audioXpress Magazine      February 2024

  audioXpress remains the authority on audio and reproduced sound by connecting manufacturers and distributors with developers, buyers and consultants around the globe! It's readers are the audio product designers, consultants, integrators, DIY enthusiasts, opinion leaders and your best customers. All of them agree that the coverage of trending topics, unique in the audio industry, make audioXpress a must read.

Every month, audioXpress combines the best educational articles on topic such audio electronics, speaker and headphone design, amplifiers (from tube to Class D), acoustics, practical test and measurement, audio engineering praxis, and standards. audioXpress provides inside stories on new audio developments, on R&D Stories, the most complete objective reviews of innovative products and software, and selects some of the best DIY audio projects from worldwide experts.

Cover Art
Rode Microphones NT1 5th Generation. Easily the Microphone of the Year 2023, this studio
condenser microphone is the world's first to feature both XLR and USB connectivity in the
same housing, and the world's first microphone with a 32-bit float digital output.

From the Editor's Desk
From Smart To Intelligent
CES 2024 will focus on rethinking the core technologies.
Editorial By J. Martins
Developments in audio front-ends and MEMS microphones give us a broad perspective of an intense area of activity for the audio industry. After the world converted work-from home spaces into recording and live streaming studios, microphones for musicians, podcasters, and creatives continue to be in strong demand. And as the world got back on the move, many other interesting trends have started taking place. There's now an interesting convergence with in-ear devices and the ability to capture the world around us — also because of the need to work from anywhere — demanding a combination of new technology and designs. Consumer hearables continue to be the market's fastest and largest growing category, and microphones are at the core of these devices.
---> From the Editor's Desk: From Smart To Intelligent.

5 Supporting Companies

Features
34 Acoustical Shape Optimization For Vibroacoustics Applications
By René Christensen
Using practical examples, this article explores shape
optimization techniques, identifying useful types of
boundaries and challenges to look out for in audio
product designs.

44 Battle Of The Crossovers: Duelund Versus Linkwitz-Riley
By David Ralph
Crossover filters are an exciting world that
continuously evolves as new designs and application
approaches for loudspeakers change. This article
investigates different schools of thought attempting
to define a good speaker.

52 Duetta: A Modest-Cost, Transmission-Line Speaker
By Paul Kittinger
This speaker project was the winner of the 2022
Speaker Design Competition in the entry-level
category, where the primary requirement is that all
the drivers for a stereo pair must have a total retail
price of no more than $300. The Duetta is a tapered
and mass-loaded transmission line using a 7" Dayton
paper cone midwoofer and a Dayton 1-1/8" silk dome
tweeter.

56 A Better Beta Follower
By Christopher Paul
There are many tube circuits built up of two tube
sections in cascode. This article attempts to provide
a clear description of the β-follower and proposes a
design modification for its optimization.

Market Update — Microphones And Voice Capture
8 Voice Applications Take Center Stage
By J. Martins
Our annual update on microphone technology and trends has a special focus on voice
applications. As a product category, microphones continue to be in strong demand, and this
is an application area that is expanding with new segments and form-factors.

Columns
Sound Control
40 Sustainable Acoustical Products For Unconventional Designs
By Richard Honeycutt
Effective acoustics doesn't need to be separated from great design thanks to a new
generation of acoustical materials that are as effective as they are aesthetically interesting.
And they can also be sustainable.

Hollow-State Electronics
62 The Imaginary Silvertec Guitar Amplifier
By Richard Honeycutt
Take a journey down memory lane to experiment with a hybrid amplifier that was devised
on the fly many years ago, and while not practical, it serves as a great a way to learn more
about unconventional hollow-state guitar amps.

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