HOW IT WORKS - Solid-state sound

A new silicon-based audio tech is aiming to replace old-fashioned headphones

- Cliff Joseph

YOU WILL LEARN

How MEMS speaker technology uses silicon chips to create 'solid-state speakers' and headphones

Key fact

Creative Technology formerly Creative Labs - knows a thing or two about digital audio. Its SoundBlaster range of upgrade cards brought high-quality digital audio to PCs back in 1989, and dominated PC audio for almost 20 years. All Macs and PCs now have multi-channel sound built in, but the SoundBlaster name lives on with audio products such as the MEMS-based Aurvana earbuds.

Technology in the computer industry tends to change so quickly that it's often hard to keep up with all the latest developments. That's not the case in other industries, though - it took almost a century for electric cars to provide an alternative to the gas-guzzling internal combustion engine.

The somewhat stuffy hi-fi industry also tends to be quite resistant to change, using the same basic technology to produce headphones and speakers for almost 100 years (remember that a set of headphones is essentially a small pair of speakers that simply sit right over - or inside your ears).

Apple shook up the headphone market with the AirPods in 2016, creating an entirely new category of 'true wireless' headphones. But while Bluetooth headphones allow you to cut the cord and listen to music via a wireless connection, the technology that creates the sound inside those headphones hasn't really changed in a century.