Product Design | Audio Electronics | Acoustics | DIY | Audio Innovations
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Røde NT1 5th Generation Studio Condenser Microphone Innovates with Dual Connect Output and 32-Bit Float Recording
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This is an historic moment for the Australian microphone brand. Røde has announced the NT1 5th Generation, a studio condenser microphone that fuses the classic, iconic Røde NT1 with new, cutting-edge technology. The Røde NT1 5th Generation is the world’s first cardioid condenser microphone to feature Dual Connect output, which offers both XLR and USB connectivity in the same housing. It is also the world’s first microphone with a 32-bit float digital output. Read More
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Primare Prisma Integrated Amplifiers Are Roon Ready
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Primare, the Swedish designer and manufacturer of hi-fi components, announced that three of its best-selling Prisma integrated amplifiers - i15, i25, and i35 - received Roon Ready certification from Roon Labs. Being Roon Ready means that the systems transparently discover and connect to Roon with bit-perfect audio delivered from Roon to the network player. The owners of these models will find the update automatically downloaded and installed on their electronics . Read More
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Warwick Acoustics Ready to Scale Electroacoustic Panel Technology for In-Car Audio
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Following successful R&D and product development phases, Warwick Acoustics has entered 2023 with an accelerating program to commercialize its electroacoustic panel technology, focusing on the automotive industry. Warwick Acoustics is hiring and investing in facilities to support the substantial commercial pipeline under development. Warwick's ElectroAcoustic panels, already proven in high-end headphones, are now ready for car audio applications. Read More
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xMEMS and Bujeon Launch Two-Way Hybrid MEMS Driver Solution for Hi-Res TWS Earbuds
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xMEMS Labs and Bujeon Electronics from South Korea have partnered to create a family of two-way speaker modules to accelerate the design of next-generation, high-resolution, and lossless audio-capable TWS earbuds. The solution integrates a high-performance 9mm dynamic driver custom designed by Bujeon with an xMEMS' Cowell tweeter, the world’s smallest monolithic MEMS microspeaker at just 22mm. The reference design combines an xMEMS Aptos MEMS speaker amplifier to create a "drop-in" solution compatible with today’s leading TWS system-on-chips. Read More
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New Klippel Endurance Testing (KET) Available with Winter 2023 Klippel Software Update
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A completely new approach to long-term testing is now available as part of the latest Klippel dB-Lab Version 212 and QC 7 software. The update for the Klippel Analyzer System - free of charge for all users running dB-Lab 212 or QC7 - introduces two new pre-release modules and a new Online Help System for both R&D and QC. The main new module is the Klippel Endurance Testing (KET) and the second is a Nonlinear Residual Analyzer (NRL) tool dedicated to measuring any audio playback device with arbitrary signals such as music or speech. Read More
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ATC Announces SCM25A Pro Mk2 Three-Way Active Studio Monitor
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ATC announced the upcoming availability of the SCM25A Pro Mk2 as a compact, three-way, high-performance active monitor — maintaining the core of its popular predecessor from which it evolved while refining key areas of design and performance, including replacing the original SCM25A Pro’s OEM high-frequency driver with the specialist British manufacturer’s own “S-SPEC” SH25-76S premium soft-dome, dual-suspension tweeter. Read More
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Zoom Unveils UAC-232 32-Bit Float USB-C Audio Interface
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The world of digital audio is now finally getting to that threshold where the last recognized limitations of existing recording technology have been surpassed. The all-new Zoom UAC-232 USB-C audio interface is the company's first dedicated 32-bit float, ultra-high-dynamic-range recording solution. Designed in a convenient format that works well on the desktop or mobile applications, the Zoom UAC-232 is a two-in/two-out solution that establishes a new affordable standard for digital recording and more. Read More
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Guest Editorial
Mike Klasco
(Menlo Scientific)
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SonicEdge MEMS Ultrasound Speaker-In-Chip
Next Gen MEMS for TWS Earbuds and Hearing Aids
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As Monty Python once said, “And Now for Something Completely Different.”
Let’s start with the general speaker population. We characterize speakers by how they move air, more particularly their various types of motors and diaphragms.
The moving force can be electro-dynamic - the usual voice coil in a magnetic structure driving a cone or dome - or a planar film diaphragm with laminated conductor pattern in a magnetic field. Oskar Heil’s air motion transformer (AMT) features an accordion-pleated diaphragm using the squeezing of the pleats to move air, but otherwise similar to tensioned diaphragm magnetic planars. One recent reincarnation of the AMT, (sort of, on a microscale) could be the Arioso MEMS speaker, which uses electrostatic actuators integrated inside 20µm wide bending strips, which are energized by vibrations from the audio signal voltage. Arioso Systems was recently acquired by Bosch.
Another more esoteric approach are electrostatic planars, which use a metalized diaphragm between grids. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) speakers are a new crop, mostly in that their acoustic production can be capacitive or piezo-electric as the driving force for the diaphragm. Admittedly I have given all these the short shift and each has enough variants to fill a book.
Now we move on to another universe of transducers that do not quite follow the usual rules of acoustic production. These are the modulated and parametric speakers that have been proposed and are now moving through development.
Perhaps you might remember back to 2009 to Woody Norris and his Hypersonic Sound Speaker (HSS). These were a class of ultrasound transducers that generated audible sound from modulated ultrasound. The modulated ultrasound passes through a nonlinear medium that acts as a demodulator. Projecting a narrow beam of modulated ultrasound substantially changes the speed of sound in the air that it passes through. The air within the beam behaves nonlinearly and extracts the modulation signal from the ultrasound, resulting in sound that can be heard only along the path of the beam, or that appears to radiate from any surface that the beam strikes.
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Click to see the video with Woody Norris’ presentation of the Hypersonic Sound Speaker
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Basically, the heterodyne speaker uses ultrasonic modulators of two beams with the difference creating the audio. This technology allows a beam of sound to be heard only in a small well-defined area; for a listener outside the beam the sound pressure decreases substantially.
And Now... A Unique Ultrasonic Shutter MEMS-Based Speaker System
Percolating in stealth mode for a decade is the work of Moti Margalit, CEO of SonicEdge. The core of the design is one or more apertures driven by the ultrasonic carrier signal and one or more movable and over-sized obstruction elements that are configured to modulate the ultrasonic carrier signal (think of a shutter) thereby generating audio.
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The ultrasound propagates through a time varying acoustic channel, which is an acoustic modulator. A large channel enables the ultrasound to pass, and a small channel attenuates the ultrasound. The modulator shifts shifting the ultrasound frequency creates a constant volume velocity source. A standard speaker in earphone applications has a constant sound level for lower frequencies and drops short at higher frequencies (black line). A volume velocity source provides a constant volume velocity of air regardless of frequency and in earphone applications has increasing SPL for lower frequencies and extended SPL at high frequencies (green line).
As can be seen from the graphs, this technique overcomes the challenge of large excursion and piston size in MEMS speakers by using a radically new approach based on active modulation of ultrasound. The SonicEdge speaker is composed of membranes generating modulated ultrasound and acousto-mechanical demodulators that frequency shift the ultrasound to audio.
The MEMS speaker is based on existing process modules for ultrasound transducers, such as Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers (CMUT) or Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (PMUTs).
The resulting game-changing speaker is a constant volume velocity source, generating-resonance free audio and ideally suited for non-occluded earphones and headsets with ANC functionality.
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The company's SE1000 solution includes the MEMS speaker chip that generates sound combined with an ASIC that drives the transducer.
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Back in 2018 I first came across this technology in my consulting work and these patents all belong to SonicEdge:
Since then, work has continued and SonicEdge was formed to complete development of the concept. Around this time last year SonicEdge emerged from “stealth mode” and first appeared in the MEMS microspeaker directory published in Voice Coil May 2022. Currently, SonicEdge is conducting POC projects with an evaluation board for strategic customers, with commercial availability of its first MEMS speaker (SE1000), anticipated for later in 2023.
This ultrasound nano-speaker and frequency transformers are realized as a solid-state MEMS device manufactured monolithically leveraging the semiconductor eco system for scalability and price trajectory. Coming from the semiconductor fab as a final device in minimal size, which includes a MEMS chip that generates sound and an ASIC amplifier chip that drives the MEMS chip, SonicEdge has developed a unique technology that generates ultrasound from multiple acoustic pixels, each as wide as a strand of hair. The back cavity is 10x reduced in size compared to state-of-the-art 11mm drivers and therefore supports new design paradigms for earphones. The lack of a magnetic structure also relieves the TWS pain-point of providing enough separation between the antenna and the transducer.
There are advantages in size and sound quality, no mechanical vibrations, potentially low power consumption, and more SPL than what some of the earlier MEMS speaker efforts. The minuscule vibration produced with this sound product technique enables a lot more acoustic echo cancelation (AEC) and feedback margin in applications such as TWS and hearing aids, along with full-duplex speaker-as-mic functionality, together with some other sensing capabilities.
Having taken a good listen at CES this year, the device sounded excellent, as did some of the other recent MEMS earphones. SonicEdge’s product roadmap also includes bass reflex acoustic design supporting full-range free-field speakers for AR/VR and mobile device applications.
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SonicEdge developed a unique technology that generates ultrasound from multiple microtransducers, and then transforms the ultrasound to human-audible sound using a patented acousto-mechanical frequency transformer or acoustic modulator, contained on a solid-state MEMS device.
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Unified Coverage Map - A Radically Better Technology for Today’s Hybrid Environments
By Erica Yorga (Nureva)
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This article discusses a new patent-pending feature of Nureva’s next-generation technology for audio presentations and conferencing that provides a new perspective on how microphone coverage works in large meeting rooms. Erica Yorga, the Principal Intellectual Property manager at Nureva, details the unique features and benefits of the Unified Coverage Map technology for conference and lecture rooms, already being deployed and recently demonstrated live at the Integrated Systems Europe 2023 show. This article was originally published in audioXpress, February 2023. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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Beyma’s New NMF Series T-25S Silk Dome Tweeter
By Vance Dickason
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Vance Dickason received two of the latest products to come out of the R&D labs of Acustica Beyma, the Spanish pro sound OEM transducer manufacturer, which celebrated 50 years in 2019. The company has always introduced significant proprietary technologies in its transducers, and continues to expand its R&D team, with the results now visible in a new set of transducers that crossover from pure professional audio applications into the studio and high-end world. Beyma's new Near and Mid Field (NMF) series was introduced in 2022 and continues that innovation tradition. This review addresses the new Beyma T-25S 1" silk dome tweeter, which has a feature set that is nearly identical to the T-25M, previously reviewed in Test Bench, with the exception of the polymer-impregnated silk dome and wide 6mm polymer based surround. Specifications detail 15W AES power handling, and a 92dB at 2.83V/1m sensitivity. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, December 2022. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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