OPINION : To me my xMEMS !
You may not have hear about xMEMS and might even disconcert the name with the fictional mutants from Marvel Comics , but I ’ll wager that you ’ll be hearing more about this company in the coming months as it has the voltage to disrupt the earpiece and utterer market for the first time in decades .
Maybe that ’s a bit hyperbolic , but when it add up to headphones , the technology that drives the sound has n’t changed all too much in years .
dynamical drivers are used across the manufacture and while two-dimensional magnetised , electrostatic , bone conductivity , and balanced armature are used in phone , they are n’t as popular as a dynamical driver . And this technology is tenner old .
Dynamic driversare based on roll and magnet technologies – it ’s also more familiarly referred to as moving helix – and it works by using a set attraction that creates a magnetic field of force and this work together with the voice helix , causing it to move backward and forwards , impacting on the contraceptive diaphragm and push the air around it to create the phone we hear .
The purpose of xMEMS is to disrupt this old way of creating sounds
The technical school uses a solid - Department of State root , which has attain grip in the last several year , most notably with SSDs . With headphones , xMEMS design is to replace moving ringlet architecture all . It still operates on the same principle of force the tune around it but the gyre on the attractive feature has been supercede by a thin Piezo cinema . When voltage is applied to it , it bends , creating the push and pull effect .
According to xMEMS , what you get from this silicon and the stop as one unit is consistence – “ every speaker on this wafer performs on the nose the same , same loudness , same phase angle characteristics ” . Having assembled a twosome of headphones at the Sennheiser factory in Ireland and checked whether the speaker unit driver were matching ( some did n’t ) , having this stage of consistency removes waste .
It also takes the human element out of the equation to some arcdegree as this process is highly automated . I conceive of that might make consternation for some but in a process that expect a degree of efficiency and precision , the one part that introduces some variability is the human part of the production process .
And then there ’s the precision and efficiency in how the speaker unit go . Silicon is stiffer , which should facilitate in cutting down on straining . The mechanical response of the speakers is 150 times faster than a magnet and curlicue , which intend that the approach and decay of the electric signaling can be recovered faster . xMEMS claims that you could contrive lots of dynamic content at these speakers with speed and clarity , retaining detail without muddying the sound .
All that say we ’re not at the stage where there are fully unanimous - state MEMS drivers on the market just yet . originative Audio has adopted the technology for itsAurvana Aceand Aurvana Ace 2 wireless earbuds ( look out for those review ) , a intercrossed compounding of the MEMs and coil with the woofer focusing on the low frequency and the MEMS on the mids and highs .
2025 is circulate as the twelvemonth when we could have headphones that employ a single full - stove MEMS driver .
I’m impressed
Having sampled the engineering , I have to say that I ’m affect by the clarity and detail in the mids and highs . At the same time , there ’s a punchiness and clearness to the low absolute frequency on one of the epitome headphones I listen to that avoids the want of clearness and misshapen bass I ’ve heard with other headphones .
I would say that it does depend on the tuning of the headphones . A ardent , smooth vocalize headphone wo n’t offer quite as much clarity and detail as a couple of headphones tune up with neutrality or clarity in mind . I ’ve been heed to the Aurvana Ace 2 in recent weeks against another similarly pricedtrue wirelessand I can hear the step up in clarity and detail that open them just a little more fidelity in the audio stakes .
In the end though , I ’d play it ’ll all depend onwhat type of speech sound you wish , as it always does . But as we seem to lead down this track of increase the turn of in high spirits quality rootage and improving that transmittance ofdata over Bluetooth , xMEMS looks like in a very good position to take reward of this mellow quality , wireless sound that we ’re moving towards .
