Loudspeakers are foundational to industries ranging from entertainment and communications to critical applications in medical and military settings. Their design demands a deep understanding of sound and acoustics and careful consideration of each application's unique challenges, whether that involves harsh environments or precise sound reproduction.
At the core of this process are creativity, rigorous testing, and precise modeling. These elements seamlessly integrate to craft solutions that meet exacting performance standards, ensuring each loudspeaker delivers exceptional reliability and sound tailored to its purpose.
Establishing Requirements for an OEM Audio Solution
When engineers at a loudspeaker original equipment manufacturer (OEM) receive a request for a new custom-designed loudspeaker driver or system, they begin by collaborating with customers to outline the project's goals. This step ensures a shared understanding of the application's demands and lays the groundwork for the design process. Their first task is to define precise statistical parameters, ensuring the design will meet expectations across three critical categories:
- Performance: Frequency response, sensitivity, power handling, and impedance are the primary specifications.
- Mechanical: Mounting requirements based on available space, including speaker diameter, depth, and weight.
- Environmental Factors: Factors such as indoor or outdoor exposure, power source, temperature variances, chemical resistance, flame resistance, and other potentially compromising conditions.
With these parameters in place, the sales engineer evaluates whether an existing product meets the outlined requirements. If an off-the-shelf solution is not viable, they consider potential customizations to existing designs. When neither option suffices, a design engineer will get involved and initiate the process of creating a fully customized loudspeaker tailored to the customer's unique needs.
Establishing How Many, When, and the Cost-per-Unit
Effective cost planning is essential in ensuring that custom loudspeaker production aligns with budgetary constraints and project timelines. Without detailed analysis, costs can escalate due to economies of scale, sourcing decisions, or production inefficiencies. Here's a breakdown of the key steps and considerations:
Cost Analysis and Planning
- Define critical cost factors: Review performance, mechanical, and environmental parameters, projected production volumes, and target costs based on the anticipated selling price.
- Identify essential costing elements:
- Size of the speaker
- Power handling expectations
- Magnet types
- Cone body and edge materials
- Unique treatments for extreme conditions
Supply Chain and Manufacturing Considerations
- Delivery location: Determine whether the speakers will be delivered within the US or internationally.
- Stock requirements: Decide if the OEM should carry finished stock, safety stock, or stock-to-order.
- Inventory management: Evaluate the need for a vendor-managed inventory (VMI) system for just-in-time inventory.
- Assembly integration: Consider whether the OEM should manage additional assembly steps to minimize handling costs.
Manufacturing Location Decisions
While many OEMs focus on production in Asia, some, like MISCO, provide both US and Asia manufacturing options. Each option has distinct benefits:
- Asia production: Cost-effective for large-scale orders and international deliveries.
- US production: Ideal for North American deliveries, offering shorter lead times, reduced freight costs, and easier communication throughout the process.
Finalizing Agreements
Once these decisions are finalized, a comprehensive agreement outlining specifications, acceptance criteria, and any applicable development costs is established with the customer. This ensures alignment between the OEM and client expectations, enabling a seamless production process.
Creating Loudspeaker Prototypes
Once the specifications and commercial requirements are agreed upon, designers render engineering drawings and create a Bill of Materials to solicit cost proposals from prospective suppliers. Functional samples and prototypes are then assembled for customer review and testing. Advances in acoustical design software and 3D printing technology have revolutionized this process, enabling faster iteration and refinement of designs.
Prototypes serve as a critical step in validating design assumptions and identifying potential improvements before full-scale production. These prototypes pave the way for rigorous performance testing, ensuring the design aligns with both technical requirements and customer expectations.
Stringent Speaker Performance Testing
At this point, rigorous performance testing protocols should be used to measure each parameter, ensuring all specifications of the samples meet or exceed agreed-upon performance levels. This is critical for applications that demand exceptional reliability or precise sound reproduction.
Acoustical testing involves advanced analyses, including Klippel small signal (LPM) and large signal (LSI) analysis, to measure key factors such as total harmonic distortion (THD), intermodulation distortion (IMD), power handling, maximum output, power threshold, and sound pressure level. Each of these metrics is essential for evaluating a loudspeaker's overall performance.
A revolutionary new Klippel Near Field Scanner (NFS) technology relies on robotics to measure a speaker's performance in 3D and provides even more insight into the speaker's performance. Testing in a Klippel vacuum chamber can remove the impact of air on how a speaker performs. This is especially useful when testing microspeakers. Laser scanning can be used to detect precisely how a transducer cone is vibrating and help diagnose audio problems as well.
Long-term power or environmental testing can determine the equipment's durability and useful life, often required for military, aerospace, medical, and other clients who need exceptional reliability in their speakers. After the OEM is satisfied it has met the agreed-upon specifications, prototypes should be sent to the customer or to a quality control (QC) expert for analysis and evaluation in the anticipated application and environment where the speakers will be used. If the OEM has done its job correctly, your evaluation should go smoothly and quickly.
Gearing Up Speaker Production
Once the prototypes and samples have proven to perform as planned, you place the Purchase Order with the OEM and activate their supply chain to procure all necessary materials. Once materials are received, the production team builds and tests initial loudspeaker units to streamline larger-scale production. An end-of-line testing routine is created. A robust quality control process ensures the finished products meet expected quality standards unit to unit, batch to batch, and year to year. Each speaker produced should undergo thorough performance testing, frequency response tests, impedance measurements, and distortion evaluations before being shipped to you.
Ordering a custom speaker for your exact application doesn't have to be daunting or expensive if you have chosen an experienced and trustworthy loudspeaker manufacturing partner to help you through the process.
Partnering with Experts for High-Performance Loudspeaker Solutions
Achieving the best audio solutions requires collaboration with a trusted partner who understands the complexities of loudspeaker design. With over 75 years of expertise, MISCO has built a reputation for designing and manufacturing reliable, high-performance loudspeaker systems.
Whether we are designing a custom audio solution for a project or providing an off-the-shelf option, we never compromise on quality. Our comprehensive engineering approach ensures that every product meets rigorous performance and quality standards. By utilizing advanced technologies such as laser scanning and conducting thorough end-of-line testing, we ensure that your loudspeakers will perform flawlessly in any application.
If you're looking for a partner to help you create superior loudspeaker solutions, contact MISCO today. Our team is ready to collaborate and deliver tailored audio solutions that meet your unique needs.
