Even though it was seen as a rather controversial step – and a little tacky, Amazon had a good reason to add a smile logo to the outside of the Echo Amazon (2nd Gene) of the true wireless earbud.

According to the head of the company’s audio, people continue to make mistakes.

“We found that with our first generation, people really put them upside down or backward,” said Phil Hilmes, Audio Director on the Team of the Device & Service Amazon. “It’s understandable if you haven’t put a couple before, and some people have a very big ear so they really fit there upside down.”

You read it correctly, Amazon must put a smile logo there to prevent people to wear upside down earbuds.

“Having a smile logo really helped them say, ‘Okay, this is the right way this gets there’ and it helps direct the microphone to your mouth while staying smooth.”

Complicated space balance, better sound, better battery life and price point

There is a long proverb in computer engineering that the product cannot be fast, good and inexpensive, but only two of the three. How Hilmes talks about audio design – and especially the tradeoff that must be made when designing a pair of earbuds such as echo buds – you can say it before.

In discussions with Techradar, Hilmes talked about decisions that would make the 2-generation buds – Choose to enter a full range of distance drivers instead of double design design and establish an efficient noise cancellation algorithm that saves battery life.

“We turned to the dynamic driver on the second gene earbud and the driver’s diameter was 5.7mm – which sounded small, and small – but we decided to make a diameter tradeoff to get better sightseeing so we could really push a lot of air and it helped With so many different things. Of course, it includes a good bass response but also allows us to surround [to reduce pressure buildup].

“We want to make sure we have the best ANC in its class so you have to have a lot of headroom in your low frequency to cancel the noise. We do trade-off with it and its size,” Hilmes said.

Hilmes is the reason Alexa can understand you

While Hilmes did not share too much information about the time working at Lab126, the Amazon Premier Hardware Lab responsible for the creation of Amazon Echo, Echo Show, Echo Studio and Echo Buns, among the dozens of other devices, he has a long history. Innovation in the lab.

As the author of some white papers on the cancellation of noise and echo reduction, voice recognition and sound detection, Hilmes has been responsible for a number of innovations that you see in the Amazon Echo lineup for a better part of a decade now.

“What made me impressed as soon as I joined [LAB126] was the startup mentality of the whole place. I know it’s common throughout Amazon, but I feel like it’s even more in Lab126: ‘If you have an idea, let’s make it’. Whether it’s something new and creative – like a new algorithm – one of our leadership principles is creating and simplifying. “

That doesn’t mean any product coming out of the perfect Amazon technique wing – as we saw during our last review of Amazon Echo Show 15 – but that means that the team handles new problems and looks for ways to innovate what is already out there