Product Design | Audio Electronics | Acoustics | DIY | Audio Innovations
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NAD Updates Masters M10 BluOS Streaming Amplifier with V2 Edition
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NAD Electronics announced the new and improved NAD Masters M10 V2 BluOS Streaming Amplifier, which continues its “just add speakers” revolution of Hi-Fi. The M10 V2 features 100W per channel of amplification and BluOS streaming capabilities, and adds the ability to expand with Dolby Digital Surround decoding, an enclosed IR remote control, and updated gain algorithms. It ships globally in August 2021 and will retail for US $2,749. Read More
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Lectrosonics Introduces IFBlue Value-Priced Products to Expand IFB Applications
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IFBlue is a new value-priced brand of professional audio technology products now being distributed worldwide by Lectrosonics. The new brand is introduced with a low-cost Interruptible Foldback (IFB) receiver pack and associated dock charging system, compatible with Lectrosonics own range of wireless audio systems. IFBlue products are designed to reach a broader range of uses in content production, live events, and even high-quality assistive listening. Read More
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PreSonus Introduces Revelator io24 USB-C Audio Interface
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The increasing focus on home use is inspiring audio manufacturers to transition to more advanced USB-C designs. PreSonus is now shipping the new Revelator io24 USB-C audio interface, which integrates high-headroom mic preamps, a two-channel loopback mixer, and extensive processing to deliver polished, professional-sounding results for streaming, podcasting, and music production. Its easy-to-use mixer lets users quickly record Zoom calls or Skype interviews and add backing tracks and sound effects for podcasts, live stream performances, music production, and more. Read More
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Dirac Sound Optimization Solution Unleashes the Full Potential of the All-New Klipsch T5 II True Wireless ANC earphones
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Swedish digital audio pioneer Dirac confirmed that its sound optimization solution is featured in the all-new Klipsch T5 II True Wireless ANC earphones, officially available since August 2, 2021. As detailed by audioXpress in previous articles, with the inclusion of Dirac’s technology, the new Klipsch true wireless ANC design allows consumers to enjoy more balanced sound and enhanced clarity regardless of the playback device or the quality of their content. Read More
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New High-End Loudspeaker Brand Alare Introduces Remiga 2 Loudspeakers
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After 25 years of designing, crafting and manufacturing high-end audio components, the founders of Audia Flight in Italy couldn't resist the temptation to design their own speakers. Following an original design created for testing their own audio amplifier circuits, which after 10 years remains in use in their lab, the company decided it was time to create a new high-end loudspeaker brand, Alare. And the company introduced Remiga 2, its first product now available. Read More
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Sonobo Startup Has Ideas to Stand Out in Crowded True Wireless Market
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With dozens of models of true wireless earbuds on the market, it may be hard to determine which is truly the best. Sonobo, a startup company founded by "an international team" in the US, UK, and Italy, believes it can offer "the best" and make us "hear the world differently." The company promises to launch, not one, not two, but three different models at once, and actually throws some clever ideas for differentiation - that is, if its crowdfunding campaign is successful. Read More
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Libre Wireless Adds Voice-Integrated Features to Vodafone Home Broadband Product
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Libre Wireless Technologies has announced a technology partnership with Vodafone to deliver Vodafone’s UK launch of Pro Broadband with Alexa Built-in - featuring voice-assistant calling, messaging (ACM), and Vodafone One Number calling, as well as a selection of advanced custom Skills. The Vodafone Pro Broadband with Alexa Built-in product offers a Super Wi-Fi Plus booster with hybrid 4G broadband back-up and dedicated support . Read More
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Always-Listening Voice Adoption Boosted by New Technology
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Market awareness on the robustness of always-on voice-triggering grew slowly due to consumer mistrust and privacy concerns, according to SAR Insight & Consulting, which also correlates the fact that the availability of very-low-power platforms had been limited. According to a new SAR study, new technology will help drive the market growth of always-listening voice devices, attempting to overcome initial consumer wariness. In 2021, an estimated 1.5 billion devices will ship with always-on voice enabled, and more than 12 billion devices are expected to ship from 2021 to 2026 . Read More
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Editor's Desk
J. Martins
(Editor-in-Chief)
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Getting Immersive Audio Right
The Promises of Beyond Stereo
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In my recent editorial for audioXpress September 2021 - the latest edition of our magazine now available in print and online - I wrote about my firm belief that we need to realize the potential for spatial audio - first and foremost using loudspeakers. This is not because I don't believe that binaural rendering of immersive audio - multichannel plus object-based audio sources - for headphones can work. But I am convinced that headphones are not enough to convince consumers and provide the confidence needed to create a mass scale market. Certainly not for music, which is the type of content that creates scale.
That is a lesson that many of us learned painfully in previous experiments to go "beyond stereo.” Anyone who was part of the effort to make surround music a reality for older media formats understands that you can be truly convinced only when you experiment with quality content reproduced in a correctly configured speaker setup. And that wasn't what consumers experienced in their homes.
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Does anyone truly think we can translate a production that takes place in the studio environment on the left, to the playback situation on the right? Well… today’s consumers are enjoying movies this way.
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I know many music recordings available in surround 5.1 for SACD that still create a strong impact, and many more live concert recordings available on DVD and Blu-Ray, which carry little more than ambience in the surround speakers, that are still great "immersive" experiences, even without the height speakers. The real impact comes from the combination of a well-planned production and the correct speaker setup and audio system.
Likewise, I have attended mind-blowing sessions playing Dolby Atmos content in correctly configured rooms, and they could be convincing not only with the Mad Max: Fury Road movie, but also with new Dolby Atmos remixes of originally recorded material.
And yet, I continue to search intensely for new immersive music available in Spatial Audio and/or Dolby Atmos that is truly new and completely different. Able to persuade anyone without requiring explaining or a dramatic A/B demonstration. I couldn't yet find any spatial audio music that shows why that would be "mind-blowing" or much better than stereo. And if some tracks do sound slightly more impactful or ———(choose your adjectives) it happened when played over speakers, not headphones.
I have had conversations with many industry professionals about immersive audio and spatial audio, and I find that most of them have the same questions... and no answers. There is not enough marketing that can save the empty strategy of trying to sell "spatial audio" or Dolby Atmos content on earbuds, laptops, or even single source omnidirectional speakers.
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One of my favorite Dolby official images used to promote Dolby Atmos reproduction. I think the girl’s face tells the story of what we feel when we listen to Dolby Atmos music on a smartphone speaker (yes, it’s a thing).
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Even some of the graphics that try to illustrate what Dolby Atmos on headphones could mean are not very convincing… Which says a lot about the problem.
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I have written multiple articles for audioXpress and The Audio Voice, expressing my dissatisfaction and concern about hyper-inflating the promises of "spatial audio." And I have always been an enthusiast of multichannel surround for scripted content, while remaining skeptical about the need for 5.1 in most forms of live broadcast - but at least the broadcast community enabled 5.1 audio to become a standard, which later benefited emerging streaming content services, such as Netflix.
Likewise, I have been writing for years about the need to move away from left/right and left/center/right configurations in professional sound reinforcement and live performance sound - an area that fortunately is consistently evolving into a spatial/immersive design. Professional audio now offers the complete mixing concept and the right processing tools, now that the required computing power is available. I am convinced that, as soon as live music returns in full force, immersive audio will be the new production standard.
In contrast, helping to blur the lines in the conflation of the current spatial audio hype is the fact that many speaker companies in the consumer space seem to be determined to promote single omnidirectional speaker sources as "tridimensional." Described as a magical technology that will allow us to " see and touch sound" and generate a "field of sound" in mid air.
At a time when the audio industry is benefiting from tremendous breakthroughs in computerized modeling and simulation tools that allow us to predict transducer design more accurately than ever, when we have new transducer topologies and materials allowing better linear behavior than ever was possible, and when we now have sensors and the processing power to truly control sound sources and manipulate acoustics, it doesn't help that we convert real progress into marketing gibberish for unwary consumers.
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Immersive or spatial audio is an attractive proposition for live events and installations because it can be extremely convincing. After years of research and development, Berlin, Germany-based hardware and software audio technology manufacturer Holoplot now offers commercially available wavefield synthesis solutions, specifically built for large conferences, concerts, venues, theme parks, and similar applications requiring high-impact, innovative 3D professional audio technology.
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I am a strong believer in the potential of immersive and object-based audio to properly convey the spatial information and change the paradigm in sound reproduction. But more time will be needed until content adjusts to the new format requirements - and that includes experimentation into recording and mixing music for those formats - and we are not there yet.
We will also need more time to realize the promise of binaural spatial audio on headphones even for scripted content (e.g., movie soundtracks in Dolby Atmos). Apple is very close with its head-tracking solution and processing engine, sustained by its ability to control the complete ecosystem of hardware and software. And we certainly need to convey that same content over speakers to be really immersed. Instead of trying to generate 3D from a single electroacoustic source, companies should not be afraid to explore the potential of wireless audio to connect multiple speakers. We have all the technology needed to effectively sell Spatial Audio with what we already know works well.
Lifestyles have evolved. The listening experience is no longer predominantly the living room stereo system. Sound became "portable" with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and even wirelessly streamed directly to devices on the range of broadband cellular networks. While we have traditional radio as a platform to enjoy music in the car and outdoors, modern music streaming services are able to adapt to technology innovation much faster and are ready to support distribution of new music formats.
We need to follow that agility to innovate also on the hardware side, and offer speaker systems that are effective, and convenient for consumers, delivering REAL spatial/immersive/3D audio reproduction. That includes rethinking not only speaker design but the whole electronic design - amplifier platforms, network wired or wireless connectivity, and DSP - in order to convert every speaker into a part of the whole spatial/immersive/3D audio rendering and reproduction system. For professional applications, we will need single-cable PoE solutions to the speaker, and for consumers we will need fully wireless solutions (e.g., WiSA).
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Binaural rendering of spatial audio to headphones has potential for professional uses, as Embody already demonstrated. Its software uses HRTF profiles, allowing audio engineers to correctly monitor Ambisonics mixes using headphones.
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In our September edition of audioXpress, focused on speaker technology, we discuss efforts from manufacturers to improve on the "100-year-old loudspeaker technology" by introducing completely new approaches to transducer design. The result everyone expects is to completely alter the experience for consumers. But - for 98% of those consumers - the reality of those efforts, when isolated as conventional speakers systems, will be just another sound source. And given the tolerance we can observe from people listening to music with smartphone speakers, or tiny cheap-plastic Bluetooth speakers, it would be very challenging to convince them that they need something better. To change anything, it needs to be convincing at the very first impression. Subtlety will not work here.
This might be completely foreign for those of us who understand the challenges of audio reproduction, and don't mind paying thousands of dollars for audio systems that provide that extra 10% of audio goodness. And it’s even more inconceivable for those 2% of ultra-high-end enthusiasts willing to invest the price of a new car for a new electronic contraption that provides that extra 1% of fidelity, spaciousness or whatever.
No one will ever be totally happy with what they have and everybody wants to experience something new, but in the end - as we can see from the vinyl resurgence – it’s mostly about the emotional connection, and good all stereo music recordings can be pretty enjoyable for the vast majority of human beings.
The promise of “spatial audio” or something else, combining multichannel, object-based, or higher-order ambisonics (HOA) generated content is possible, but it requires starting with new forms of content, and probably adjusting designs to lifestyles. And that will require time. I believe that loudspeaker innovation would be able to carry on the flame to sustain those efforts a bit longer, as required.
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What does it mean mixing for immersive audio? The image depicts a real-world installation (courtesy of Martin Audio) for mixing Dolby Atmos content, as shown in the Dolby software.
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Vehicle Electrification and Active Noise Cancellation - The Driving Forces Behind Innovation in Future In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) Systems
By Krunal Maniar
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The June 2021 edition of audioXpress featured an expanded overview of the many ways in which the audio industry is increasingly interacting with car manufacturers, particularly in the transition to fully-electric powered vehicles. To expand this perspective on automotive audio solutions, Krunal Maniar (Silicon Labs) writes about Vehicle Electrification and Active Noise Cancellation, which are currently two key driving forces fostering innovation in In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems.
As audio systems are expanding to integrate Active Noise Control (ANC), Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS), and Acoustic Vehicle Alert Systems (AVAS) for quiet car sound design and autonomous driver alerts, the article also examines new challenges for OEM audio system designs and how they are being met. This article was published in audioXpress, June 2021. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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Kartesian Twt28_vMS High-End Soft Dome Tweeter
By Vance Dickason
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This Test Bench article characterizes a high-end dome tweeter from Kartesian, a French home audio/pro OEM, founded in 2011 and located near Strasbourg. The Twt28_vMS is a 28mm soft dome tweeter using a proprietary Nylon-coated cloth type diaphragm and surround, with dual N48H neodymium magnets fitted to a low-carbon-content steel motor structure. An extruded polyester damped pole piece venting into a stamped aluminum back enclosure, is complemented by a rear enclosure acoustically linked and tuned to about 670Hz. This article was published in Voice Coil, May 2021. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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Advancing the Evolution
of Audio Technology
audioXpress features great articles, projects, tips, and techniques for the best in quality audio. It connects manufacturers and distributors with audio engineers and enthusiasts eager for innovative solutions in sound, acoustic, and electronics.
Voice Coil, the periodical for the loudspeaker industry, delivers product reviews, company profiles, industry news, and design tips straight to professional audio engineers and manufacturers who have the authority to make powerful purchasing decisions.
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