2025 AES International Conference on Headphone Technology, Finland

The Audio Engineering Society promotes two major conventions every year, one in Europe and another in the US. And yet, its themed conferences, some happening only every two years, are by far the most insightful and successful events, as seen particularly with the recent Automotive Audio events and, of course, the Headphone technology conferences. The next one is scheduled to take place in Finland, in the same Aalto University where the 2023 AES Europe conference was so successfully held.

Like the previous conference that was held in 2016 in Aalborg, Denmark, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) Headphone Technology Conference in San Francisco, was a very successful and insightful event for all the participants. The Presidio park venue was also idyllic with the usual crisp waterfront weather. Perhaps too successful, as the event was sold out before it opened.

Heading for the 2019 CEDIA Expo, where the Voice Coil team will be in full force, the September 2019 edition features an interesting overview of a new Multi-Driver Loudspeaker with Cross-Coupled Dual Wave-Columns patent, recently sold to Dolby Labs, and a close look at previous tapped wave-column design efforts. In Test Bench, Vance Dickason characterizes the new PD.124NR1 12” neodymium midbass driver from Precision Devices and from Eastech’s Punktkilde line, the FSA044010-0802, a 1” titanium dome tweeter. Voice Coil September 2019 is now available for download, together with all the industry news and updates.

The AES is set to hold its second International Headphone Technology Conference, August 27–29 at the Golden Gate Club, Presidio, San Francisco, CA, offering three days of presentations, sessions, demonstrations, and more, all dedicated to headphone technology. Mobile Spatial Audio, Individualization, Assistive Listening and Audio for Augmented Reality offer new areas of study and innovation for this year’s conference.

During the Audio Engineering Society’s second International Conference on Headphone Technology (August 27–29, 2019) in San Francisco, Waves Audio will provide a behind-the-scenes look into Waves Nx and licensing opportunities. Waves Nx is a unique binaural rendering technology designed for professional engineers and ported for consumer product integration. Waves Nx features head-tracking and room emulation, including a new, digital twin of a renowned acoustic space.

With the popularity of “smart and wearable” devices driving developments in low-power processors and sensors that are enabling the augmentation of headphones with features more typically associated with hearing aids or smartphones, the 2016 AES International Conference on Headphone Technology, held in Aalborg, Denmark, will certainly be a well-attended event. This AES conference will focus on technologies for headphones with a special emphasis on the emerging fields of Mobile Spatial Audio, Personal Assistive Listening, and Augmented Reality.