Sound Devices Acquires Wireless Microphone Specialists Audio Ltd

Reedsburg, Wisconsin-based Sound Devices announced the recent acquisition of Audio Limited, the UK manufacturer and developer of high-performance wireless microphone systems. Audio Ltd., now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sound Devices, will continue to operate out of its Watford, UK offices with Kishore Patel and Lee Stone continuing as managing director and technical director, respectively.

Neumann used the opportunity of a vibrant 2018 NAMM Show, which for the first time also attracted the whole AES West Coast convention community, to announce the reissue of the famous U 67. For the first time in decades, the iconic tube microphone is back in production and built to the original specifications. And this is not something that Neumann would take lightly.

audioXpress February 2018 explores the progress being made by ORA Sound and GraphAudio, two pioneering companies with distinctly different approaches to the use of graphene based transducers. We explain why open reel analog tapes are coming back in force, the differences between Line Source and Point Source speakers, and how Dante Domain Manager is providing an integrated approach to media network management. All this and much more, now available!

This year we thought our readers would like to know which of the topics and stories published online in 2017 were the most popular for our community. We looked at the most-read articles of 2017 in audioXpress.com (which also includes selected articles from Voice Coil magazine), and we created this Top 10 list of news stories and online articles. Here are the results!

In this amazing project by Gregory L. Charvat, two pre-amplifiers are used with a battery powered high voltage supply. The high voltage supply works by creating a square wave with a 555 timer. The square wave is fed into a small audio power op-amp. The output of this op-amp is back-fed into the secondary of an audio output transformer, generating high voltage AC 170V at 40 kHz. This signal is rectified, filtered, and regulated in a conventional sense. The entire system runs on 8 AA batteries and should operate for approximately 4 hours continuously. This article was originally published in audioXpress, March 2010.

The MA252 Integrated Amplifier is the first ever hybrid integrated amplifier design from McIntosh. Unveiled early November 2017, the MA252 is now shipping. The amp brings the benefits of vacuum tube (valve) to its preamp stage, with solid-state technology on the output stage, all with a visually stunning, integrated package, taking retro design cues from the legendary McIntosh MC275 Vacuum Tube Amplifier.

Swedish microphone manufacturer Milab Microphones AB (Milab) has agreed with the owners of Pearl Mikrofonlaboratorium AB (Pearl) to acquire 100% of the shares in Pearl and consolidate Pearl’s operations and product portfolio into Milab. The two Swedish companies share the same history that goes back to 1941, but went separate ways almost 40 years ago.

Tubes or transistors? Whatever your prejudices, this article may make you change your mind about how you view hybrid designs. audioXpress featured this modular hybrid amplifier project in February 2001, which was referenced multiple times by other authors in many subsequent projects. The project features a shunted regulated push-pull (SRPP) stage design, using the ECC82/12AU7 tube combination, followed by a power stage, using two to eight complementary power MOSFETs in parallel.

Tube amplifiers can benefit from regulated and stabilized power supplies, especially sensitive preamplifier stages, but also (single-ended) power amps. But traditional high-voltage regulators add several extra tubes, complexity, and power losses, while good performance is not easy to obtain. This article, published in audioXpress, April 2009, describes a novel design that is very simple yet offers excellent performance. Output voltage is fully adjustable with a single resistor without any compromises in performance.

Ethan Winer explains how to "Build the Mojo Maestro," a simple device that allows "subtle distortion" or saturation from any recording or track. Just using two diodes and a few resistors, Winer designed this simple box using the free LTspice simulation software and only half a dozen parts. And the results can be heard on the audioXpress website, with Winer playing multiple instruments, with and without the "Mojo effect." This article was originally published in audioXpress, October 2017.