Product Design | Audio Electronics | Acoustics | DIY | Audio Innovations
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Focal Presents New Celestee Affordable Luxury Headphones
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Those who think $549 is too expensive for a pair of headphones, should think again. French high-end audio market specialist Focal has been present on the headphones market since 2012, gradually developing a successful collection. Following the launch of Stellia in 2019 (price starting at $3,000), Focal now presents Celestee. Obviously targeting uncompromising audio quality, these new closed-back headphones take the 2018 Elegia design further, and feature a new blue finish, which Focal says showcases the brand’s "savoir-faire." Read More
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Precision Devices Confidently Introduces Eight New Products
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Precision Devices, the highly regarded "Made in England" manufacturer of high-quality loudspeaker transducers, just announced a new series of products. The company is using the forced interruption of normal support activities to intensify its work on refinements, new product development and improving production methods to its extensive portfolio. The results are now visible in new improved subwoofers, bass/midrange, and midrange drivers. Read More
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Signia Breaks Barriers with Active Pro Earbud-Style Hearing Aids
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It's not just the technology that is evolving much faster in consumer true wireless earbuds. It's also consumers' perceptions of what these products can do and its widespread appeal. Understanding that hearing aids could greatly benefit from that form-factor to surpass existing stigmas, WS Audiology's hearing-aid brand Signia is targeting a new generation of users with its Signia Active Pro earbud-style hearing aids that also offer high-tech audiological benefits . Read More
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New 12BA and 12BB Microphone Power Modules from GRAS
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GRAS Sound and Vibration introduced two new microphone power modules: GRAS 12BA and 12BB. These power modules are designed for users who need to power CCP measurement microphones and would like seamless integration of microphone sensitivity data via TEDS. The single-channel (12BA) and four-channel (12BB) USB-powered modules provide integrated TEDS support and are competitively priced for production test applications, saving time during setup and configuration. Read More
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Cambridge Audio Introduces Updated DacMagic 200M with Dual ESS Sabre Converters and Native MQA Support
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Cambridge Audio announced its new flagship DAC and headphone amplifier, DacMagic 200M. This new top-of-the-range DAC is the first product from Cambridge Audio to feature full MQA decoding, also offers integrated Bluetooth 5, and with Dual ESS Sabre DACs, it can handle PCM and DSD signal inputs at a higher resolution than the previous generation. The Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M will be available for purchase in February 2021 for $499 USD. Read More
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Creative and Technical Achievements in Audio, Music and Sound Celebrated at the 36th Annual NAMM TEC Awards
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Winners of the NAMM Technical Excellence and Creativity (TEC) Awards, honoring the best in professional audio and sound production, have been announced in a virtual event on the final day of NAMM’s Believe in Music week - a global online gathering to unify and support people who bring music to the world. Presented by NAMM on Believe TV, the annual event recognized the highest achievements in the pro audio and sound worlds of music making, live performances, video games, television, and films . Read More
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KRK Introduces Updated 2021 Line of Studio Subwoofers
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Even with the restrictions imposed over The NAMM Show 2021, Gibson was one of most energized companies with an astonishing number of new product announcements in all its brands. Its pro audio studio monitor brand KRK also received attention, the latest generation of KRK monitors are now complemented with a new generation of powered subwoofers. Coming spring 2021, the new series of KRK Studio Subwoofers will be available in 8-, 10-, and 12-inch variations: S8.4, S10.4, and S12.4 . Read More
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Audinate Announces SDK for Dante Embedded Platform
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Audinate, the developer of the industry-leading Dante AoIP networking technology, has announced the availability of a software development kit (SDK) for manufacturers of ARM-based audio products. This SDK lets manufacturers deploy Dante audio networking as on-chip software in their products, reducing costs and conserving on space while still delivering the same audio performance. This means that embedded computing platforms with a simple Ethernet connection can now be Dante-enabled . Read More
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Editor's Desk
J. Martins
Editor-in-Chief
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Best Kept Secrets
The Continuous Search for Reference Speakers
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I frequently learn about new products from brands large and small, which sometimes remain unnoticed for multiple reasons (and I don't mean by the press) regardless of how innovative they are. That's a topic in itself to be addressed in a separate editorial one of these days... This week, I spent some time looking at a few speakers that I think deserve a spotlight. Please note that I have not heard those speakers. I just think they are interesting products that deserve a mention.
The first example is a new speaker that I learned about from a recent patent review that James Croft wrote for Voice Coil magazine’s February 2021 edition. This new speaker is from an obviously Dutch company from Rotterdam, named Dutch & Dutch. As Croft noted in his patent review, apparently their research shares the same engineering fundamentals and goals applied in another remarkable product with roots in The Netherlands (and Germany), Kii Audio's Three.
As audioXpress could demonstrate in its detailed review among their many innovations, the Kii Three speakers achieve extremely well-controlled directivity in the lowest frequencies. In our extensive 2017 review, audioXpress even measured the speakers directivity pattern at 100Hz, showing it to be an almost perfectly cardioid.
The Dutch & Dutch patented design used in its 8c speakers - the company's first and so far only product - also achieves directivity control all the way down to 100Hz. On its website, D&D mentions constant directivity with a "+/-0.5dB frequency response from 35Hz upward." The 8cs combine a proprietary waveguide tweeter with an acoustic cardioid midrange, rear-firing boundary-coupled bass drivers and DSP-controlled active room matching, allowing the speakers to be placed close to room boundaries. To achieve its cardioid response on the midrange, Dutch & Dutch designed two openings on the enclosure's side panels, introducing a phase delay that causes an effective attenuation (15dB or more) of the midrange frequencies.
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The Dutch & Dutch 8c speakers are available in many countries, including the US and sell for $12,500/pair.
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Characterizing the D&D 8c speakers further, the company says its design was meant to be both a high-end home hi-fi speaker and a main monitor in recording and mastering studios. The 8c uses two 8" high excursion woofers on the back of the cabinet, with one 8" midrange driver and a 1" alloy dome tweeter in the front of the sealed enclosure. The active design uses three Class-D amplification channels, with 500W on the two low-frequency woofers, 250W for the midrange and 250W for the high frequency. Also, much like the Kii Three, the 8c is a DSP-powered system in order to be tuned to the room, accepts high-resolution digital inputs (AES3) and it comes with room matching and network streaming capabilities out-of-the-box.
While Dutch & Dutch is one of those companies that had ambitious plans in 2019, it seems those were directly affected by the pandemic, delaying its promotion activities. And that’s one of the reasons I thought it deserved a mention now. There are also other examples of companies that have been working to develop or perfect their designs even under the current circumstances. From Output, a company located in the heart of Los Angeles, CA, which until now was focused on studio furniture and monitor stands ( checkout their stunning sidecar design!), I received news of the new Frontier nearfield active studio monitors.
The thing that interested me the most was the fact that these are designed by Barefoot Sound, Thomas Barefoot's company that since 2005 has been designing and building loudspeakers and audio signal processing devices for studios. We've learned of a few Barefoot design collaborations previously - such as with Shinola, the Made-in-USA, lifestyle brand - and this Frontier design is clearly in line with that project, at least aesthetically.
Differently from Barefoot's black and white studio monitors visual identity, the Output Frontier features a solid walnut base that allows the natural wood grain to stand out (also making each speaker unique). Over that beautiful walnut base we find what would otherwise be a plain-looking grey cabinet, featuring what looks like a single aluminum cone woofer, but is effectively a 6.5"/1.25" time-aligned coaxial driver, with a forward-facing bass port. The assumption here is that home and project studios - which are the market for the Frontier - will place the monitors very close to walls anyway. These are shipped directly by Output, are relatively affordable, and for now are only available in the US.
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These Output Frontier active monitors designed by Barefoot sell for $1,399 per pair.
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The third speaker I actually only learned about this week, just in time for this newsletter. The design comes from O.S Acoustics, a relatively new company established in 2015 in the UK by Tom Osborne, a professional audio industry and loudspeaker design veteran. His research work in cooperation with two universities, was complemented with contributions from Christien Ellis (independent loudspeaker consultant) on the advanced FEA acoustic modeling. Their new product is the DBS8, a two-way active design in a sealed enclosure with an interesting MTM arrangement, which O.S Acoustics describes as an ultra-high-definition reference studio monitor with minimal frequency or time-domain distortions.
Meticulously designed to obtain the best possible performance from advanced materials and high-end components, the design philosophy for the DBS8 was to minimize any possible distortions, with Comsol simulations being used to optimize the cabinet structure, extensive vibration, and diffraction analysis, and validation of the internal bracing and overall design. The combination of the sealed cabinet and phase-corrected filters resulted in exemplary time-domain performance, according to the company.
The MTM driver arrangement configuration combines two 6.5" SEAS drivers, operating as a piston from the bass right through to the mid-range, with controlled dispersion of the high frequencies generated by a 28mm magnesium ceramic tweeter from Eton. A combination that the company evaluated extensively with measurements and listening tests, and is described as "the perfect recipe" for critical monitoring applications. Finally, the DBS8 system is DSP-controlled and powered by a Class-D T-Pro2 module from Pascal Audio, allowing users to choose from a selection of eight presets, each one with the option to enable or disable the FIR phase correction filter. O.S Acoustics DBS8 is now accepting orders and setting up international distribution.
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The O.S Acoustics DBS8 studio reference monitors are a very interesting design, now available for £4,999 GBP (inc U.K VAT) per pair.
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Searching for a Unicorn Part 2: Generating a Good Signal Source
By Brian Lowe (Belleson LLC)
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Brian Lowe (Belleson LLC) continues his search for the Unicorn in the second (and final) part of his article, this time focusing on the test fixtures. Testing a voltage regulator with exceptionally good performance requires an even more exceptional signal source and measurement setup to measure sub-microVolt ripple across a wide frequency range. Complementing the final article - a must-read for anyone into audio electronics - Jan Didden, audioXpress' technical editor, offers an informative sidebar about super regulators to enhance the information provided by Brian Lowe in his main feature article. This article was originally published in audioXpress, June 2019. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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Voice Coil Patent Reviews
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Two Single-Ended Planar-Magnetic Speaker Patents
By James Croft
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Every month on his Voice Coil magazine Acoustic Patents column, James Croft (Croft Acoustical) discusses different loudspeaker patents and inventions that are relevant to the audio industry. For this specific article, he reviewed two loudspeaker-related patents as a tribute to David John Graebener, who passed away on January 3, 2015. First James Croft reviews the planar-magnetic electro-acoustic transducer he patented together with Graebener, followed by a single-end planar magnetic speaker system, Graebener’s key patent. These were the first and second of the Single-Ended, Neodymium planar magnetic transducer patents David Graebener was granted, which were followed by six other patents all related to planar-magnetic speaker designs. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2015. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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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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