An outside read on one product, from someone who has designed, measured, and manufactured headphones.
You send a prototype or a shipping unit. I measure it, listen to it critically, and deliver a written report on what the design is doing, what it is trading off, and what I would change.
Two weeks. Fixed fee. No ongoing commitment.
The listener the design actually serves, which is not always the one on the spec sheet.
The two or three decisions the whole product rests on.
The design choice that explains the character of the product.
Every headphone trades something. Naming it out loud is how you defend it or fix it.
How it reads against your own line and against the market it lands in.
Plus measurements, and a short list of specific changes ranked by what they would cost you to make.
First employee at Grace Design, building high-end microphone preamps and headphone amplifiers still used in studios worldwide.
Fourteen years at HeadRoom Corporation, from product management through President and CEO. Full P&L. Designed and launched the Coda and Overture amplifier and DAC products. Built and ran the dealer network alongside direct sales.
Self-funded headphone R&D through to three working prototypes with even response and extended low end. Consulted Menlo Scientific on the design. Traveled to Japanese headphone shows and Philippine manufacturing facilities to evaluate production partners.
Author of The Art and Science of Headphone Design.
Currently building Warren Labs: measurement, correction software, and makerphones, an open-source 3D-printable headphone project.
Product teams get close to a design. That closeness is what makes the product good, and it is also what makes the last few decisions hard to see.
I am not going to tell you what your product should be. I am going to tell you what it currently is, in terms you can act on, from someone who has been on the other side of the same decisions.
Tell me what you're working on and where it is in the process. I'll confirm the fit before anything is booked.