UPDATE 02/28/2017
We are proud to announce the addition of two new earphones to join our family alongside the Finder! Introducing our entry level "Traveler" ($99) and new flagship IEM the "Nomad" "$399", an evolutionary next step in our mission to bring world class portable audio products at exceptionally reasonable prices. Pre-order your Traveler and Nomad today at our website, www.echoboxaudio.com.
UPDATE 10/03/2016
The Explorer DAP is no longer on IndieGoGo, but is available for pre-order on our website. If you haven't picked one up yet, or you wanted to grab an extra for family or friends, head over to our pre-order page and reserve yours today!
http://www.echoboxaudio.com/explorer/
UPDATE 4/10/2016
The Finder X1 earphones and Explorer Hi-Res Audio Player are NO LONGER AVAILABLE to purchase through IndieGoGo! If you would like to purchase them still, please head over to our website (www.echoboxaudio.com) and grab one (or more!).
Thank You!!!!
With the support of our amazing backers, we finished our campaign at $66,504...
266% of our original $25,000 goal!
The Story![]()
Echobox is a company founded and run by music-lovers and audio geeks. We’ve been watching the personal audio industry for years, researching and analyzing everything from the types of music people listen to, how and where we listen, and, most importantly, the quality of audio that we’ve become accustomed to.
What we’ve seen has excited, confused, and disappointed us, all at once.
Portable audio has revolutionized the way we listen to music, and has transformed the types of products we use. Smartphones and the introduction of music streaming services have made music available to anyone, anytime, anywhere.
There are a lot of fashion-oriented headphones and audio players out there. Most sound mediocre, are built like dollar store toys, or are just way, way too expensive.
But…
There can be no denying that the quality of what we hear when we plug earbuds into our phones is not what we really feel like we should be hearing, and it certainly doesn’t make us feel the same way we feel when we hear live music, or listen to it on a high quality sound system.
Or all three.
We’ve founded Echobox to help personal audio evolve to a level that does justice to good music. We plan on making good sounding audio products that are well-built and available at prices that are affordable to anyone who is passionate about music. Our first two products, the Explorer and the Finder, are designed to make real high-fidelity audio affordable.
The Making of Echobox
What the Press is Saying
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Headfonia - Echobox Finder X1 - New Values
"I've heard that the X1 will go for about $200. That's ridiculous. Utterly. These things are so well engineered that I would expect more." - Nathan
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ListHunt - 9 New Gadgets You Need on November 17th
https://t.co/m28cPwFI70
"Explorer is a high-fidelity portable audio player that runs on Android and is designed for all music lovers. The design will look familiar, and that's because when something fits and feels right, theres no reason to change it. And the sound? Explorer delivers natural, detailed sound, far better than any smartphone. " -Arlo Q
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PC Mag - Tidal's iPod?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2490693,00.asp
" I put on some Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro headphones to listen to the player; George Gill pointed out that many devices don't have an amp powerful enough to drive massive headphones, but the X1's 300mW amp has no problem doing so. Uncompressed music sounded deliciously well-rounded with bone-warming bass and easily distinguishable cymbals." -Sascha Segan
What the People Are Saying
HeadFi.org - Finder X1 Review/Impressions/Discussions Thread
The Explorer
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The Explorer comes stock with four different color options: Mahogany - Maple - Zebra Wood and Ebony
Along with our earphones, we’ve been developing the Explorer, a high-fidelity portable audio player that runs on Android and is designed for all music lovers. The design will look familiar, and that’s because when something fits and feels right, there’s no reason to change it. And the sound? Explorer delivers natural, detailed sound, far better than any smartphone.
The reason for this is simple: smartphones have to be thinner, faster, and lighter, and to do all of the things we’ve come to expect from them without a hitch. That takes a lot of creativity and ingenuity on behalf of the engineers that design them, but it also makes a smartphone a “jack of all trades, master of none”. Sound quality is not the first priority — if it’s a priority at all.
The Explorer, on the other hand, is a custom-built portable listening device. It’s got all the good parts needed to make great sound — stuff that just won’t fit into a phone. Explorer’s also got enough power to make any kind of headphone really kick. Or, as George would say:
"Nearly half of the PC board inside the Explorer is stacked with dedicated audio circuitry. The high-quality TI / Burr Brown PCM1792 chip is the same DAC that has been sourced for ultra-high-end audiophile desktop DACs and CD players, some of which cost well over $1,000. It delivers natural, detailed sound that is far more realistic than anything a smartphone is designed to produce. The Explorer’s powerful dedicated amp section gives it the ability to drive not just popular “studio” or “prosumer” headphones, but real, professional music production-grade headphones that normally require a dedicated amplifier - the type that are actually used in studios for mixing and mastering.”
The Explorer has its versatile side, too. By running our player on Android, we’ve given it more than just high-quality sound — we’ve made it a streaming device. We give our users the option of using stock Android or our proprietary, easy-to-use User Interface (UI), and we’ve included support for TIDAL and other key Android apps in both the UI and stock Android OS.
Have your own HiFi music library that you want to bring with you onto the Explorer? No problem! The Explorer is designed to be fully compatible with most digital file formats, including WAV, AIFF and FLAC. It also comes standard with 64GB of internal memory, and has a MicroSD slot that allows you to upgrade to a total capacity of 192GB.
We’re really proud of the Explorer, and even thought about making this campaign all about it. Between its amazing sound and unique design, we already know everyone is going to love it.
But we have big ambitions, and a Hi-Fi player needs a listening companion...
The Finder X1
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The Finder X1 is our titanium-housed earphone, and it is ridiculously durable. The solid titanium housings, thick shielded cable, and unique internal strain relief design all combine to make the most durable earphone in existence. We’re so confident about how tough these mothers are that we’re providing a no-questions-asked 3 year warranty — they’re really that tough. Click here to watch them get run over by dozens of cars during LA rush hour traffic — they survive with barely a scratch, and still sound just like they’d been pulled fresh from the box.
Speaking of sound, the Finder uses a unique new driver — that’s the little speaker-thingie — to deliver the most detailed and ALIVE sound of any dynamic-driver earphone on the market. The driver is built from German-made PEEK (Polyether Ether Ketone), a super-strong polymer, so they can be incredibly thin, but still durable.
Head audio-geek George says:
“This makes them ultra-responsive, enhancing the detail and fidelity of the sound they produce, and allows them to reproduce more impactful deep sub-bass, adding to the realism of the sound, while preserving a clean midrange and detailed treble, and avoiding the muddy, bloated mid-bass of many trendy headphones — the Finder’s bass is powerful and rumbly, but doesn’t cloud the rest of the sound, leaving the mids and treble to shine through.”
In other words: they sound like live music, and kick ass.
Where You Come In
The Finders are ready to go. We’ve already begun mass production and have a few hundred units ready to ship. We’ve finished our design of the Explorer, and are almost ready to put it in your hands. We need your support to work out the last few details of our user interface, and help move the product into mass production. By launching these two high-quality audio products on Indiegogo and selling them at a reasonable retail price, we hope to help spread the love of music, worldwide.
Doing Good Through the
Power of Music
We founded this company because of our love for music, and that passion has pushed us to have plans beyond just making these products. We are a company with a global vision — a vision of a future where everyone can appreciate music the way it’s meant to be appreciated, both by listening and playing. We want to use our products, and all of our resources, to spread the love of music to as many people as possible.
As a first step, we’ve partnered with Seattle Music Partners for our campaign. SMP is a locally-funded, grassroots program serving the city of Seattle by providing free music lessons to underprivileged children. These kids grow up in the heart of Seattle, a budding and prosperous city, and yet they have limited access to instruments and instruction.
We believe in Seattle Music Partners, the power of music, and our products. We want to harness the power of music to unite people and do good for the world. If that sounds naïve and new-agey, we’re sorry. This is very real for us.
If you feel as we feel, please support our campaign — we give you our word that we’re not here just for handouts. We plan on giving you far more than your money’s worth, both in this campaign and in the years to come.
Thanks so much for reading this, and thank you for your support! Any questions or comments can be directed to our support staff at team@eboxaudio.com
