Product Design | Audio Electronics | Acoustics | DIY | Audio Innovations
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Klipsch Announces Speaker Product Line Featuring Resonado Technology |
It's an historical moment for Resonado Labs, which announced a strategic partnership to develop a new line of Klipsch home audio solutions integrating its technologies. Together, the companies aim to develop a line of products engineered to deliver the highest output possible in sleek and compact form factors. A major accomplishment for the speaker technology startup, which has not stopped surprising the market with its innovative transducers. Read More
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KEF Launches Updated LSX II Wireless Hi-Fi System |
KEF has officially launched the updated LSX II wireless speakers, available in five finishes. Much more than a simple upgrade from the original launched in 2018, the new LSX II combines the all-encompassing W2 wireless platform from the latest LS50 Wireless II and LS60 Wireless speakers, in a smaller and much more affordable version. Connectivity options are further enhanced by the addition of both HDMI and USB-C, making this an ideal companion for both TV and desktop computer systems. Read More
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IK Multimedia Promotes iLoud MTM Immersive Speaker Bundle for Dolby Atmos Configurations |
Setting up an immersive monitor system in a home studio is now not only possible but also more affordable and reliable. IK Multimedia announce enhanced support for immersive audio, including Dolby Atmos systems based on a multi-unit bundle of its iLoud MTM active monitors, which offer versatile mounting options and a symmetric design. The bundle includes 11 speakers, a measurement microphone, ARC calibration software, and setup guide for easier installation. Read More
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Supply Chain and Sourcing Outside of China - Manufacturing in the Philippines |
The Audio Product Education Institute (APEI), an initiative of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), is promoting another supply chain and sourcing session to discuss manufacturing alternatives outside of China. This new online session, set for June 29, is focused on one of the biggest audio manufacturing secrets in Asia - and for decades, the secret location for many of the leading brands from Japan, the US, and Europe - the Philippines. Register now for the live session June 29, 9:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time (12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time). Read More
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Soniox Releases Groundbreaking AI for Speaker Recognition |
Soniox released a breakthrough in artificial intelligence for speaker diarization (separation) and identification. Soniox Speaker AI has achieved a 96% accuracy in detecting speakers for all kinds of business applications, making it 5x more accurate than solutions provided by Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. This breakthrough unlocks a new dimension for voice and conversational applications. Read More
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GN Hearing Introduces Custom Hearing Aids in a Modern Earbud Design |
GN Hearing and its Beltone and ReSound brands, part of GN Group, expanded its product line with the new Custom hearing aids, which are weatherproof, rechargeable, custom earbuds that last all day on a single battery charge. GN says the new Custom hearing aids are the most advanced rechargeable product available from its brands, restoring natural hearing in a comfortable, Bluetooth-enabled design, available in modern colors. A bridge-product to make hearing-aids closer to consumer TWS earbuds. Read More
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New 2022 Smart Audio Report from NPR & Edison Research Shows Slowing Smart Speaker and Voice Assistant Adoption |
NPR and Edison Research released its annual Smart Audio Report, showcasing voice technology trends in the US. The 2022 Report highlights the increased usage of voice technology, with 35% of Americans 18+ now owning a smart speaker. In 2022, 62% of Americans 18+ use a voice assistant on any device – smart speakers, smartphones, TV remotes, in-car systems, a computer/laptop, and tablets. While suggesting growth, the report also shows adoption and usage is stalling. Read More
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V-MODA Introduces S-80 Bluetooth On-Ear Headphones and Personal Speaker System |
V-MODA the lifestyle headphone company that joined forces with Roland in 2016 and was fully acquired in 2019, now announced the S-80, an all-new Bluetooth headphones model that also feature a unique two-way design for use as a personal speaker system around-the-neck. The all-wireless new on-ear design was engineered to function as a fashion accessory that users will not only use around the neck when not listening, but is also a speaker neckband . Read More
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Rotel 60th Anniversary Celebrated with New Diamond Series Models |
Rotel Electronics announced the new RA-6000 Integrated Amplifier and DT-6000 DAC Transport audio components to celebrate 60 years as a Japanese family owned and operated audio business. The “Diamond Series” models earn their distinction from the brand’s 60-year legacy of unwavering commitment to quality and passion for audio performance, having been established in 1961 in Tokyo, Japan by founder Mr. Tomoki Tachikawa. Read More
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Editor's Desk
J. Martins
(Editor-in-Chief)
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State of the Loudspeaker Industry
Inspiring Strategies for Uncertain Times
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In the past week's newsletter, where I focused on signaling my first impressions from the three trade shows I attended, I couldn't find the space to mention the fact that the Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook 2022 edition is now available and I'm using this opportunity now to address the loudspeaker industry.
Available in print and freely accessible online, the Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook (LIS) is a formidable annual effort by KCK Media, also the publisher for audioXpress and Voice Coil magazines, providing a comprehensive guide of manufacturers and key resources to the audio industry. And the annual publication is complemented by a dedicated website and online directory, continuously updated and available all year round.
If you find your company is missing from the directory, or that any of the details in the listing need updating, you can go straight to the website at www.loudspeakerindustrysourcebook.com and fill out the form for a free listing or submit your latest information to make the updates. Displaying your logo and standing out in each category is possible for a small fee, which is what helps keep the website online. |
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The Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook 2022 edition is now available and Tectonic is this year's cover sponsor. |
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In addition to serving as a great resource for products and services in the audio industry, the 2022 LIS also features some timely and informative articles. This year there's an important testimony by Jann U. Evers (Scan-Speak), discussing "Working Within the Ever-Changing World" or doing business where sourcing and sustainability are providing unique challenges. And LIS always includes a series of Questions & Answers from industry professionals that help us take the pulse of the industry.
Every issue includes some reference reading material, including an article from Roger Schwenke and Merlijn van Veen (Meyer Sound), co-chairs of the Audio Engineering Society’s SC-04-03-A Task Group, discussing the New AES75 Standard, and Andrew Bellavia of Knowles Corp. predicting a proliferation of audio devices that take into account consumers’ unique hearing responses.
There's also Steve Temme (Listen) detailing “End-of-Line Distortion Measurements,” and Alan Petrillo (COMSOL) writing about the “Effects of Enclosure Design on Loudspeaker Performance” - two must-read articles addressing the latest advancements on audio test and measurement and multiphysics simulation. And among these important articles, this year, I wrote "The State of the Loudspeaker Industry 2022" feature.
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Visit the website and click on the link to see the 2022 digital issue online. |
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One of the key topics I discuss in this State of the Industry article is the unpredictability of the current market and the lack of consistent market intelligence due to the pandemic, market demand fluctuations, supply chain and logistical constraints, and disruptions to the global economy. And I recently confirmed those observations at the recent trade shows that I attended. Manufacturers I talked to in general all reported delays in production or shipments, and most didn't want to give any precise launch timeframes for the new products unveiled at those shows. The scale of this uncertainty is unheard of.
I know that some manufacturers are navigating these circumstances better than others - and it usually has nothing to do with how much of the production is done in-house or outsourced. Any missing component, source material, or sometimes a delayed part in the production line can stop or postpone the whole launch strategy - even for vertically integrated operations. Effectively, a product not reaching the market these days could be simply the result of a transportation hurdle in any step of the process, including the distribution of the finished and packaged products. As we've learned in previous months, price-sensitive designs that finally left the factory can remain in shipping containers for so long that by the time they are unloaded there's hardly any margin left to offset the incurring costs, and manufacturers face the dilemma of marketing at a loss.
And this is a completely new set of obstacles for brands, product managers, and marketeers in 2022. The consequences will be visible in many key categories for audio products where for far too long there's been a reliance on very "lean" supply chains with aggressive pricing. Companies are already being forced to rethink their supply chain and distribution strategies as they restructure their product portfolios, and I expect we will see large shifts in market share between brands, and certainly in price structures. As I found out in informal conversations at the shows I attended, in many cases brands are not even pushing most of the items in their catalog, simply because they know they will not be able to keep them in stock after they sell the last remaining inventory. And we will see many "product updates," which are in fact direct replacements of products that were still in demand, but they were simply no longer viable to manufacture.
To illustrate this scenario I have analyzed fast-growing categories such as true wireless earbuds, conferencing headsets, and even laptops for some reference with traditional audio product categories such as speakers, including interesting cases like smart speakers or even large-size touring line arrays. I hope the extensive market overview can be useful.
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An immersive audio studio, which is just one room in a massive installation using L-Acoustics L-ISA technology at the University College London’s Environmental Research Laboratory, PEARL. Immersive is clearly of the most important market trends for the speaker industry currently - implying massive volumes of speakers in every single installation. A few manufacturers are clearly leading the trend and benefiting from it in a massive scale. |
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And this also gives me a good segue to mention the fact that I'm currently working on the September issue of audioXpress magazine, which is the Speaker Focus issue - for those who only follow us from this newsletter and website, yes, we still do a monthly printed magazine. That issue will offer another overview of key innovations and market trends in loudspeaker building, design, and testing.
Among the many articles in the September issue, I plan to include an inside report about the development of one of the most significant achievements in professional audio speakers. One that I was privileged to see in its very early stages, and to see now in a real demonstration during the recent Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) show - the Holoplot X1 Matrix Array.
ISE 2022 and InfoComm 2022 marked the first public unveiling of the X1 Matrix Array and hundreds of industry professionals attended the packed demos in Barcelona and Las Vegas, NV, to experience in person the impressive potential of the technology. Holoplot is currently being specified in multipurpose venues, theme parks, and physically immersive installations globally. The MSG Sphere at The Venetian, a massive entertainment venue in Las Vegas, will be completed in the second half of 2023 and will accommodate up to 20,000 standing spectators or 17,500 seated guests, and will be the first really high profile Holoplot installation with a massive number of arrays. Two more MSG "spheres" are apparently on the way.
This innovative technology from the German company is now finally getting the attention it deserves, after two years of delays caused by the pandemic. It truly enables ultra-precise control over sound propagation and localization, including allowing the creation of multiple separate sound zones from the same array - even though its application potential still needs to be investigated and fine-tuned. From what I heard in Barcelona, I can say the results are extremely impressive, but I would refrain from doing direct comparisons with current solutions for stereo and even immersive configurations - at least in its current state. Holoplot is about to create something different, that I am certain. At least judging from the potential of the team featuring renowned industry experts that I found now working for Holoplot.
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This image shows the Holoplot booth at ISE 2020 (Amsterdam) and ISE 2022 (Barcelona). Holoplot was getting ready to go to market at ISE 2020, the last audio industry trade show to take place before the pandemic. Fortunately the Berlin-based company managed to use the waiting time to advanced its development, and expand its global operations with significant hires of many highly talented industry professionals. |
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Holoplot presentation at ISE 2022 in Barcelona. |
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As a way to illustrate the market trends that I discussed in my LIS report, I also would like to talk about two distinct speaker companies in different segments.
In May 2021 I wrote about Syng, the company that was founded by Chris Stringer, a longtime Apple designer and the reason why its first and so far only product caused so much buzz online. I couldn't help expressing my doubts about the Cell Alpha Triphonic Speaker, because it combined so many ambitious technologies in a design that frankly didn't impressed me much. And because I couldn't listen to it, I was really curious about the hyperbole that surrounded its announcement.
And one of the many questions on my mind was the fact that the Syng speaker was shown in a very fragile-looking stand, which clearly is not safe for the diameter - and I suspect the weight - of the spherical Cell Alpha Triphonic Speaker design. As I noted, a speaker designed for modern lifestyles and standing in the middle of a living room, would be easily knocked over by the people simply living in the house.
Since that mysterious launch, Syng has not been at any trade show that I could attend, but I signed up for information and I never stopped receiving promotional updates, always insisting that I could click to visit their shop and place an order. How could I? Without listening, there's simply no way to even consider such an expensive speaker, which is even promoted as working better when at least three speakers are combined. Yeah, right.
The two last updates from Syng, at least gave me hope about the future of the company and the Cell Alpha Triphonic Speaker. The first announced that new features and functionality are continually rolling out via over-the-air updates. Syng has released updates to both Syng OS, which is the underlying software that powers the hardware, and the Syng Space iOS app. This shows that Syng has actually built a platform that will grow, in the best Apple tradition.
The second announcement, was a true revelation. Syng announced the release of a new Ceiling Mount with a corresponding software update for Tone Control of that configurations. And suddenly the Cell Alpha Triphonic Speaker makes much more sense. It should have been promoted all the time as a ceiling speaker, since it truly looks like a completely new design in that configuration. Suspending a spherical omnidirectional design makes much more sense than placing it on the floor in the middle of the room. And the Ceiling Mount can even attach the Cell Alpha Triphonic Speaker at any angle, and any ceiling height.
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Syng is a very ambitious speaker project currently in beta stage, which curiously enough is available for sale directly from the manufacturer. Without a single presence at a trade show or a public demonstration, this is a case of a speaker company that is based on faith - and launching updates to make it work in the end. But at least they are pushing on and they recently had a brilliant idea and launched a ceiling mount, which finally makes much more sense for the concept! |
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Kali Audio is another example of a speaker manufacturer that is walking a very fine line, based on a very aggressive product pricing strategy, with very poor marketing - probably as a direct result of having absolutely no margin for anything other than social media and YouTube videos. audioXpress highlighted Kali Audio when it launched its first and very impressive two studio monitors. We even reviewed its LP-6 model in 2019.
The company started in January 2018, founded by experienced professionals that left Harman/JBL and had an extensive knowledge of the supply chain in Asia, tight product management, and naturally, speaker engineering. The results were unbelievably good studio monitors at an unbelievable price. Since the original LP-6 and LP-8 studio monitors were launched, Kali launched what it called 2nd Wave updated versions - something we learned from following the company's social media but were never certain of the actual release date. But prices are still "starting at $199..."
Kali Audio was a brand that I was expecting to see at NAMM 2022. After all, it’s based in nearby Burbank! But nope, Kali Audio was nowhere to be found at a major show for studio monitors. Just out of curiosity I checked the website for their last press release and it was from March 25, 2020, announcing a "Giveaway and Price Drop During Lockdowns," precisely the type of thing that no publication would ever pay attention. So... that's why!
By visiting the Kali website for this article, I learned that Kali also launched a new IN-Series, with a three-way design using a coaxial mid-range and tweeter - starting at $349. Why didn't we learn about it? Because the new monitors were launched a year ago on YouTube and that day we were probably busy writing about other speakers that actually were promoted with a press release... and so we missed it.
I really hope that the speaker companies I just mention manage to be extremely successful. I selected three very different examples as a way to pinpoint three extremely different realities and completely different strategies, but also because I truly believe these companies deserve to succeed.
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I really wanted to say something about this new Kali IN-8 monitor but the video is so boring (fixed shot, poorly illuminated), that although I really wanted to I couldn't watch it (like most YouTube videos anyway). |
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Putting the Smart in Smart Devices
The Future of Hearables Is Voice Controlled
By Probal Lala (Fluent.ai)
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To expand our readers' perspective on the topic of true wireless earbuds and hearables, defined as ear-worn electronic devices, this article discusses how hearable technology is at the intersection of wearables and headphones, and was designed for multi-purpose use, including voice transmission, sound amplification, and wireless communications. The CEO of Fluent.ai details how consumers' expectations for using earbuds everywhere, including for work communications in noisy public environments, is pushing technology to face the challenges at the source, on-device. This article was originally published in audioXpress, April 2022. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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Eighteen Sound’s NSD1095N Compression Driver and XT120 Horn
By Vance Dickason
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This is a very refined design from Eighteen Sound, a company that is now part of the B&C Speakers group, but remains an independent operation. The NSD1095N is a 1" throat compression driver with a compact footprint for “high quality” sound applications in professional audio, from studio monitors or stage monitors to high-power sound reinforcement cabinets. This compression driver is driven by an optimized neodymium ring magnet motor structure and 44mm (1.75”) diameter edge-wound voice coil wound with copper-clad aluminum wire (CCAW) on a non-conducting Nomex former with a proprietary treatment. This specially treated Nomex former shows a 30% higher value of tensile elongation at operating temperatures (200°C) when compared to Kapton. This assembly drives the field replaceable True Piston Motion (TPM) TiN coated titanium diaphragm, extending the frequency response by 25%. The NSD1095N also incorporates a proprietary phase plug architecture that has been designed to give a smooth coherent wavefront at the horn entrance across the whole working frequency range. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2022. 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.
The Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook is the most comprehensive collection of listings on loudspeaker material in the industry. Purchasers and decision makers refer to the guide for an entire year when making selections on drivers, finished systems, adhesives, domes, crossovers, voice coils, and everything in between.
© 2022 KCK Media Corp. All Rights Reserved.
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