Periodic Audio Embraces Direct Sales Model and Drops IEM Prices

Periodic Audio, the IEM company created in 2016 by consumer-electronics industry veterans Dan Wiggins, Mike Kim, Zeke Burgess, and Ben Webster, announced that the company will move to a direct sales model and as a result will pass distribution cost-savings to its customers. Effectively immediately, Periodic Audio announced a significant price reduction for its line of V3 in-ear monitors launched earlier in 2022.

In this report, Klasco once again shares his knowledge with loudspeaker enclosures and reports on the progress in enclosure materials and technologies in 2020. And if someone has interesting things to share about wood enclosures, composites, plastics, improved plastic-based formulas, ABS/PA (polyimide), thermoset and thermoplastic resins, bulk-molded and sheet-molded thermosets and more, it's certainly Mike Klasco. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2020.

The AES is set to hold its second International Headphone Technology Conference, August 27–29 at the Golden Gate Club, Presidio, San Francisco, CA, offering three days of presentations, sessions, demonstrations, and more, all dedicated to headphone technology. Mobile Spatial Audio, Individualization, Assistive Listening and Audio for Augmented Reality offer new areas of study and innovation for this year’s conference.

In the first part of this article, Mike Klasco discussed the contribution of the enclosure on perceived overall product quality as well as sonic clarity. This second part of the article looks closely at material testing, evaluation and manufacturability, and other more recent approaches to enclosure materials, including Thermosets and Thermoplastics, Bulk-Molded and Sheet-Molded Thermosets. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2019.

Voice Coil May 2019 features an overview of Asian speaker manufacturing outside of China, with a detail portrait country by country. Mike Klasco reports on Loudspeaker Enclosure Materials, focusing on new and improved material alternatives. James Croft reviews a new patented design from Harman to improve reproduction in boundary-coupled systems, and in Test Bench, Vance Dickason characterizes two new 1” compression drivers, one from Celestion, and another from SB Audience, a new brand from SB Acoustics targeting pro audio applications. All this and the usual Industry Watch updates, now ready to download!

For the January 2019 edition of Voice Coil magazine, Mike Klasco and Nora Wong have compiled a special Focus article on New Materials for Earphones and Headphones. For those looking to differentiate their new products, the two Menlo Scientific consultants provide a unique and valuable perspective on multiple possibilities and designs for drivers, materials for assemblies and enclosures, choices for headbands and ear cushions, signal processing, and even cables.

Global specialty plastics provider Eastman collaborated with lifestyle audio brand Skullcandy to create a new wireless headphone that lives up to the brand's design pillar of "built for adventure" due to the inherent toughness and chemical resistance of Eastman Tritan copolyester. Used on the headphone's headband, Tritan offers chemical resistance to skin oils and hair products, making it ideal for this application.

audioXpress February 2019 is now available online and in the mail to all subscribers and will be distributed at the Winter NAMM show 2019 in Anaheim, CA. And to match the exciting environment, we reviewed the new d:vote 4099 CORE Instrument Microphone from DPA Microphones, visit Pascal to learn more about its pro audio amplifier modules, explore transformer-coupled balanced output circuits, and much more. There's even a DIY project for a disc recording stereo head. Really. A must read!