers and hope this dream never dies

Going along with the restaurant analogy, that’s precisely why food critics don’t open restaurants. Some may lend their name to promote a place, but running their own business is a very different challenge altogether

It's not just iem it's just manufacturing in general. it's hard when you scale something up 100-1000times.

Hey Crin, this is a fascinating video. I always knew it wasn't as simple as I thought, but even then hearing it described in great detail was fascinating. Huge thanks!

Yes and yes. I started 2 years ago my iem Brand (deer ear) and is a cool live...but.... so so so many of work!

so the resume is: it cost a lot, so we need to make crinacle ultra famous in order to create crowdfunding and thats it

Great video about the behind-the-scene of iem manufacturing. Thanks for doing this! Would love to hear more about how some of your past collabs made you better at what you do through this deeper understanding of both business and science...

Crinacle answers dummy internet question by amazingly good explaining how work the entire business of humanity

thanks for (another) very good informative video for the masses.

I'm involved in this process right now.....this is the best explanation I've seen of the "fun" that is creating your own IEM/Headphone products and getting them to market.

4:39 EARTHQUAKE

That was great. I really enjoyed that. What next, a tour of a factory with a company you've collaborated with?

Great video!

Good info, thanks

1 take away from 3D printing is that if you work in gun manufacture you can essentially make the shells for "cheap" as they typically employ all these manufacture techniques... :X

I hope you can start your own brand one day. Cheering for you crinacle 🤗

Awesome work. Finally something to point folks toward who have been spoiled by ever-cheaper and better IEMs.

I don't even really care about IEMs and this is one of my favorite channels on RU-vid.

I'm a figure collector that spend way too much time listening to and watching videos. Every part of this video, made sense and didn't shock me.

Hi Crin. Thanks for this content. Have you stopped reviewing iems or rating them on your ranking list as well?

Hey Mr Crin, my Dusk's arrived today, Moondrop and you made something special, Thanks

I own every IEM that you've collaborated with. Waiting for the Dusk to arrive. Will always support you, I know that industry is hard.

Hi-Fri iem on the thumbnail !!!. miss you Hi-Fri

After watching the whole video the questions are: How many offers have you declined to a IEM/Headphone company to be their "final user experience manager", "tuner" or similar role? As a design engineer, I've always wanted to know how do you tune a driver. Would it be possible to have a video talking about that? When you design something the repetitiveness of a product is key, and with something that, with only a minor defect in the shell could modify the sound... Awesome video as usual!

Thanks for explaining how manufacturing works. Manny in the US for sure don't understand manufacturing. Everything can't cost $50 and why " it's not worth that much" is not the way you look at things. I love when you see people say "I could make that" with no clue what goes into manufacturing. It's why I get so mad when politicians push that lie about " brining manufacturing back". Do they understand how much that would cost companies to do that. And why it will never happen, it's all about the bottom line people. Receved the Dusk a few days ago and love it. You did a great job and it was well worth the wait. Buy Dusk.

This is actually a cool intro video to how manufacturing companies work

Excellent cautionary tale for all the hobbyists with aspirations of selling hardware. If the most experienced hobbyist on the planet has tried to get into IEM manufacturing and not been successful, that is a great illustration of the height of the economic barriers that exist for all but the most well-positioned few that prevent the average hobbyist from finding market success.

I think a lot of people would be interested on a video about making a DIY iem, just for educational purpose.

… How the f&@! did Moondrop make such an awesome $20 IEM? Holy cow never knew what a feat that was!

Collabs are a win-win when done well. You get 95+% of the tuner's desired sound at 1/3rd the cost. Add to that improved QC and collabs make a ton of sense. That said, I hope Crin is able to start his own IEM company at some point.

Thank GOD I watched this video today, as I was just about to purchase a pair of Campfire Audio earphones!

I would imagine the capital investment costs are quite significant to even begin producing an IEM: - prototyping/molds - manufacturing assets (factory, equipment, trained production personnel, etc.) - tooling/injection mold - programming production assets/setup - QA and inspection processes to validate a new product - component inventory procurement - laboratory test equipment - software licensing of analytical tools - time & means of qualified technicians and consultants - legal and contracting efforts to establish inbound and outbound supply/distribution channels - warehousing and WMS (component supplies, packaging materials, WIP materials, finished goods) - project management - marketing/communication materials - packaging (board suppliers, printers/converters, etc.) - warranty/returns - ETC... The actual direct materials costs of each IEM may be a small fraction of the retail sales price...but the CAPITAL investment is massive in comparison. The more bespoke and complex the product...the lower the production speeds...the higher the price. Companies that standardize on common packaging, common components, and common shells, with minimum differentiation where possible across SKU's...benefit from economies of scale. Vertical integration of key components, where possible, would also take out margins from inbound supply chains and help drive down standard variable costs...assuming adequate sales volumes and throughput.

I hope you do another tws video, example Moondrop Space Travel

great. learnt a lot. just have an idea that could it be possible to make an assembled earphone with only shell itself and typical hot plug unit...

Cheaper driver also means less consistent driver SQ are among the thousand being produced, One particular makers/reviewers HiFri, are often buying a group of the same driver and do consistency check on the drivers before using them for his DIY or recommending them to other iem makers.

discussing with elysian acoustic “guy”, it is insane to have an iem created on that level coming from a single person

Do you recommend any bullet style iem? (the straight cable ones i found they are called bullet style but I'm not sure tbh)

Yeah man right so , I'm so proud of your explanation about this problem, with the making your own Brand!, to many don't understand! Until now😅, I hope so, but I would appreciate if y really consider to making one👍

Nice. Real question - Where does KZ store all their IEMs?

We an example here in Brazil with Kuba Audio. It was a huge challenge for them.

Return of the Soon™

Are studio headphones better for fps games or are iems better for fps games and what studio headphones are like the best for hearing for example footsteps from a certain direction or are iems better and then what iems should i get or what studio headphones should I get

Soon? Can't wait for the Cri-Fi era

Sir, could u make a video on nothing ear. Because IEMs aside..with the dac and the hassle of the wired iems... nothing ear(with the weird naming) i guess is the closest to a 20 $ iem....with LHDC 5.0 ensuring high res audio. So convenience wise...while travelling...does that make a good replacement of a moondrops chu 2 or something like that?

Can someone explain what layering in iems is.

A lot of things in this video is not specific to IEMs but they are just general things you need to do to start up your own business. You have an advantage in that you actually already have quite a reputable brand recognition. If you make your own IEMs, they will sell. (as long as you don’t charge ridiculous prices)

sonion EST's cost 150 bucks per unit lets say you are confident and order 10000 of them for 60 bucks per unit but this is still cost of one single whispy driver.

when you made a little kz joke, i got it even though I am not really into IEM's. Why did i get it? because I had bought a pair of KZ iem's based off of dank pods recommendation. They sounded like they were having 100x the amount of power run through them and that the drivers had come apart in the shell. I RMA'ed mine and got a new pair. It was the same issue.

the last time i directly asked a factory to make my stuff, it was a custom cut acoustic mineral wool of a weird dimension, MOQ starts at half a 20HC. It's low enough for me, i ordered 1.5 20HC in the end, still have like some 40 packs of it left. Crin is right, it's not like you want to start a brand and just make stuff out of thin air.

I think the follow up question would be: How do you ensure all your collab partners that you don't leak their secret sauce intentionally or otherwise to your other collabs? As in how do you ensure your collab partners that the expertise that you bring to the table is based on your personal experience but not additional knowledge gained from collaborating with other partners? Or that your knowledge from your current collab partners' secret sauce doesn't get shared to future collab partners?

I'd like to see Fatfreq run larger outputs and drive down their costs. I'm very interested to try their stuff.

Hey bud quick question how are the basn mmvx and the basn asone

This also clearly explains how moondrop could release similar iem's at prices trending down quite a lot. With volume they can make a comfortable margin at a lower price. In turn selling more.

With planar iem all i need is single planar driver and it will have decent layering then it's the tuning i have to put real effort on

Crin accidentally explained about the general manufacturing concept just to explain how to make IEM😂

Excellent vid

7hz Zero 2 with a bit of EQ are ridiculously good for ~25$, thank you :)

why do so many companies design iems with nozzle bigger than 6mm? who are they designing these for? you know eartips add like 2.5mm to that already large 6~6.5 mm nozzle...

Can you review the SWEEAR SR-11s?

Hello guys! I am looking to buy new headphones. I currently have X2HR with oratory EQ which are sufficient, but I am looking for something new, mainly I would like something with best detail and technicalities in general. Currently I had a look at HE400SE which are 130 euros, Sundaras which are 350 euros, and HD 600 which are 330 euros. Also I am used to the wide soundstage which X2HRs provide. I am not worried about the tuning since I am probably gonna run oratory's. Also I do not own an amp or a dac, so a suggestion for that is also welcome. My budget is upwards 400 euros (not including amp or dac) Different recommendations are also welcome, however I am looking only for open backs. tl;dr: Looking for new open-back headphones with great detail and technicalities, currently considering HE400SE, Sundara, and HD 600. Budget is upwards of €400 (not including amp/DAC). Prioritize wide soundstage and open to other recommendations.

Crin, will Dusk sell on amazon again ?

Crinacle i have one request please make a review of Logitech G pro x gaming headset. It comes with a dac which has eq options in its app and i feel like they are really good for gaming. I would really like to know your opinion.

Can you test the #1 headphone sold in Brazil? It's by Havit. I'm very happy with mine

What about electroplating 3d shells ?

I think the thought of "audio(phile) company is scamming everyone" kinda comes from just how cheap those shitty 10$ pair of headsets are. They don't realize that those 10$ shitcans™ doesn't get tuned whatsoever and just made in the cheapest way possible in terms of material and build quality. They look at that 10$ plastic junk and then look at the dusk for example, and start making assumptions. I mean, I kinda get it. Looking at those kilobuck+++ pairs can quickly get you questioning where the hell did that price tag come from? But what we never realized is these things comes with all the cost crin mentioned in material alone, plus lots and lots of hours for R&D, tuning, tooling, rent, and marketing. And I guess without looking at those directly, many just have difficulty conceptualizing it.

please do a review for jbl and altec lansing

Not related to the video but what do you guys recommend for under $200 true wireless earbuds for my casual listening? - Wireless Charging and 8 Hours Battery

Crin can just start a kickstarter campaign.

14:04 die cast construction, it's a lost art

crinacle is your brand

aful performer5 box in the back... review it already!!

Looking for some IEM's had some ZE8000 but they shat themselves (left bud died and they wont fix it) anyone have any recommendations??????? (Please)

break down process in industry!

Love that you call out all those big mouth clowns online who spew garbage when they actually have less than zero understanding about how things really work in the real world. Those people are hysterical and not in a good way. More like a OMG how sad they are way...

And yet people always complain about nuances in a pair of $20-50 iem when it genuinely sound and built good, they should really experience the age in which some half-decent items only start at $200. (Toxic mmorpg/old man mind set)

wow, thats new, i know the MOQ and others, but dang those proper drivers costs that much ? cant imagine how the usa old school brands would have to kill to make them stay afloat

As someone who resin prints, it can be a pain to dial in the settings as well to get the quality right and keep the failure rate down. These settings change with each resin type you use.

Very interesting. Since time is a limited resource, it is probably better for everyone to limit themselves to doing what they do best, perhaps giving up the greatest gain, but with less risk, and perhaps more professional satisfaction?

Elysian is the perfect example of "not the best value for money but best in budget." As an owner of both a Diva and Gaea they are my 2 favorite IEMs and 100% worth the money for me, but at the same time not something I would recommend to an average enthusiast since there are definitely much better value for money IEMs out there.

Does Linsoul pay VAT for import into germany ?

Ok I'm convinced now, so I have a better idea instead of making your own IEM brand, what if you update ur ranking list instead :P

why are there so many aful iems at the back?

i acidentally enter a Economy Class video

bro gave us free business school

Muse dash just announced they are having a colab with Moondrop, hope to see your review soon ❤

Review Simgot EM10 please

A suprising amount of people dont understand how buissness work - as for retail; we generelly have a 24% increase from market value to pay for staff, rental and other costs down the line such as upkeep for the machine that gives paybak on bottles

come to jb , open your factory there :D

I lost it when someone commented "My favourite measurebator" 😭😭

Kickstarter?

Moondrop phone review when?