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Ultimate Ears is a custom in-ear monitor (IEM), wireless bluetooth speaker, and earphone manufacturer based in Irvine, California and Newark, California. The custom in-ear monitor company was founded by Mindy Harvey and Jerry Harvey in 1995 and it created a new market for custom IEMs which are now used by most of the world's top touring musicians. In August 2008, Ultimate Ears was acquired by Logitech, and operates as a subsidiary. ==History== In 1995, Jerry Harvey was Van Halen's touring monitor engineer, mixing their stage sound through stage wedges—powerful loudspeakers aiming at each of the musicians. Drummer Alex Van Halen had great difficulty hearing the other band members over all the noise of the stage; louder monitors did not help. Harvey created a custom molded earpiece for the drummer to block some of the stage noise and focus on the desired sound: a prototype earpiece that contained two tiny speaker drivers, one for low frequencies and one for high frequencies, the frequencies split by a passive audio crossover. The high frequency driver was a stock Japanese component but a suitable low frequency driver was difficult to find. The only driver which survived strong kick drum signals was a Knowles-made pacemaker part, a balanced armature transducer intended to warn the pacemaker wearer of internal problems.〔 Other Van Halen band members became interested and Harvey crafted further sets. The musicians touring with Van Halen—Skid Row—wanted some in-ear monitors and Harvey sold them six pairs for $3,000.〔 Pop singer Engelbert Humperdinck wanted a set and at that point Harvey determined to start a company to supply the demand.〔 Harvey and his wife Mindy decided to divorce at the same time as they joined as business partners in Las Vegas, Nevada, where they incorporated Ultimate Ears. Mindy Harvey later said, "Ultimate Ears is the child we never had ...and in the big picture, getting divorced was the only way to spread the word about the company."〔 The company was run from Mindy's home, offering not just custom-molded earpieces but the associated radio transmitters and receivers intended for use onstage by performing musicians.〔 Jerry Harvey promoted the systems and also helped Shure produce their E1 and E5 IEMs, "the first universal-fit dual-driver monitors."〔 Helping Shure make this product also helped the new company Ultimate Ears gain respectability.〔 Ultimate Ears first became significantly profitable in 1998 with the introduction of the UE-5 model; the fifth of Harvey's designs. Customers included The Rolling Stones, Faith Hill, Enrique Iglesias, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ultimate Ears」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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