I have worked in the audio field with MEMS in the past. Unfortunately MEMS drivers are not all they’re cracked up to be, they dont have the same
miniaturisation capabilities as microphones.
The main issue with voice coil drivers in headsets is size and power consumption, particularly for low frequency reproduction.
Drivers need to shift a certain amount of air to generate signal power = audio volume. Shifting the air requires both power and surface area. There is actually very little room to improve this in free-field.
Where there is room to improve is when you have a sealed cavity. Air behaves differently in a sealed cavity, so a small driver could potentially generate a lot of signal power. Unfortunately very few earbuds actually create a perfect seal in everyone’s ears, and many people don’t wear them properly. Therefore the biggest earbud makers will not consider a MEMS driver until it can produce acceptable signal quality in a cavity which is not properly sealed, because there is a lot of risk for people to have a bad experience and spread negative publicity due to using the earbuds wrong.
TLDR: MEMS drivers are only advantageous in a sealed pressure cavity, which is not always the case when wearing earbuds, and so they are unlikely to become mainstream until they have been further developed.
I have worked in the audio field with MEMS in the past. Unfortunately MEMS drivers are not all they’re cracked up to be, they dont have the same miniaturisation capabilities as microphones.
The main issue with voice coil drivers in headsets is size and power consumption, particularly for low frequency reproduction. Drivers need to shift a certain amount of air to generate signal power = audio volume. Shifting the air requires both power and surface area. There is actually very little room to improve this in free-field.
Where there is room to improve is when you have a sealed cavity. Air behaves differently in a sealed cavity, so a small driver could potentially generate a lot of signal power. Unfortunately very few earbuds actually create a perfect seal in everyone’s ears, and many people don’t wear them properly. Therefore the biggest earbud makers will not consider a MEMS driver until it can produce acceptable signal quality in a cavity which is not properly sealed, because there is a lot of risk for people to have a bad experience and spread negative publicity due to using the earbuds wrong.
TLDR: MEMS drivers are only advantageous in a sealed pressure cavity, which is not always the case when wearing earbuds, and so they are unlikely to become mainstream until they have been further developed.