Bench Talk

Tactile transducers are ideal for situations where extra loud bass isn't feasible, or a user may want to enjoy rich audio without thunderous bass but still get the "feel" of intense sound sequences. This blog dives into concepts of audio transducers and explores their many uses in home audio.

Bluetooth® audio is big business, but battery life is short and sound quality less than perfect. But by switching from classic Bluetooth to Bluetooth LE and introducing a new codec, the Bluetooth SIG says the “next generation of wireless audio is just around the corner.”

Louder isn’t always better. Although some musicians and Maxell might disagree, audiophiles and appreciators of sound can take advantage of surround sound and immersive audio. This is more than just the addition of speakers. This is object-oriented sound.

We’ll stay out of the analog-versus-digital debate. But we will review a versatile plug-and-play integrated audio system with available companion adapters that create a sound solution for all applications large and small in all types of venues.

Let's look at three boards that, when connected, create and control audible motor sounds in quiet-running vehicles to alert pedestrians of their presence. It's like finding your electric or hybrid vehicle's voice.

Skip the design and get to your development quicker so you can listen to music. See how Infineon MERUS™ Audio Amplifier HAT ZW for Raspberry Pi single-board computers (SBCs) enables the rapid development of wireless music streaming, along with low-power usage and efficiency.

Consumers won’t sacrifice audio performance for form factor—they want both. Maxim’s patented Dynamic Speaker Management (DSM™) technology provides a way to safely drive micro speakers beyond their specified maximum power rating.

I’ve always been fascinated by the audiophile community, as it strives to achieve the absolute best possible audio fidelity, and in the late ‘60s and ‘70s I read magazines like Stereophile, The Absolute Sound, and yes, Stereo Review and High Fidelity cover to cover. I marveled at the insanely-expensive equipment I couldn’t possibly afford but did everything I could within my severely restricted budget to create a system that delivered high-quality audio. I treated my (now-scorned) Shure V15 Type IV cartridge and records like they were gold, built my own speakers, and performed rudimentary testing on them. I was in pseudo-audiophile heaven.

It’s always interesting to take a look back in history to learn a little about the companies responsible for helping us get where we are today. Even better, it’s good to see products that changed our world when they were developed by companies we still do business with today. That said, a colleague directed me to a website filled with a lot of gems from radio broadcast/ audio history and as I was looking through the website I found a surprising advertisement from a Belden, a manufacturer that Mouser Electronics supplies today, once known as Belden Manufacturing.

Every now and then you come across a real gem on the internet. My father was a Coast Guard electronics technician early in his career, and it’s interesting to be able to talk with my dad about electronics stuff. This morning he sent me a link to a site with old Broadcasting and Audio Engineering magazines going back to the 1920s. I look at this ad in Figure 1 from Audio Engineering of June 1949 and have to ask: “What is a Triode?” Triodes are vacuum tubes, boys and girls. Isn’t it interesting that audiophile “purists” today would buy these very tubes for a glowing, more thrilling audio experience? Admittedly, tubes are more interesting to look at than solid state.