The Germans prove once again that they are the best engineers in the world
Das Sound Machine: An Interview with Vision Ears
Who are the people behind your company?
Amin + Marcel started in the In-Ear business with their training in another company that was leading in the field in germany back than more than 15 years ago. Marcel and Amin left this company after 7 years and Marcel co-founded the well known company “Compact Monitors“ and Amin had worked there at a later time. Then after the split of Compact Monitors, Marcel and Amin started Vision Ears in order to make their vision and dreams of great In-Ears come true.
What have you learnt over the years, and how have things changed for you after so long?
We grew up in a time where a 2 driver system was top notch. During the years we learnt a lot about sound and we still see it as an endless journey of discovering new stuff and gaining more experience in how things sound and can sound. On the same time we are always playing with new materials and developing new options to make our In-Ears look classy and individual. One more important point is, that we developed more structures in production over the time to keep up the high quality in sound, look and reliability that characterized our work and products from the beginning on.
What would you say is your design philosophy with IEMs? Is there any particular way you do things that set you guys apart from your competitors?
Basically, we want to create In-Ears that sound not only good but great. Our Sound-Signatures in general tend to be rather subtle and natural than „bigger than life“. In our philosophy, In-Ears should be usable and give the possibility to listen to the music how it was created and not extremely overdraw certain frequencies in order to gain a first impression. We are trying to stay open for new technologies and ways to build our In-Ears. For example: we developed a completely new way of forming the shells for our new VE8, which gave us an enormous effect for the sound of the high frequency range. That is a lot of work, blood, sweat and tears. But it is worth it.
What were your design goals for the VE5?
We wanted to create a sound-signature that is as open and airy as the VE6, but with a focus on outstanding clarity, precision and shining highs. We think we’ve done that.
Specific to the VE5, how did you create that amazing sense of air behind every note? It feels like every single note is being lifted and carried endlessly away.
What we can say is: It has to do with a lot detailed work of listening, changing tiniest parts and listening again to bring everything into balance. And we were very ambitious in avoiding harshness by reducing specific frequencies.
With the release of the new VE8, what kind of role would you see the VE5 in your line-up?
The VE5 still is the go-to In-Ear for all vocal-lovers and those who are looking for an In-Ear with a bit more high-mid/highs than average, without having to stand harshness.
What do you think about the current trends in the IEM market? How do you see the market evolving in future?
We think it is great that there are so many different companies now that are each working on their own idea of how their In-Ears should sound. This diversity creates a huge pool of inspiration and possibilities for all customers, who love music and sound. We think in the meantime that the driver war is over and we can proudly say that we never participated it. Now all companies are exploring other boundaries by offering special features or techniques which sets them apart from the others. Just as we did with the VE6 Xcontrol. This makes more sense to us than putting more and more drivers inside an earphone to justify a higher price. It happened so often, that customers tell us that our 5 or 6 driver model sound so much better than other earphones with much more drivers. That’s exactly the point, because a good sound shape is not a matter of driver counts, but always a matter of tuning skills, focusing on a sound you want to achieve and to work it out until the finest details.
What else can we look forward to from your company?
Our plan is to come up with new models more frequently. The last two developments took approx. 2 years and we think this is a too long time. We are also planning to update the older models at some time…. But I cannot tell too much about new TOTL earphones, but let me say we have some surprises in the pocket 😉
