Industry & Product News
Linear Systems Announces LSK489 Premier Performance JFET Re-Release
Linear Integrated Systems, the world class producer of ultra-low-noise JFETS and other small-signal discrete semiconductors, has announced the re-release of its LSK489 discrete component with specialized parameter grading. The LSK489 is one of the world's premier JFETs optimized for use in high-end sensor front-end amplification designs, and the re-release in 2022 introduces improved manufacturing consistency. Learn More Here
Tube Amp Doctor Introduces New TAD 6V6GT-STR REDBASE Premium Selected Tubes
With the entirely new TAD 6V6GT-STR REDBASE, German company Tube Amp Doctor Musikhandels GmbH introduced a new family member to its REDBASE high-quality premium tube series. The TAD 6V6GT-STR REDBASE is an ideal tube for Fender Deluxe Tweed 5E3 or Blackface Princeton Reverb guitar amps, single-ended Class-A amps such as the Fender Tweed Champ, Vibro Champ, Fender Champion 600, or the Univalve. As the company explains, many boutique amp builders have already embraced the TAD 6V6GT-STR REDBASE and the company is ready to ship worldwide. Read More
USound Introduces Ultra-Compact MEMS Audio Module for Hearables
USound, the Austrian pioneer of MEMS speakers, announced the release of an audio module designed to enhance the performance of true wireless earbuds and hearing aids, enabling new degrees of design freedom. As USound underscores, with this new integrated solution, manufacturers can create more ergonomic and comfortable designs, with extended battery life and audio quality, while the form factor of hearing aids and TWS earbuds can be considerably reduced. Read More
Inovonics Changes Ownership as Jim Wood Retires
Broadcast equipment manufacturer Inovonics, Inc. was initially financed and has been wholly owned by Jim Wood and his immediate family following the founding of the company in 1972. Jim managed Inovonics until 2006, the year he turned day-to-day operations over to COO Ben Barber. Ben was elevated to President/CEO in 2012. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022, Inovonics has maintained its position as a leading supplier of cost effective and innovative radio broadcast products. Now, after 50 years leading Inovonics, Jim Wood steps down and passes the torch to CEO Ben Barber. Read More
Lithe Audio Enters US Market with All-in-One Discrete Wireless Audio Systems
Lithe Audio, the UK-based manufacturer of wireless audio systems for residential and commercial installations, announced that its lineup of all-in-one ceiling, surface, and garden speakers is now available to the US market. Featuring an integrated amplifier, connectivity, and high-quality speaker components in one device, each system requires only a power source for installation, making it simple for integrators to deliver pristine audio streaming in single rooms, distributed systems, and outdoors while enabling the creation of wireless surround-sound home theater systems. Read More
Pro-Ject Introduces Two New Balanced Output High-End Turntables
Pro-Ject announced the first products in its upcoming collection of truly balanced high-performance turntables. The new X1 B and X2 B are the brand’s first turntables with dedicated, fully balanced mini XLR outputs. This connection optimizes the performance of moving coil cartridges when used with a compatible phono preamplifier. For out-of-box compatibility with the widest array of equipment and to keep the price down, a Sumiko Rainier moving magnet cartridge is factory installed for immediate enjoyment via the turntable’s RCA unbalanced outputs. Read More
Rion Acquires Norsonic and Parent Company Scantek
The sound and vibration industry continues to consolidate. Norsonic, Scantek’s parent company, has been acquired by Rion. Norsonic and Rion are both established sound and vibration equipment manufacturers, the first founded and based in Norway, and the second based in Japan. As a leading provider in solutions for sound and vibration measurement instrumentation Scantek sells and supports both Norsonic’s and Rion’s products, as well as other product lines, including DataKustik, in the North American market. Read More
Vertere Acoustics Announces Updated DG-1S Turntable and Phono Preamp
Vertere Acoustics announced that its DG-1 record player/turntable has been updated and improved. After little more than three years, the company already had many ideas on how to improve its original product and announced the DG-1 S, which will be available in September 2022. Also updated and improved is the Vertere PHONO-1 MKII L MM/MC Phono Preamplifier, now featuring a new gold-plated L-shaped PCB and significantly enhanced accessibility for the customization DIP switches. Read More
HEAD acoustics Promotes NVH Simulator User Group Meeting and Expert Exchange
Following immediately on the 13th Aachen Acoustics Colloquium (AAC) in November, HEAD acoustics is hosting an exclusive User Group Meeting on the PreSense NVH Simulator, the interactive tool for virtual engineering and prototyping and a key contribution from the company toward Digital Twins. This will be a unique opportunity to help shape future developments in direct exchange with HEAD acoustics' NVH Simulator team. Read More
Editor's Desk
J. Martins
(Editor-in-Chief)
Holding Trends in Residential Audio
You Should Be Paying Attention
I'm currently working on our Market Update for the October 2022 issue of audioXpress. And as I always do, I look back to recap on what were the key trends I reported previously, so I can follow up from there with updates. For this year’s report we will be addressing the residential integration angle, covering a diversity of technologies and products, but inevitably I need to look back at the major trends. Very quickly I realized that what I reported last year and the year before holds perfectly true today.

I know many of you reading The Audio Voice weekly don't always read our monthly magazine, so I believe it’s even more important to recap here on the technologies I highlighted for home audio in these Market Update articles.
CEDIA, the global trade association for the home technology industry, estimates the integrated home market to be worth $20.1 billion, according to a joint market research conducted by Ancrage Consulting in 2021. Categories experiencing the most growth include lighting/shading, lighting control, and networking.
Wireless Audio
First is the topic of wireless audio solutions available with support for the technology promoted by the Wireless Speaker & Audio (WiSA) Association. WiSA is a great example of a convenient technology for consumers, also attractive for residential integration. Not many home entertainment technologies are designed and promoted with a focus on installation simplicity and ease of configuration such as WiSA - which also continues to be an essential part of the technology puzzle to enable wireless multichannel audio in the home.

The interesting aspect about WiSA in the past two years is the clear momentum that this consumer electronics consortium - founded by Summit Wireless Technologies and now renamed simply as WiSA Technologies - continues to maintain, in great part as a result from direct integration in the latest generations of TVs and growing support from TV manufacturers - a major audio signal source in home entertainment.

By offering an interoperability standard for all leading brands and manufacturers to deliver wireless immersive sound, WiSA allows multiple components to be combined and ensure robust, high-resolution, multichannel, low-latency audio, while eliminating the complicated setup of traditional audio systems.
The number of TV manufacturers supporting WiSA Certified speakers keeps growing, with LG Electronics expanding its range of WiSA Ready TVs in four different product families, including the brand’s latest TV models and projectors.

Other large TV manufacturers, such as Hisense, Skyworth Group, Compal (Toshiba), Foxconn, and TCL, among others and including important OEM/ODMs, all have joined the association and offer products that work together with more than 60 leading consumer electronics brands. On the speaker side, WiSA Certified speakers are available from well-known brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Harman, Klipsch, System Audio, Buchardt Audio, Piega, and many more. European speaker manufacturers in particular seem to be very supportive of WiSA integration.

WiSA installations largely benefit from the fact that devices are able to automatically recognize audio configurations from 2.0 to 7.1 to 5.1.2, which improves the user experience exponentially. Although there are alternative approaches working on standard Wi-Fi technology, WiSA’s original approach continues to be unrivaled. A WiSA module transmits and receives up to eight channels of uncompressed 24-bit 48/96kHz sound over a dedicated wireless network working on the more reliable U-NII 5GHz spectrum, with a unique signal latency of just 5.2 milliseconds and 1 microsecond channel synchronization. This allows expansion to immersive configurations by supporting up to 12 speakers connected simultaneously (adding height speakers to the standard surround configurations). No other wireless audio technology currently in the market allows this level of performance and convenience for home environments.
In addition to technology and certification programs, the role of the Wireless Speaker and Audio (WiSA) Association is continuously expanding into a consumer-facing cornerstone of wireless home cinema, and supporting the consumer electronics industry’s growth with robust and uncompromised wireless audio technology.
WiSA Technologies has been more focused lately on approaching the emerging soundbar market, now offering a convenient and ready-to-integrate wireless audio solution working on 2.4GHz for simple 3.1 configurations (soundbar, two surround speakers and subwoofer), but there's no doubt that the technology continues to hold great potential for immersive configurations and Dolby Atmos support, as audioXpress already detailed in its 2020 Market Update.

Consumers are increasingly familiar and receptive to wireless audio, but at home they really want a seamless, always-ready-to-work experience - unlike what they experience with Bluetooth pairing, with complicated and limited activation, not to mention interferences and unreliability. Once quickly configured, WiSA systems work all the time. And that's precisely what British company Lithe Audio realized early, being the first company to offer an in-ceiling speaker that is WiSA Certified, as another valuable option for residential integration (ceiling speakers are exactly what's needed for Dolby Atmos setups at home). Lithe Audio has been a pioneer in these installation-friendly wireless audio systems for residential and commercial installations. They have already established a network in the European market, and are now available to the US market, represented by The BIG Corp., a global, full-service consumer electronics sales rep firm and consulting agency.

I really expect to see more WiSA announcements at CEDIA 2022 in Dallas, TX.

In 2019, when I interviewed Tony Ostrom, president of WiSA, at the High End Munich show, there was a very strong momentum for the technology. In the last three years, I've seen the company very busy with name changes, logo refreshes, and website redesigns. I really hope that the Summit/WiSA engineering team remains immune to those marketing distractions (and a few blunders) and ready to progress on what is probably one of the most important key audio technologies for the home market.
In March 2022, Summit Wireless Technologies announced the name change to WiSA Technologies, Inc., reflecting the company's strategy to leverage its core technology into new consumer market segments in 2022, while maintaining its Wireless Speaker and Audio Association independent role to promote WiSA ecosystems for consumers, retailers, and WiSA association members.
Smart Home Matters
That is... until we have Matter. I have written a few key articles on this emerging interoperability initiative for the smart home, and how it could have a major impact on audio, or not. I couldn't help noticing that in the past two years Amazon, Google, Facebook, and many other very large technology companies are having a change of heart regarding the smart home approach, and are all betting on something that might or might not actually happen - depending on what Apple is committed to offer in this initiative.

It is clearly visible that no one talks about smart speakers any longer. Amazon recently held its Alexa Live 2022 Event and talked a lot about Matter but basically told developers to "work on it," while the company didn't actually deliver anything significant in that domain (and probably couldn't, since it's all work-in-progress). What I noticed was the lack of hardware products and no smart speakers, as Alexa seems to become increasingly a voice engine that Amazon intends to "port" and spread - much like Google already does.

I expect that CES 2023 will be our first chance to see some modest progress on Matter, unless Apple surprises us all by finally showing the work done, like they did with many other "industry standards" where they actually assigned a battalion of engineers and did all the work the others were trying to hold indefinitely, waiting for firm corporate directives that would never arrive.
Having the Matter mark on products will serve as a seal of approval, taking the guesswork out of the purchasing process and enabling businesses and consumers alike to choose from a wider array of brands to create secure and connected homes and buildings.
In my Market Update 2021, I wrote about the frustration of not having trade shows to assess where many small and medium companies stand on Matter and other efforts. The COVID-fest that was CEDIA Expo 2021 didn't award us with the required perspective regarding the very specific custom integration and installation sector and the growing convergence with smart home efforts. I remember clearly how committed and important Sonos was in this domain at CEDIA 2019, doubling its efforts to support integrators. As I wrote, not seeing a show floor with all these companies together, makes it easy to overlook the similar expansion efforts that are being made by Amazon, Google, and other tech companies in the smart home space.

Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2022 was unfortunately a completely hollow event in that regard, with lots of pat-on-the-back, "good-to-be-back" parties, and no substance. Not even on promising initiatives in Thread technology, or the courting efforts by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) toward DiiA, the global DALI alliance of companies from the lighting and sensor industries, trying to short-circuit Thread and Matter - which builds on existing networking technologies, such as Ethernet (802.3), Wi-Fi (802.11), and Thread (802.15.4) — and for ease of commissioning, also Bluetooth Low Energy. More about this in our new 2022 Market Update on Residential Integration.
A board member, member of the Matter Steering Committee, and one of the early and active members of the Matter Working Group at the Connectivity Standard Alliance, Tuya Smart announced that it is working with Amazon Alexa to implement a streamlined setup experience based on Matter - an effort named Frustration-Free Setup (resulting in the unfortunate acronym FFS). In January 2022, Amazon announced the technical documents for both Frustration Free Setup for Wi-Fi and Thread-based Matter devices, and Tuya is working with Amazon on the Interoperability Testing of Matter products.
Audio and AV-Over-IP and PoE
Finally, a third technology trend that I mentioned last year, and which I believe deserves even more attention this year, has to do with Audio-Over-IP or AV-Over-IP, since the acronym now also represent the growing range of network solutions that also carry at least one channel of video. Updates on the AVoIP protocols have unfortunately stalled due to a senseless ambition by a few chip companies to try to establish another de-facto standard around their own IP - emulating the successful Audinate-Dante strategy. Because we really don't care about those on-channel "video" wars, we will save our readers the details (for now - we might address this when applicable). To transmit and distribute the audio from source to destination, the dilemma remains opting for AES67, Ravenna, AVB TSN, Dante, or more or less proprietary solutions.

More important, residential integration - as with commercial installation systems - is increasingly based on devices that can be powered directly over Ethernet — Power-over-Ethernet (PoE). Independently of what transport protocol is used, PoE is an established solution to deliver data and power safely for all sorts of devices over local area networks (LAN) using Ethernet cabling. This saves an enormous amount of time and money and, more importantly, allows designing complex systems with confidence, which is crucial in building and residential installations. As a result of its fast evolution, we now have three types of PoE solutions on the market, including switches, splitters, and injectors to support PoE devices.
A PoE-capable external audio amplifier. The market offers plenty of adapters for PoE, but still lacks fully integrated amplifier modules designed for PoE, as required for true audio networking (e.g., for immersive applications). A PoE amplifier is the ideal module for self-powered speakers, allowing a single cable for power, audio, control, and great installation flexibility.
Power over Ethernet technology was defined in the IEEE 802.3af standard, published in 2003, allowing a powered device (PD) to receive up to 12.95W, and from 37V to 57V. In 2009, the PoE+ upgraded specification was introduced, extending power delivery up to 25.5W, with a voltage range of 42.5V to 57V. More recently, in 2018, given the widespread use of the technology for all sorts of devices and applications, the standard was updated to PoE++. Instead of just using two twisted pairs in an Ethernet cable, PoE++ allows using four twisted pairs. PoE++ delivers up to 71.3W to the PD, and allows 1.7A at 52V to be sent over the same cabling with Gigabit Ethernet.

Developers are now exploring the full potential of the PoE++ standard, creating new power management features for optimized systems. For the audio industry, this means that powered speakers can now be conveniently installed using a single cable structure, while at the same time the network data can be used to remotely optimize and reconfigure an existing installation for immersive audio applications, virtual acoustics, and even noise cancelling applications - which is the ultimate level of comfort for residential installations (cancel all external noises, define an ideal acoustical environment, and playback multichannel audio recordings in perfect conditions).

I'll stop here and invite our readers to subscribe to audioXpress and read the full Market Update feature in about a month (copies are also available at CEDIA 2022). Next week you will see our September Speaker Focus issue being distributed, and you can currently read the August 2022 Acoustics issue here.
You Can DIY!
Meet the Pentriode
By Al Kimmel
This DIY-focused article introduces the Pentriode, a concept to explore the familiar idea of connecting commonly available pentode tubes as triodes, creating a circuit that excels in linearity. As Al Kimmel explains, "a pentode can function as a triode when its screen grid is connected to the plate. When triode connected, many pentodes can be outstanding very linear triodes. The Pentriode is formed by making one simple change to connect the screen grid to the cathode of a cathode follower." The article proposes different possible approaches, including for a mu stage, a design that the author previously wrote about for audioXpress. This article was originally published in audioXpress, May 2022. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
Voice Coil Speaker Patents
Inverse Horn Loudspeakers
By James Croft
This article reviews a patent originally granted to inventors Philip R. Clements; (Tempe, AZ), Boaz Shalev; (Needham, MA), and James Joseph Croft, III; (Bellevue, WA) and which has now expired. The patent describes a low-frequency transducer system with a multi-compression chamber, where an inverse horn structure is employed in combination with a resonance-distortion filter chamber. The filter chamber effectively expands the effective enclosure volume at low frequencies, allowing the system to more efficiently reproduce low frequencies while being able to use smaller diameter transducers and maintaining good system sensitivity. This was the third patent granted on Atlantic Technology’s low frequency system known by the trademark name H-PAS (High Pressure Acceleration System). The primary embodiment of this system are creations of Phil Clements, who developed a similar system in the early 1970s, disclosed in US 4,373,606. “While the system superficially appears similar to a transmission line, with a Helmholtz side chamber, the length of the “inverse-horn” waveguide is not long enough to establish a quarter wave column resonance at the fundamental tuning frequency (FB), and in actuality system FB corresponds more closely to a specialized type of Helmholtz Bass Reflex device,” James Croft explains. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, September 2016.  Read the Full Article Now Available Here
Voice Coil Test Bench
Beyma’s New 1” CD1ND Compact Polyimide Diaphragm Compression Driver and TD-194 Horn
By Vance Dickason
This Test Bench focuses on Beyma’s new 1" CD1ND Compact Polyimide Diaphragm Compression Driver and TD-194 Horn, clearly a product oriented for demanding professional audio applications. From this company headquartered in Valencia, Spain, comes a new transducer from its extensive line-up of more than 30 compression drivers. The 1” throat uber-compact CD1ND compression driver delivers a “high-quality” cost-effective option for studio monitors or stage monitors, as possible examples. The Beyma CD1ND compression driver uses a 1” (25.1mm) diameter edge-wound voice coil, wound with aluminum wire on a non-conducting former, driving the field-replaceable polyimide diaphragm and lightweight FEA-optimized neodymium ring magnet motor structure. Rated for 20W AES power handling and a 2kHz recommended crossover frequency, the Beyma CD1ND was measured with the Beyma TD-194 90° × 40° constant directivity horn with a 1200Hz cut-off frequency. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2022.  Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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