Noble Unveils Five-Driver TWS Design With ANC and Personalization by Audiodo

Not a company that shies away from pushing the envelope on personal audio, Noble Audio just announced a world's first true wireless stereo design using five drivers - 1 dynamic, 1 planar, and 3 balanced armatures. Not an easy feat given that a true wireless relies only on a tiny battery. But the FoKus Rex5 earbuds also support Active Noise Cancelling and even features sound personalization, developed in collaboration with Audiodo.

Mimi Hearing Technologies, the sound personalization technology specialist company from Berlin, announced they are now supporting Analog Devices solutions to enable breakthroughs in audio signal processing purely on-device. Already experienced in a number of audio platforms for consumer electronics, Mimi is now delivering sound personalization solutions in product designs using Analog Device's ADAU1860 audio platform.

Realtek Semiconductor (Taiwan) and Alango Technologies (Israel) have announced a collaboration to provide a joint solution that delivers the Alango PersonaSound suite of software technologies, ported and optimized for the latest Realtek Bluetooth SoCs. This collaboration aims to address the global problem of hearing loss, which affects 1.5 billion people worldwide.

Expanding the perspective on the evolution toward hearables, this article explores the current trends as well as the acoustical challenges and solutions for designing true wireless earphones. The article explains the enabling technologies currently converging as the TWS market continues to grow and use cases multiply, with more consumers using wireless earbuds for a diverse and varied set of applications, from listening to podcasts and audiobooks to Internet meetings and interacting with voice assistants. This article was originally published in audioXpress, April 2022.

A new Preferred Listening Response Curve that could define the next standard in high-resolution earphones, was the result from a new research by Knowles Corporation. The research is intended to guide product designers, and reflects the findings of an internal effort by the balanced armature manufacturer to determine the best and most satisfying music listening experience for consumers. In the research report, Knowles proposes an evolution of the Harman response curve specific to in-ears that takes into consideration frequencies above 10kHz

DSP Concepts announced the availability of a new toolkit for True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds powered by its Audio Weaver development platform. The toolkit features a reference design optimized to run on the Cadence Tensilica HiFi 5 DSP in partnership with Airoha, a MediaTek subsidiary and manufacturer of low-power TWS Systems on Chip (SoCs). The development kit also includes a reference design with a fully operational earbud prototype designed by Knowles.

CEVA and Mimi Hearing Technologies have announced a partnership to enable new assistive hearing capabilities in consumer true wireless earbuds. The collaboration combines Mimi Sound Personalization technology and advanced hearing IP with CEVA's Bluebud wireless audio platform to enhance the hearing experience of every individual. With its flexible architecture, the Bluebud platform allows a high level of software customization and add-ons, supporting such advanced implementations.