Supply Chain, Import/Export, and Tariffs Webinar, February 25
The Audio Product Development Alliance (APDA) is hosting a timely live webinar to discuss the current uncertainty in global manufacturing and trade. During this new APDA presentation, Dan Digre, President and CEO, MISCO, will discuss the current market volatility and the challenges resulting from US protectionism. How does one of the last remaining US loudspeaker manufacturers and a pioneer in manufacturing speakers and audio systems for OEM customers across the globe deal with tariffs?
"Lessons Learned: A Rock & Roll Guide for Entrepreneurs" by Peter Janis
Peter Janis, the founder of Radial Engineering, passed on August 7th, 2024, after his cancer returned. In his final years, after selling his company and retiring, Peter wrote down the story of his life and all of the lessons he learned as a behemoth in the music industry. The book is now available on Amazon and bookstores everywhere, and all proceeds from the book go to the NAMM Foundation.
New Expressive Real-Time Text-to-Speech (TTS) Models Support High-Fidelity Voice Cloning
Zyphra, a company based in Palo Alto, California, building a mew multimodal artificial intelligence agent system, announced the release of Zonos-v0.1 beta, a pair of extremely expressive text-to-speech (TTS) models with high fidelity voice cloning. The company is releasing both the transformer and hybrid TTS models with an Apache 2.0 license, which effectively makes these available for redistribution.
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Audio-Technica Improves Cartilage Conduction in Second-Generation Design
The industry continues to explore the potential of open-ear solutions for personal audio, and Audio-Technica launched an interesting product, improving on the company's earlier experiments with cartilage conduction. The new ATH-CC500BT2 takes the familiar neckband design of existing bone conduction products to leverage cartilage conduction technology, with an improved dedicated driver that maximizes audio conduction with less vibration, also adding AI noise-reduction and filter optimizations.
Orchard Audio Unveils Valencia Balanced Headphone Amplifier
Orchard Audio is expanding into the headphone market with the launch of Valencia, a class AB, balanced headphone power amplifier. Leo Ayzenshtat, the mind behind all the brand's products, describes Valencia as an ultra-high-performance design, able to drive the most demanding headphones while remaining clean enough to support highly sensitive ones. The project also represents Leo's first collaboration with experienced headphone reviewer Steven Ciofalo.
Audio-Technica Offers Not One But Two New Professional Open-Back Headphones
Unveiled during the NAMM Show 2025 and already available in stores, the two new premium headphones from Audio-Technica create a new R-Series line of professional open-back models. Particularly because the new ATH-R70xa is an update to the successful flagship ATH-R70x, praised for its natural response and comfort, and which wouldn't be surprising to see becoming another favorite among headphone enthusiasts. But now the ATH-R70xa is also joined by the new ATH-R50x.
ISE 2025 First and Lasting Impressions
Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2025 celebrated another milestone in the event’s history, with the highest number of exhibitors and a 15.5% increase in visitors from the previous year. The show was mostly about solutions, signal connectivity, networking, and control technologies. Fewer opportunities for product launches, and an attendance increasingly dominated by end users.
SEAS Launches Toy DIY Kit With Metamodal TPCD Coaxial Driver
SEAS launched a new DIY kit to highlight the qualities of its state-of-the-art Metamodal TPCD coaxial drivers, allowing everyone to build a working speaker for evaluation and enjoyment. An evolution of the popular SEAS Joy kit that the speaker manufacturer already offered with a single coaxial driver, the new Toy DIY speaker is an enjoyable design that truly highlights the benefits of state-of-the-art Metamodal TPCD technology.
Test Bench: The New 7.5” MT19CP-8 Coincident Coaxial Driver from the SB Acoustics Satori Line
The new 7.5" coaxial driver from SB Acoustics' prestigious Satori line is built on a rather stylish aluminum-cast frame, totally open below the spider, with a cone featuring SB's proprietary Egyptian Papyrus material with a three-roll coated cloth-type surround, driven with a 1.52" diameter voice coil and neodymium magnet. The 1" tweeter is comprised of a coated cloth-type dome diaphragm, powered by a neodymium motor, which incorporates a resonant back chamber design.
Fresh From the Bench: RME Audio DPS-2 Power Supply and LNI-2 DC Filter and Stabilizer
When RME Audio released the DPS-2 Power Supply and LNI-2 DC Filter and Stabilizer, it left many of its faithful customers intrigued. The two new solutions are designed to improve the performance of its ADI-2 series of converters in critical applications. One is a super low noise linear audio power supply with a unique µfilter and sensor technology, and the other is an active DC filter with galvanic isolation. Stuart Yaniger explains how these two new solutions improve what is already outstanding.