PSB Speakers, Sonical and MQA Announce Partnership to Create Next-Generation Headphones

PSB Speakers, together with hearables start-up Sonical and audio codecs specialists MQA, announced a partnership that intends to define a new category of high-resolution audio headphones. The collaboration is aimed at creating true hifi headphones and smart earbuds, combining MQA's SCL6 high resolution wireless audio transmission and Sonical’s CosmOS platform. Planned for release under the PSB Speakers brand by Q1 2024, the resulting products will be the first headphones to feature Sonical’s ear computing platform, enabling a variety of apps and software upgrades.

A wave of new developments promises to solve the most pressing need for people with milder hearing loss, allowing mass-market hearables to supplant Over-the-Counter (OTC) hearing aids with less stigma. Andrew Bellavia suggests the FDA’s OTC hearing aid rule (October 2022) includes assumptions that are quickly becoming obsolete as recent developments illustrate. This must read article was originally published in audioXpress, January 2023.

Packetcraft, a leading provider of Bluetooth embedded stacks and software solutions, announced their Bluetooth Qualified LE Controller is shipping with Nordic Semiconductor’s flagship nRF5340 dual-core Bluetooth 5.3 SoC enabling LE Audio in commercial products. At CES 2023, Packetcraft is already showcasing Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast broadcast audio applications using Nordic’s nRF5340 SoC, including from Sonical, EMSi and Fanstel.

Sonical, the Silicon Valley company developing an open software platform for hearables, announced a partnership with Dolphin Design, a leading edge computing and embedded AI silicon IP company, and a subsidiary of Soitec, an industry leader in designing and manufacturing innovative semiconductor materials. Together, the two companies are working on a heterogeneous computing platform to design ASIC/SoCs with an innovative operating system that will change the end-user experience with hearables.

Members of the Audio and Loudspeaker Technologies International (ALTI) Association will be able to benefit from a new hospitality suite during CES 2023, January 4-8, in Las Vegas, NV. Companies who are not yet an ALTI member may apply now and will be able to setup a table to promote their business and services, organize meetings, relax and reorganize between meetings, and network with other key audio companies during the show.

Enter Sonical Headphone 3.0. A fully integrated approach for the product development of headphones and earbuds that allows consumers to load their own apps. audioXpress talked to Gary Spittle, the CEO and founder of Sonical, a young company that developed a chip and a real-time operating system for headphones and hearables. "Hearables should not be defined by the functions of a chip or the Bluetooth profiles, there is a lot more that product makers want to do," says Gary Spittle, the CEO and founder of Sonical.