TWS Earbuds

Creative Aurvana Ace Series: Precision in Every Note

By Peter Cooney / November 28, 2023
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The latest headphones from Creative – Aurvana Ace Series – are the first consumer TWS device to use MEMS speakers, supplied by xMEMS. This follows other devices announced with xMEMS speakers such as hearing aids and IEMs. We are still yet to see a fully MEMS speaker based high volume consumer device and this is […]

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Qualcomm Releases the 2023 State of Sound Report

By Peter Cooney / October 5, 2023
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SAR Insight again assisted Qualcomm in the creation of its annual consumer survey – The State of Sound report. This year the audience was extended, to include South Korea and to cover the use of devices in the workplace, for gaming and hearing enhancement. There are lots of interesting results to explore for anyone working […]

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Sennheiser’s latest headphones

By Joe Murray / September 28, 2023
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Sennheiser has recently released what can be essentially viewed as a budget option for their MOMENTUM series. The new ACCENTUM wireless headphones are retailing for $150 less than the MOMENTUMs at $159.99 and are offering nearly identical features such hybrid ANC (just not adaptive like the MOMENTUM series), and fast charging. SAR Currently estimates that […]

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Exotic New Silicon-Based Speakers Are Coming to Next-Generation Earbuds

By Peter Cooney / August 15, 2023
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MEMS speakers design wins are starting to accelerate, and the technology is being recognised by more media outlets. Recently I was invited to help WSJ journalist Christopher Mims with an article discussing the market, highlighting two vendors xMEMS and uSound. Here are some of the quotes from me, for more details please view the full article […]

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Qualcomm S3 Gen 2 Sound Platform Portfolio

By Peter Cooney / July 4, 2023
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​​Qualcomm has announced an update to the Qualcomm S3 Gen 2 Sound platform portfolio, which is optimised for gaming. Latency is perhaps the biggest issue that is holding back widespread adoption of Bluetooth for gaming, many vendors continue to rely on proprietary RF to ensure latency is minimised. SAR Insight has talked about this many times. […]

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JLab’s Work Buds

By Joe Murray / May 10, 2023
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As expected, TWS earbuds entry into the Enterprise world is in full swing.  JLab’s new workbuds are now available to order. The new earbuds, retailing for $79.99, come with a detachable boom for use as either a consumer device for listening to music, or as a call ready headset. One glaring issue that SAR sees with […]

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Wired Earbuds Are Cool Again

By Peter Cooney / May 10, 2023
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Wired earbuds were becoming a thing of the past – until now? There is still growth in the TWS market, which is why sometimes the prospect of wired earbuds goes amiss. However, the concept does make complete sense if you think about it. The Magnesium V3 Entry level IEMs piqued my interest this week. Ear […]

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NuraTrue Pro earbuds offer custom sound and exceptional spatial audio

By Peter Cooney / March 27, 2023
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​We hear the term ‘spatial audio’ being used a lot in in the tech world. It’s also sometimes referred to as ‘3D audio’, or ‘immersive audio’. It can get quite confusing, especially when there are two technologies which could both be referred to by any of these terms. As these technologies are relatively new, there are not […]

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Knowles releases new TWS reference design with best-in-class music experience and advanced features

By Peter Cooney / October 19, 2022
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The reference design is not dead! This is still a very valuable technique to highlight new technologies and give developers an easier way to start a design, as well as guide existing customers towards using these new products. Knowles’ new reference design brings together its hybrid driver and SiSonic MEMS microphones alongside a Qualcomm QCC5144 […]

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Headband headphones vs TWS

By Joe Murray / September 22, 2022
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The last two days have seen two high-end headphone manufacturers release brand new over-the-ear headphones. Firstly, Focal, who have announced the world’s first beryllium headphones retailing for $4999. Alongside this, Meze Audio have released a more affordable high-end pair of open back headphones priced at $799.   SAR believes that these new releases are interesting as […]

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