Audio Video News

Audyssey has been working on sound technology for home theaters for years now, but it's stayed mostly clear of portable gadgets. That's changing with today's announcement of a new technology for beefing up the sound capabilities of small devices. Audyssey Volume Extension is the company's latest technology, and its purpose is to let gadgets with small speakers produce more sound.

The smaller a speaker is, the more prone it is to distortion and tinniness at high volumes. When pushed far enough, they simply blow out and become useless, so they can't really compete with large drivers. According to Audyssey, Audyssey Volume Extension lets small devices pump out sound at twice as high volume, while reducing the risk of damage to the speaker. The technology monitors the sound coming through the speaker in real time, like Audyssey's MultEQ technology. As it detects distortion, it blocks sound across those specific bands, letting the non-distorted bands stay high. Technically, it appears to be a cross between a multi-band equalizer and active noise cancellation technology.

Expect to see Audyssey Volume Extension start to appear in cell phonesa nd portable media players as early as next year.

— Will Greenwald