No matter what in-ear headphones you use, the technology driving it is nothing new. We have heard of things like planar magnetic, electrostatic and bone conduction but, at the end of the day, it’s mostly balanced armature or dynamic drivers. There’s a new technology that may become the future of portable sound — MEMS or “micro-electromechanical systems”, which uses the piezoelectric effect and silicon chips.

xMEMS Labs has introduced a solid-state, all-silicon MEMS micro speaker for next-generation noise canceling, true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds. Called Cypress, the technology will be demonstrated at CES 2024.

As a technology, it has been around in the microphone of cell phones for a long time but when applied to headphone drivers it can be a game-changer. Since MEMS uses piezos and silicon, the results promise to be more responsive, consistent and more durable. MEMS drivers can be built on a production line with almost no need for calibration or driver matching.

xMEMS engineers have worked towards replacing “legacy push-air sound reproduction with the company’s ultrasonic amplitude modulation transduction principle”. Ultrasonic modulation turns ultrasonic air pulses into rich, detailed, bass-heavy, high-fidelity sound, representing the first no-compromise alternative to the moving-coil concept for high-volume consumer active noise canceling (ANC) earbud micro speakers.

Creative has announced the release of the Aurvana Ace series, earbuds powered by MEMS. And there is the high-end Oni from Singularity.