Product Design | Audio Electronics | Acoustics | DIY | Audio Innovations
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Apple Introduces AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, and Spatial Audio
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Everyone knew it was coming because the rumors about the new over-ear headphone design abounded for some time, but no one knew exactly what the focus for the new product would be, except that everyone was anticipating an "augmented" edition of the popular AirPods Pro in-ears. Now, we know it is a radically new approach to wireless headphones, leveraging all of Apple's technologies and experience in design and user interfaces. Most importantly, the AirPods Max headphones combine high-fidelity audio with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, and spatial audio. Read More
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Audio Product Education Institute Promotes Webinar with Key Audio Industry Suppliers
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The third online event promoted by the Audio Product Education Institute on its Supply Chain & Sourcing pillar will take place December 15 at 9 AM Pacific (12 PM Eastern). The webinar will welcome industry experts from two major audio industry suppliers - Fujikon Industrial and Tonly Electronics - detailing their organizations’ operations and valuable perspective. In conversation with Dave Lindberg (DB Enterprises), and Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific), the two companies will address key questions for the audio industry. Read More
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Scaeva Technologies and Slate Audio Team Up on VSX Headphone and Modeling System
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Imagine being instantly transported to some of the best studio mixing rooms, choosing to listen to Yamaha NS10s or PMC monitors, switching to the frequency response of Sennheiser or Audio-Technica headphones, or even checking how a mix sounds in a luxury SUV or on Apple AirPods Pro. Always using the same, single pair of headphones. That's the promise of the Slate Audio VSX headphones and modeling software, designed in partnership with Scaeva Technology . Read More
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Razer Unveils New Hammerhead True Wireless Pro Earbuds with Advanced Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation
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Lifestyle gaming brand Razer announced a new true wireless earbuds design featuring both THX Certified audio and advanced hybrid Active Noise Cancellation to achieve an undisturbed listening experience with crisp, clear audio and impactful bass, ready for any situation – on the go or working from home. And the new Razer Hammerhead True Wireless Pro earbuds deliver low latency audio and a customizable fit for immersive sound and gaming advantage . Read More
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Audio Brands Foster Consumer Appreciation for Innovations in Automotive Audio
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The pace of innovation within the automotive industry is contributing to the competitive growth of premium audio system solutions. The latest report from SAR Insight & Consulting, "In-Car Audio Distribution: The Connection Between Audio and Vehicle Brands," highlights the significant rise and transformation of in-car audio systems and speakers exceeding the expectations of the connected consumer . Read More
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Renkus-Heinz Stretches Iconyx Compact Series Steerable Columns to Bring Intelligible Sound to Larger Spaces
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California-based loudspeaker manufacturer Renkus-Heinz continues undeterred in its effort to lead the industry toward networked, digitally steerable, and fully integrated Reference Point Array sound reinforcement systems. The company has now announced two new products in its latest Iconyx Compact Series: the Iconyx Compact 36/3-RN and the 48/3-RN. The two tallest solutions bring the benefits of the Iconyx family into an impressively compact and architecturally friendly package . Read More
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Simon Says Assemble Uses Audio-to-Text Transcription For Video Editing
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Simon Says is a company from San Francisco, CA, specializing in timecode-based AI transcription, which now announced the launch of Simon Says Assemble, a new product and a significant expansion to the Simon Says platform that makes video editing as simple as copying and pasting text. According to the company, the new application, which is directly supported by popular NLE and MAM applications, brings the story forward with modern tools and narrative-driven editing capabilities that enable collaboration and speed up video workflows . Read More
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Editor's Desk
J. Martins
Editor-In-Chief
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Situational Loudspeakers
Different Ways of Thinking About Speaker Design
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One of the most intriguing concepts in speaker design is the notion that people have to sit in a very limited sweet spot - a carefully triangulated arrangement of a center line between our ears and the point source in a pair of speakers. For many music and audio enthusiasts, there's no other way - and preferably in a carefully treated listening environment designed for musical enjoyment. But what the market once dubbed as "living room stereo" is something that the vast majority of people completely ignore. Why would you even have to sit still to listen to music?
In the never-ending journey to understand and translate people's lifestyles into their designs, for years, multiple brands played around with integrated concepts that could be freely positioned. Those included trying to generate an expansive stereo image from a single-source system - for which, in fact, the original tube radios, TVs, and even the first portable stereo music systems in the 1950s were actually the inspiration.
Because people live with music and sound, and don't necessarily want to sit still when listening to speakers (who "listens" to speakers?), the notion of omnidirectional radiating designs, or 360-degree sound was in many speaker designers' minds and is always a recurring thought for many product strategists and not necessarily acoustic engineers. One way or another, omnidirectional speakers stayed in the market, without ever being a wining concept.
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With a compact body and up to eight hours of battery life, users can place the Sony LSPX-S2 speaker anywhere in the home – from creating a comforting ambience for a family meal, to enjoying a moment of peace during a bath.
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When I decided to write about this specific topic of speaker design, I had in mind "situational" scenarios. Because there are many usages for speakers that are not at all the typical "living room stereo" setting. Actually, judging by the number of new speaker designs we see increasingly in the show floor at CES and even on crowdfunding websites, brands are betting on consumers listening to music from single omnidirectional sources.
Amazon is all-in on the concept, as its Echo Studio model shows, going as far as supporting the ability to generate new immersive three-dimensional (3D) audio experiences and promote specific object-based spatial audio source formats (Dolby Digital, MPEG-H Audio, and Sony 360 Reality Audio) - which it doesn't.
Apple certainly thinks this will be a trend. Its HomePod can be paired and even grouped in multiples, but it was designed to be an outstanding single speaker source. And the new Apple HomePod mini validates that concept.
Washing Sounds
But there are other - even more radical - situational concepts for single speakers. I have recently followed a Kickstarter project called The Hydropower Shower Speaker that claims to be a 360-degree immersive and "bold sound source"... for your shower.
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Shower Power: The Hydropower Shower Speaker, available on Kickstarter. Some people like to sing in the shower because they don't have to listen to themselves!
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So, I was not surprised when Kickstarter recently recommended a new portable Bluetooth speaker inspired by a traditional lantern, called the Light Speaker. Designed by Transparent, a Swedish company, the design was inspired by a traditional lantern and the light "feels like a real flame, glowing together with music."
The Light Speaker is described as able to generate "a big, open, omnidirectional sound delivering rich bass, stable mid tones and crisp high notes." The dome-shaped enclosure on the top holds a 2.5" full-range driver sending out 360-degree sound, while at the base of a solid borosilicate glass cylinder, creating a sealed valve, is a passive 3” woofer sitting in the bottom. And the design is completely modular, "designed so that any component can be removed, repaired, or upgraded over time."
And, the Kickstarter campaign allowed me to secure a unit for $260, which seems to be fair for a Scandinavian product that is promised to be built to last (it already uses a Bluetooth 5 module, but Transparent probably made it replaceable), when compared with the Sony LSPX-S2 Glass Sound Speaker, which retails for $449.99.
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Building The Pyramids
By Rudiger Geppinger
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In this classic speaker from Speaker Builder, the author proposes a complete speaker design project with a pyramid-shaped cabinet, which he adopted for its distinct advantages over box-type speaker cabinets. The fact that its nonparallel walls minimize standing-wave effects, and the slanted front improves the time adjustment of the drivers, added by the fact that the front is wide enough at the base to accommodate a larger woofer, and narrow at the top, where the tweeter is located, were the fundamental considerations. Also, the pyramid shape helps minimize diffraction effects and helps to improve sound dispersion, while the panel width also varies from bottom to top, which distributes panel resonances. "The only disadvantages of which I am aware are that a pyramid is more complicated to build and, for a given height and volume, it requires more floor space than, for example, a tower speaker," the author writes. This article was originally published in Speaker Builder magazine, March 1998. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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Voice Coil Patent Reviews
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Single Enclosure Surround Sound Loudspeaker System and Method
By James Croft (Croft Acoustical)
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Every month on Voice Coil's Acoustic Patents column, James Croft (Croft Acoustical) discusses different loudspeaker patents and inventions that are relevant to the audio industry. This article reviews a patent claimed by Polk Audio and granted in 2015, describing “a single-enclosure loudspeaker system that projects multichannel surround sound into a listener’s room, and so replaces multiple conventional surround channel loudspeakers.” The patent also describes, in one embodiment of the invention, that the “surround channel program material is pre-processed by an integrated wireless transmission device that performs certain digital signal processing and channel mixing steps in advance of wireless surround signal broadcast to a receiver.” This article was originally published in Voice Coil, January 2015 . Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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