Six years in the Navy helped develop ideas to create audio products
Published in the Aug. 19 – Sept. 1, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Robert Airoldi
Photo by Marty Cheek
Dave DeVillez, owner of OM-Audio, with the company’s OM/One levitating speakers that can be turned into a speaker phone.
Six years on an anti-submarine craft analyzing Soviet subs, classifying them and tracking them through their underwater sounds during the Cold War gave David DeVillez the experience he needed to start OM-Audio. The Morgan Hill-based company creates some unique consumer products that produce a high-quality stereo sound for music lovers.
“When a sub would leave a Russian naval base, a satellite would photograph it and we would then track it and know where it was,” he said. “The patrolling habits of a nuclear ballistic sub is different from an attack sub. If we had to we could take them out. That was one of the jobs that taught me the most of the acoustic side.”
And that knowledge has led DeVillez, 56, to create OM-Audio, a local company committed to developing products that provide a clear, clean sound experience.
“We provide a total solution,” he said. “We make products like Bluetooth speakers, ear buds and ear phones for the hardware side of the business that gives us something to brand. The secondary side are our digital accessories where (beginning next year) customers can go to our website and download products that will enhance their listening experience. One of those will be the EQ files, which will allow the listener to boost or cut certain frequencies.”
As a part of the company’s digital accessories, they’re looking for musical artist participation in that way to create a market for audiophiles who want tuning filters of their favorite artists.
“The concept came to me while listening to live Eric Clapton,” DeVillez said. “I thought to myself, how much do you think people would value Eric Clapton coming to your house and adjusting your stereo and saying, ‘You know when I listen to “Layla” that’s how it sounds to me.’ Something like that could create a connection between the listener and the artist. The artist would be saying, ‘You have a great headset, but just let me tweak it a bit.’”
DeVillez, married with two adult children, was born and raised in Orange County. After serving his six years in the U.S. Navy, upon discharge he went to work making high-resolution plotting devices for the United States Geological Society and the Census Bureau for 12 years. Then a friend came to Morgan Hill to work for a medical device company and recruited DeVillez. He stayed until the company was sold several times and left in 2006. After taking a year off working on his house and playing golf, he found a job at Velodyne Acoustics, Inc., in Morgan Hill and stayed there until 2012 when he left to start OM-Audio.
The company now sells earbuds, speakers — including the OM/One, which uses magnets to levitate the spherical speakers slightly above the stand. These can also be equipped with a Type-1 microphone, thus becoming a levitating speaker phone.
“A lot of headphone manufacturers use a bias type of tuning and because of the design of the headset most are single-driver devices,” DeVillez said. “Our headset has two drivers per side. That’s not unique but it allows us to create a tuning that is not biased from the low end to the high end of the curve.”
Right now the company is run out of his Morgan Hill home, with his suppliers in China.
DeVillez said he’s still learning on the job at OM-Audio and sees the market growing for his speaker products.
“I’ve learned in the past two years that I need to start an organization and create a team to take this to the next level,” he said.
