How 64 Audio and Tiffany designed Beyoncé’s custom diamond IEMs for her Renaissance Tour

IEM manufacturer, 64 Audio explains how it partnered with Tiffany & Co. to design and build Beyoncé’s diamond encrusted A18s in-ear monitors for her Renaissance World Tour.

Beyoncé has been using 64 Audio IEMs since 2016 – around the time of her Super Bowl 50 performance.

“Beyoncé and her team have constantly presented 64 Audio with challenges that require innovation to solve,” says 64 Audio on the special project. “From their opening order of almost 100 units for that halftime performance to quick turnarounds for Coachella 2018, we love rising to the occasion when an artist brings us a challenge such as this.”

Beyoncé and her band are currently using 64 Audio’s A18s model, which utilise 36 total drivers and include all four of the manufacturer’s patented pieces of technology: apex, tia, LID and 3Dfit.

Beyoncé’s special request

In fact, the A18s was developed in part because of special requests made by Beyoncé in 2019 relating to the previous model she used, which was the A18t.

The singer was hoping to implement a thinner/lower-profile cable which had a higher resistance. Because the A18t does not feature LID technology, plugging into a wireless pack with that cable would potentially change the frequency response (while monitoring).

Adding LID turned into experimenting with different drivers and crossover techniques, eventually coming together as A18s. The three main additions that set it apart from A18t are higher maximum output, warmer tonality and LID technology.

The changes Beyoncé requested eventually led the manufacturer to developing an entirely new model.

Working with her monitor engineer, James Berry, A18s has become an incredibly successful product for the manufacturer and spawned its U18s universal fitting IEM.

Custom Renaissance Tour IEMs

A special request was brought to 64 Audio’s attention a few months before Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour began in May 2023.

Since Tiffany & Co. was announced as the official jeweller of the tour, the idea was to merge their high-end jewellery and 64 Audio’s technology.

While the 3D printed acrylic shell and internal components would stay the same, the faceplate was to be made of diamond encrusted platinum.

64 Audio had seen other brands utilise precious metals in their IEMs for other performers, but wanted to find a much cleaner and more elegant way of incorporating the two parts. This exercise required the manufacturer to entirely re-engineer its faceplate process.

64 Audio typically uses liquid acrylic to create faceplates, which bond to the hypoallergenic acrylic of the shell when cured with UV. Even when using premium materials like carbon fibre or abalone, 64 Audio covers it all in a clear acrylic – which preserves the material and bonds it to the shell.

Since covering the precious metals and gemstones would defeat the purpose of this faceplate, 64 Audio needed to come up with a way to mate it to the shell. Rather than just using industrial grade adhesives to secure the faceplate, a mechanical hold was needed, just as the gemstones require prongs to mechanically secure them to the metal.

“We couldn’t risk designing it any other way,” says 64 Audio. “We also wanted a beautiful seam that would allow the platinum border of the faceplate to not be obstructed, so the ‘stepped’ border that we’ve seen some competitors use was not an option. This would’ve been an easy way to lay acrylic over the stepped portion of the faceplate which would secure it to the shell but takes away from the look of the faceplate.”

64 Audio’s R&D manager, Vitaliy Gordeyev, pursued an idea the manufacturer calls “the channel.” This is a “c” shaped channel built into the perimeter of the faceplate that, when filled with liquid acrylic, mates to the shell and UV curing would create the invisible mechanical hold 64 Audio was seeking to achieve.

After some back and forth with Tiffany’s senior product engineering lead, Indira Biswas, 64 Audio compared design ideas and shared 3D files and landed on the final shape.

“We both built 3D printed mockups to prove the theory,” explains 64 Audio. “Once the design was approved by Beyoncé, built by Tiffany and arrived back here, we got to building our side of things.”

Some corrections had to be made in the 3D files of the shells and 64 Audio had to adjust its production process to accommodate the order of assembly:

“Typically our IEMs are slightly buffed and lacquered at the very last step of the production line,” 64 Audio points out. “Since we weren’t going to be polishing the Tiffany faceplates that came in pristine condition, we had to lacquer the shells before the components were inserted and assembled, which was a challenge and required the assemblers to take extra care at every step in order to make sure the shells remained in pristine condition throughout the build process.”

Another small detail which had to be addressed was 64 Audio’s apex module, which is something that makes the manufacturer’s products recognisable from afar, but serves one of the most important purposes among all of the IEM components, which is relieving the pressure in the ear canal for a more comfortable and fatigue-free performance.

Typically 64 Audio’s module is a matte finish anodized aluminium. To match the shine of the platinum faceplate, 64 Audio explored polishing and then clear anodizing a special set for these particular IEMs.

Beyoncé’s custom diamond 64 Audio Tiffany A18s IEMs use 20.4g of Platinum – a total carat weight of 4.51ct of the highest clarity diamonds were used by Tiffany & Co. to produce these two faceplates. 

They are mated seamlessly to the A18s IEM shell and are made to withstand the incredibly demanding performances that Beyoncé is known for.

A18s Story

The A18s custom in-ear monitor is one of 64 Audio’s 18-driver custom fit IEMs, the other being A18t.

64 Audio introduced what it called “the world's first 18-driver IEM” (A18t/U18t) in 2016. A18s is built on the heritage of that 18-driver platform and combines 36 proprietary drivers, LID technology and a new electronic crossover network to deliver a uniquely exceptional listening experience.

While A18t/U18t was designed for mastering engineers and audiophiles, and later adopted by live performers, A18s was designed for the most demanding live performers and is now being adopted by engineers and audiophiles as well. The manufacturer says the A18s outperforms all of its IEMs when it comes to maximum output or maximum SPL.

One of A18s’ main features that sets it apart from A18t is the addition of 64 Audio’s patented LID technology. A18t will most likely never see the inclusion of LID because it would result in drastic changes to its frequency response, phase, sensitivity and total impedance; you could say that A18s was born because 64 Audio wanted to add LID to its 18-driver IEM.

While A18t will remain in the product lineup as one of 64 Audio’s flagship IEMs, because of it’s uniquely flat tonality it is very picky when it comes to power; you really want to make sure you’re driving it with an ultra low noise and low impedance (<.5ohms) headphone amplifier to get the intended frequency response.

Understanding that professional musicians are often using devices that have higher noise and higher output impedance, and often go between devices that have varying impedance between one another, 64 Audio wanted A18s to offer the security of LID.

LID flattens the IEM’s impedance curve which ensures that the voltage from the headphone amp is distributed evenly across all of the driver sets. (So if you use a Shure pack one day and listen to a mix on your laptop the next, you will be hearing the same intended frequency response.)

One of the “industry-first” technological developments used in A18s (and has trickled down to some of 64 Audio’s other new products as a result) is the implementation of an electronic low-pass filter for the low frequency balanced armature (BA) driver pack, consisting of eight BAs.

A low pass filter is used as a crossover, ensuring that only low-frequencies are driven to the low drivers, and every frequency above a certain point is diverted to the low-mid drivers and above.

“This new filter addresses multiple potential problem areas that have plagued IEM design,” points out 64 Audio.

First, it replaces some of the previous acoustic methods of low-pass filters. Typically you would see some version of air volume restricting devices called “peak tube filters” used in the tubes of low drivers. These would eliminate high frequencies by restricting air flow in the tube, but could result in turbulence and distortion.

Second, it unburdens the low-driver pack of all unnecessary work. By only sending the relevant frequency band the driver pack is unencumbered by the other frequencies that would otherwise unnecessarily stress the drivers. These unnecessary frequencies are diverted from the drivers in the circuitry before it hits the drivers, rather than after the drivers.

Solving both of these problem areas contributes to the high max SPL of A18s and makes it a more effective monitoring tool.

Because it is built on 64 Audio’s 18-driver platform, the manufacturer states that A18s is capable of “extraordinary detail and separation”. It takes the extreme flat tonality of A18t and slightly increases amplitude in the mid-bass region for a warmer sound.

Each 64 Audio CIEM is hand built in Vancouver Washington by specialised technicians. Ear impressions are first trimmed and scanned into 64 Audio’s 3D detailing software and patented 3Dfit technology is used to perfectly recreate the intricacies of the user’s ear shape.

The assembled CIEMs are later completed with a faceplate. Along with the five shell options, there are dozens of faceplate colours and materials which translates to hundreds of variations. On top of all of those options, 64 Audio is also able to use custom artwork to make custom IEMs.

A18s Specs

Transducer Type/Count: 18 BA

Transducer Configuration: 1 tia high, 1 high-mid, 8 mid, 8 low

Bore Configuration: Single

Freq. Response: 10Hz – 20kHz

Sensitivity: 106 dB/mW @ 1kHz @ 1mW (84mV)

Impedance: 8Ω Nominal

Crossover: Integrated 4-way passive crossover

Isolation: -20dB w/ m20 module, -15dB w/ m15 module

A18s Technology

Air Pressure Exchange (Apex) is a patented vent that releases air pressure in a sealed ear canal. In addition to relieving air pressure, it also maintains standard IEM levels of noise isolation.

The attenuation of ambient noise and pressure relief is designed to enable musicians and music enthusiasts to listen more comfortably for longer and venting alleviates listener fatigue and allows for a much more realistic soundstage. Apex comes in three module variations available for A18s: mX, m15 and m20.

Tubeless In-Ear Audio (tia) is a patented IEM design methodology that aims to reduce unwanted resonance and distortion for a transparent and lifelike sound signature. The tia system consists of three major elements: open balanced armature tia drivers, the tia single-bore design, and tia acoustic chambers.

A18s features two major elements of the tia system: the tia driver and the tia single-bore design.

3D-Fit preserves the detail of ear impressions using a new process of digital rendering and 3D-printing. The patented process of incorporating acoustical tuning features within an IEM’s shell allows for designs that the manufacturer says would otherwise be impossible to build using traditional methods.

Linear Impedance Design (LID) is a patented circuit that corrects the non-linear electrical resistance of the multiple driver-sets comprising this 18 driver IEM.

Varying source amplifier output impedance in devices like smartphones, body packs, DAC/amps and DAPs typically results in varying frequency response across them, depending on the increase in resistance.

All images via 64 Audio.