Sleek Audio Facility Tour

Filed under: Headphones > In-Ear Headphones



I've been lucky enough over the last couple years to have been granted access to some amazing companies in the audio industry that still have their roots in the good 'ole USA; JL Audio, Grado Labs and TC Sounds (Audiopulse) just to name a few, and now Sleek Audio. Sleek is the new kid on the block when it comes to earphones and we were given an opportunity to drop by and harass them for a day while snapping some pics for you guys.

To fully understand how Sleek Audio has garnered such a positive reputation in such a short amount of time, you need to first understand how they came to be. Sleek Audio is truly a family operation, and in this day and age of lifeless corporations with automated assembly lines, I have a vast amount of respect for that. Mark and Jason Krywko are the father-son team that head up the company in Bradenton, Florida with numerous highly trained and experienced employees. Mark Krywko has 28 years in the hearing aid industry in addition to being an accredited Audioprosthologist. In 1988 he founded his Florida based practice where they manufacture custom hearing aids and perform hearing tests on patients. His son Jason (who is now Board Certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences) grew up around his father's business and at a very young age began learning about how the ears interact with sound.

A number of years back Mark was having trouble finding a pair of earphones that he liked and one day decided to use his expertise in custom hearing aids to make a pair of earphones for himself. The first pair turned out so well that Jason wanted a pair, and then of course other family members started requesting them and the two realized that they were onto something. The ideas started flowing from there and after numerous prototypes they decided upon a tunable earphone that would allow the user to completely adjust the acoustic signature according to their taste. After three years of continuous designing and testing, the first-ever completely adjustable in-ear earphone system was patented and the Sleek Audio SA6's were born.

Now that you have a bit of background info on Sleek Audio, it's on to the facility tour...


Currently Sleek Audio has two products, the highly regarded SA6 earphones and the new Sleek Custom Molded in-ear monitors (I raved about them not too long ago). You'll get to see a bit of both in these pictures.


This is one of the testing chambers at the facility and the one I had my hearing tested in. I sat in there and listened to a pair of headphones while Jason created signals of varying frequency and volume for my left and right ears.



The Audiometer used to create the signals for the hearing test.


The new Sleek Custom earphone that will be officially released in the very near future. They are the very first custom earphones that are offered with top plate cords (shown) or front mount cords that allows the consumer to decide how they want to route their cable. The translucent blue Custom pictured at the very top has the front mount cord.


The burn-in table for the SA6's. Every SA6 earphone is burned in for 24 hours prior to receiving a final quality control inspection and performance test.


This is the measurement device used to test the frequency response of the earphones. An individual acoustic chamber is used to test every single unit (SA6's and Customs) with a frequency sweep to make sure the earphone is performing to spec.







Silicon molds that will be used for a pair of Custom earphones.


Casting of an ear mold used in the custom earphone/hearing aid process.


Ear mold cast shown with wax ear mold (red) and unfinished hearing aid shell.


The Colloid machine shown above injects a thick UV sensitive substance into an impression (shown below). The substance in the impression is then flashed briefly with UV light to create a hardened outer shell. The hollow shell has all of the components placed inside before being filled and completely hardened with UV light.


Impression for the Colloid machine that is used to make the shell.


The second testing chamber that is also the larger of the two.




The Audiometer for the second chamber.


A Tymponometer that is used to measure mobility and flexibility of the eardrum as well as the amount of air in the ear canal.


Click on the image above for a large version of my hearing test results. Not too shabby except for a slight dip at 6 kHz in my right ear. Normal hearing tests only cover 125-8000Hz, but I've been talking with Jason about doing a hearing test on me up to 20 kHz just for the hell of it.

That sums up the Sleek Audio facility tour. I've said it before and I'll say it again, these guys have an amazing amount of experience and passion behind their products and it shows.

You can visit their website at the link below.