Magnets and Smart Electronics for Speakers in Voice Coil September 2023

This issue of Voice Coil is packed full of great knowledge for speaker professionals. The September 2023 issue features three Test Bench characterizations: the Fountek NeoCD2.0 Ribbon Tweeter, the SB Acoustics WO24TX-4 Satori midbass, and the SEAS L22ROY2 8" subwoofer. This issue also features our annual overview of Magnetic Materials for the Loudspeaker Industry. Peter Larsen (Loudsoft) concludes his FINE Circle tutorial with a passive crossover for his design. This issue of Voice Coil is now available in print, online, and in digital formats.

Market awareness on the robustness of always-on voice-triggering grew slowly due to consumer mistrust and privacy concerns, according to SAR Insight & Consulting, which also correlates the fact that the availability of very-low-power platforms had been limited. According to a new SAR study, new technology will help drive the market growth of always-listening voice devices, helping to overcome initial consumer wariness.

Ambiq introduced the new Ambiq Voice-on-SPOT (VoS) Kit, designed for manufacturers to introduce voice-command into their IoT devices with faster time-to-market. The Ambiq VoS Kit offers a complete, always-on, always-listening, voice-to-cloud solution for local voice commands and/or voice assistant integration in battery-powered connected devices.

InvenSense, a TDK Group company, announced a comprehensive portfolio of new technology solutions during the 2021 Consumer Electronics Showcase. Among the expanded MEMS portfolio, the new T5838 SmartSound MEMS microphone offers a low power mode of just 130uAmps and a high-quality mode of 330uAmps, while supporting a dynamic range of 68dN SNR and 133dB AOP at 20kHz bandwidth. Optimized for smartphones, microphone arrays, smart speakers, and headsets, the T5838 supports configurable wake-on-sound at power levels as low as 20 µA.