Industry & Product News
DSP Concepts and Bose Collaborate on Advanced Sound Management Technologies for Automotive Brands
DSP Concepts announced a collaboration with the Automotive Systems Division of Bose Corp. to bring the company’s Active Sound Management (ASM) solutions into Audio Weaver. Engineers from DSP Concepts and Bose have completed work demonstrating the effectiveness of one of those ASM solutions – Bose QuietComfort Road Noise Control (RNC) – within the Audio Weaver environment, adding to the platform’s library of nearly 500 market-proven modules available to developers through a drag-and-drop graphical interface. Read More
Augmented Hearing Technology from ams Enables Nuheara’s Latest IQbuds2 MAX Smart Hearing Earbuds
An apparently conventional true wireless stereo (TWS) product, which survived multiple iterations with similarly looking designs, Australian startup Nuheara has finally achieved its goal of standing out in a crowded consumer space, by enhancing the user’s hearing ability. A bridge toward truly smart hearables, the Nuheara IQbuds2 MAX product enjoys critical acclaim thanks to a combination of great sound quality, advanced ANC, and personalized hearing enhancement, powered by Austrian company ams. Read More
Schiit Audio Introduces Even Better Jotunheim 2 with More Power and More Versatility
Schiit Audio has announced the Jotunheim 2 modular, differential headphone amplifier and preamplifier. This updated model builds on the success of the original Jotunheim, now with higher power output and additional versatility. It also incorporates Schiit's unique Nexus fully discrete, differential topology and debuts Schiit's Continuity S output stage, which offers higher efficiency and improved linearity. Jotunheim 2 retains the same price as the original Jotunheim, starting at $399 with no optional module installed. Read More
Qualcomm Announces QCC305x SoC Series for True Wireless Earbud Designs with Bluetooth LE Audio Support
Qualcomm Technologies International, unveiled the Qualcomm QCC305x SoCs, designed specifically to help brands differentiate across a range of tiers in the fast-moving truly wireless earbud category. The new SoCs are designed to meet demand for advanced wireless audio use cases, and enable end-to-end support for the new Bluetooth LE Audio standard. The QCC305x series also adds support for ultra-low-power digital ANC technology, Qualcomm Adaptive ANC, Qualcomm TrueWireless Mirroring, and wake word activated voice assistants. Read More
GGNTKT Model S1 Self-Powered In-Wall Loudspeaker for Full Multichannel Immersion and Dynamics
GGNTKT (the name stands for "Gegentakt" or push-pull) is an interesting new loudspeaker company with a refreshing attitude toward high-end audio. The company's new product, the Model S1, is a self-powered, in-wall, two-way custom installation design for home theaters. The GGNTKT Model S1 is a high output design for front/LCR and surround channels of small to medium-sized home theaters and professional multichannel monitoring in studio facilities. Read More
7 Sensing Software Joins Qualcomm Extension Program with Hearing Augmentation and Voice Processing Solutions
7 Sensing Software, an embedded software development company active in audio processing and machine learning targeting wearable and hearable applications, announced that it has joined the Qualcomm Extension Program. With this confirmation, 7 Sensing Software is now able to offer its Hearing Augmentation and Pure Voice solutions for wireless earbuds and headsets running on the ultra-low power, premium-tier Qualcomm QCC5100 Bluetooth SoC family. Read More
Khadas Tone2 Pro ESS-Based USB-C Audio DAC and Headphone Preamp Now Available
Khadas, a company focused on high-performance single-board computers for makers and developers, achieved significant success in audio-focused products, particularly with high-resolution capable ESS-based audio DACs. Following its earlier success with the Tone range of add-on boards, Khadas embarked on a more ambitious project with the Tone2 Pro, which is the company's first finished product, mandatory to support MQA hardware decoding. Khadas still intends to launch a Tone2 (non-Pro) version as a DIY Kit in the future, without MQA support. Read More
ESS Technology Announces First High-Performance 8-Channel DAC with Built-In 2Vrms Line Drivers
ESS Technology announced its newest addition to the SABRE audio series of DACs, the ES9080 eight-channel DAC with built-in 2Vrms, ground centered line drivers. The new ESS SABRE ES9080Q DAC simplifies multichannel line level setups with best-in-class performance integrated into one small package. According to the audio semiconductor manufacturer, the 32-bit eight-channel DAC is an ideal platform for the consumer home entertainment market, delivering improved audio specifications with streaming media applications. Read More
Guest Editorial
Paul Wiener
(GaN Systems Inc.)
GaN in Class-D Amplifiers
Accelerating Audio Innovation with GaN
In a world that has been obsessed with media streaming services, advances in video have often over-shadowed audio technologies. Audio has always been one of the most intimate, personal, and emotionally powerful forms of media. Neuroscience has documented the unique value of audio as compared to visual storytelling, with studies revealing 21% greater “emotional intensity” for audio storytelling. Audio book and podcast listening is growing faster than the overall entertainment market, and the streaming music industry is increasing the sonic quality of its offerings as consumers upend past expectations of accepting lower-quality sound for mobile convenience.

Three important forces are now influencing the rise of the predominance of audio in both consumer experiences and technology design:
  • Increased consumer expectations around the integration of higher-quality audio into their everyday experiences – from music to voice controlled devices
  • Creative experimentation in content programming and services now that bandwidth is no longer a major gating item and high-quality headsets have become mainstream
  • Technology advances in software and hardware accompanied by falling hardware costs, enabling audiophile quality components to miniaturize and migrate to everyday consumer electronic components.
Smaller, lighter, and better sounding Class-D audio systems with GaN (gallium nitride) were one of the technology trends in 2020. GaN Systems predicts that by the end of 2021 a significant number of the world’s noteworthy brands in the audio market will be offering GaN-based Class-D audio solutions.
Markets of Opportunity for Audio Technology Innovation
When the emotional appeal of audio and its deeply embedded societal nature is combined with these three forces - some truly unique opportunities arise for audio technologists and product designers. This is particularly true in consumer electronics and automotive markets.

Home theaters, smart home applications, and the pervasiveness of mobile devices are the main areas of opportunity for audio innovation in consumer electronics. High-quality home theater sound is no longer the sole domain of audiophiles as every household engages in more media at home. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled smart speakers are part of those high-quality sound systems and are also distributed around the next-generation smart home to enable a variety of voice-enabled applications.

Increasingly diverse uses of these speakers in playing audio (from search request responses to immersive music) and in responding to audio command input (voice control) make quality improvement a priority. In Qualcomm’s “2019 State of Play Report”, sound quality was rated higher than cost considerations for smart speakers (same for true wireless earbuds in the 2020 edition of that report). Both Sonos and Google already offer smart speaker products that can handle higher volume and quality audio.

And drivers in every car category now want the same high-quality audio previously available only in high-end luxury model vehicles – both for entertainment purposes as well as for navigation, information, and safety systems. There are now cars with almost three dozen speakers positioned throughout the passenger compartment’s multiple audio zones, along with a variety of microphone inputs. New kinds of audio systems are being designed for electric vehicles (EVs) that have different interior acoustics than traditional cars. The design of an EV’s higher quality audio system will need to consider power efficiency, size, and weight – all of which are important factors in the quest to obtain greater driving ranges.

The audio quality expectations that now exist for cars also carry over into the boats, motorcycles, and all-terrain vehicles (ATV) markets. With these vehicles, audio system designers face additional challenges of creating products that can perform flawlessly in harsh environments (water, salt, dirt, and mud) and fit within the limited space and locations for audio gear found in boats, ATVs, and motorcycles. As in the case of cars, and especially EVs, the industry is working to develop products that deliver better quality and experiences in smaller and more energy efficient form factors – while still providing the connectivity and seamless integration the market demands.
GaN Systems offers a Class-D amplifier evaluation kit including a two-channel, 200W per channel (8 ohm) boards and companion audio-grade SMPS.
GaN Technology vs. Silicon in Class-D Audio Amplifiers
Historically, Class-D amplifiers have been designed with Silicon MOSFET as the de facto transistor device technology. Now it is possible to design a new generation of amplifiers with GaN technology that enable new innovation in audio quality and product performance. With Silicon MOSFETs, designers are limited in audio performance by the switching speeds of these devices. GaN transistors can operate at a much high frequency that provides fast, clean switching transitions. The result is smaller and more efficient audio devices with notably higher quality audio performance in GaN Class-D audio systems.

Using total harmonic distortion (THD) measurements as an accepted example of industry benchmark, the use of GaN power transistors instead of Silicon in Class-D amplifiers results in a 10 times improvement in THD at 0.01% for GaN in comparison to 0.1% for Silicon. GaN’s faster switching capability is the key to this improvement. Faster switching results in smaller “dead time,” which means lower crossover distortion and a lower THD.

Design engineers have greater flexibility in tuning the performance of both THD and noise floor as a result of GaN’s significantly superior switching waveform shape. As in the case of any Class-D amplifier design, increasing the frequency response is a trade-off between efficiency and noise performance. The advantage of GaN is that the frequency response bandwidth can be extended higher before the efficiency drops below, and noise floor pushes above, that of Silicon device-based designs. This means there are many more design choices for engineers to improve audio quality performance across several metrics without compromise.

GaN technology used in Class-D audio design will uniquely enable designers to create a new generation of innovative products that deliver improved audio performance along with increased energy efficiency in new, smaller form factors at prices that everyone can afford.
Fresh From the Bench
The Puffin Phono DSP by Parks Audio
By Mike Harkins
In this article, Mike Harkins reviews the versatile Puffin Phono DSP by Parks Audio. For those of you who are not familiar with Parks Audio, this company was founded by Shannon Parks, who has also contributed fantastic articles published by audioXpress. After experimenting with several other products, Parks Audio has achieved notoriety for its phono stage Puffin, which adds a programmable DSP and is able to be updated and improved constantly with simple firmware updates. A new approach that truly takes the concept of a phono stage to a different level. This article was originally published in audioXpress, December 2020.  Read the Full Article Now Available Here
Voice Coil Focus
Audio Manufacturing in Vietnam: An Introduction to a Brave New World
By Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific)
Focusing on Vietnam, with research conducted by Mike Klasco and Nora Wong (Menlo Scientific), this article for Voice Coil magazine (a shorter version of which appeared earlier in The Audio Voice newsletter (#282), offers a valuable perspective about one of the most promising manufacturing opportunities in the near term. While there has been speaker parts manufacturing and speaker assembly for more than 20 years in Vietnam, the recent influx of speaker and audio OEM/ODMs that are expanding satellite factories through the country was motivated particularly by companies looking to counter the trading tariffs imposed in the United States. This is a very timely report and a must-read under the current circumstances. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, September 2020.  Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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