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CES 2024 Lasting Impressions: The Highlights
by Joao Martins

CES 2024 Lasting Impressions: The Highlights

CES2024 was the best in a long time. I said that in my First Impressions article, and as we distance ourselves from the whirlwind of those hectic six show days, the stronger that feeling grows. And one of the reasons has to do with the fact that important technologies are already making a difference in the audio products that we will soon see in the market - while many others are about to. And there are clearly companies that left us with very positive, lasting impressions that we can and need to share.
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CES 2024 First Impressions - An Audio Development Perspective
by Joao Martins

CES 2024 First Impressions - An Audio Development Perspective

CES 2024 was the best in a long time. audioXpress attended to report about the solutions and technologies that will enable the audio products of tomorrow, exploring the many hospitality and business suites where the audio industry is at during CES. We focused on attending closed demonstrations - about which we can reveal very little at this stage - because that's the only way to truly share the product developers’ experience, and gain a real perspective about the audio technologies that matter for product development and those that will determine the products in 2025 and going forward.
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Selecting Electrolytic Capacitors for Lowest Distortion
by Douglas Self

Selecting Electrolytic Capacitors for Lowest Distortion

Douglas Self shares real experiments when selecting electrolytic capacitors to achieve the lowest distortion. An experiment inspired by his recent audioXpress article, "Optimizing Variable-Frequency Tone Controls," available online. This short piece is an interesting closer examination on the subject for audio circuit designers. Originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter, #453, January 11, 2024.
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What About Loudspeaker Damping Factor and How Much Do I Need?
by Jan Didden

What About Loudspeaker Damping Factor and How Much Do I Need?

A loudspeaker is a mechanically moving system and like any such system, it cannot stop moving in zero time. For example, if a tone is reproduced, and the amplifier outputs a zero voltage at the end of the tone, the speaker cone will not stop immediately but will tend to keep on moving with lower and lower amplitude and eventually come to a stop. Jan Didden explores Loudspeaker Damping Factor in simple terms.
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First Magnet Powder Presses to Produce Neodymium Permanent Magnets in the United States
by Mike Klasco

First Magnet Powder Presses to Produce Neodymium Permanent Magnets in the United States

Most of us assume that neodymium must only come from China. Yet, rare earth ore is available in California, and reshoring neo-magnet production, including recycling neodymium, is now accelerating in the US. Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific), tipped off by Salvador Magdaleno (Salvador Consultant), writes about the first manufacturing operation that is ready to deliver neodymium permanent magnets in the United States. This article was written originally for The Audio Voice newsletter.
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OTC Hearing Aids One Year Later – Mission Accomplished?
by Andrew Bellavia

OTC Hearing Aids One Year Later – Mission Accomplished?

The White House blog of August 2022 announcing the FDA’s release of the Over-the-Counter (OTC) hearing aid rule, which would take effect that October, highlighted the rationale for its creation: “Drive down costs, increase access, and open up a market space for creative innovation.” Andrew Bellavia (AuraFuturity) writes about the first year of the Over-the-Counter (OTC) hearing aid rule. It seems that just 2% of those with hearing difficulties purchased an OTC hearing aid in this time.
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Bandwidth, Slew Rate and All That Jazz
by Jan Didden

Bandwidth, Slew Rate and All That Jazz

To reproduce an audio signal faithfully over the whole audio band, your circuit needs to have a bandwidth at least as large as the audio band. But that’s not the only requirement: your circuit needs to maintain that bandwidth from the lowest to the highest signal level. That’s where the crux lies: it is relatively easy to get a nice wide bandwidth for small signals, only to have it breakdown with high signal levels due to the dreaded slew rate limiting.
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Wireless Audio Will Stream from TVs - Why the Audio Industry Needs to Pay Attention
by Joao Martins

Wireless Audio Will Stream from TVs - Why the Audio Industry Needs to Pay Attention

The wireless home theater is close to go mainstream and needs wireless speakers. WISA Technologies and DTS Play-Fi are embedding its multichannel wireless audio technology directly into SoC TV platforms. But they need to support Dolby Atmos. Now Dolby decided to try it out as well.
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Audio Myths: Feedback Re-Entrant Distortion. Should We Worry?
by Jan Didden

Audio Myths: Feedback Re-Entrant Distortion. Should We Worry?

There are many aspects of negative feedback in audio that are the subject of continued discussion. Jan Didden continues to debunk more Audio Myths. This article addresses re-entrant distortion. The idea is that, since negative feedback sends some of the distorted output signal back to the input, this already-distorted signal would only get more distorted by going through the nonlinear amplifier, over and over again.
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Alango SoundAround: Listening to the Outside World From Inside the Car
by Alexander Goldin

Alango SoundAround: Listening to the Outside World From Inside the Car

Alango’s SoundAround technology uses a sound acquisition module that attaches to the inside of a car window. At the heart of the module is the vibration sensor, or accelerometer, which records vibrations caused by sounds, both external and internal. Alango's patent-pending DSP software technology is used to clean up vibration sensor signals from components that correspond to sounds inside a car cabin.
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