This little wireless speaker promises to sound like a big, powerful stereo system using psychoacoustic tricks
- Two 15W drivers in a very small cube-shaped housing
- Digital signal processing adjusts the speaker output to emulate distance
- Available in Japan for about $255
One of the most important things about stereo sound is that to get it you need stereo speakers at considerable distances. And that’s a problem for small devices where you can’t give the speakers enough space to get a big stereo soundstage. Manufacturers have come up with many tricks to make small speakers sound bigger, but as far as I know, Pavé’s small speaker is unique: it has a gyroscope inside.
The Cear Pave is an exceptionally small speaker, just over seven inches in each dimension, that promises to sound much bigger, with a stereo image close to what you’d hear from a traditional two-speaker setup. And to do that, it uses clever technology to mess with your brain.
Psychoacoustics, qu’est-ce que c’est?
According to Notebookcheck.netThe speaker uses a combination of digital signal processing and what is known as psychoacoustics, the study of how we perceive sound.
We don’t just hear sound directly. We also hear its reflections and vibrations, and with a little technological trickery you can adjust the output of speakers to emulate that – so for example by slightly adjusting the timing of certain frequencies to your speaker drivers, you can replicate the short delay that would happen if you placed a speaker a little further away from you.
In this speaker, processing is handled by a Qualcomm S5 Gen 2 chip and then delivered through dual 15-watt drivers to deliver a much bigger-sounding stereo sound than you’d expect from such a small speaker.
The Pavé isn’t the only speaker to do this, of course: Sony’s Reality Audio and similar systems from other companies also use digital signal processing to make their speakers sound bigger. But it also includes the aforementioned gyroscope to detect the movement and positioning of the speaker and adjust the stereo effect accordingly.
This is how it works, according to Cear’s patent: Its “sound processing device includes an equalizer that tunes the frequency characteristic so that a frequency characteristic of the sound wave listened to in a second environment replicates the frequency characteristic of a sound wave listened to in a first environment.” So there you have it. Qualcomm has a good explanation on his developer blog at.
I haven’t heard this particular speaker yet, but I’d like to: We’ve come a long way from the downright nonsense “virtual stereo” and “virtual surround” of early Bluetooth speakers and soundbars; When done right, digital signal processing can produce some pretty surprising results.