- Two 15W drivers in a very small cube case
- Digital signal processing adjusts speaker output to emulate distance
- Available in Japan for approximately $255
One of the key things about stereo sound is that to achieve it you need stereo speakers with decent separation. And that's a problem for small devices where you can't space the speakers far enough to get a large stereo sound stage. 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 Pavé is an exceptionally small speaker, just over three and a half inches in each dimension, that promises to sound much larger, with a stereo image close to what you'd hear with a traditional two-speaker setup. And to do that, it uses smart technology to alter your brain.
Picoacoustics, qu'est-ce que c'est?
According to Notebookcheck.net, the speaker uses a combination of digital signal processing and what is known as psychoacoustics, which is the study of how we perceive sound.
We don't just hear the sound directly. We also hear their reflections and their vibrations, and with a bit of technological trickery, you can adjust the speaker output 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 come from having a speaker placed a little further away from you.
In this speaker, the processing is carried out by a Qualcomm S5 Gen 2 chip and then delivered through twin 15-watt drivers to deliver much more powerful stereo sound than you would expect from such a small speaker.
Of course, the Pavé isn't the only speaker that does this: Sony's Reality Audio and similar systems from other companies also use digital signal processing to make their speakers sound bigger. But it also contains the aforementioned gyroscope to detect the movement and positioning of the speaker and adjust its stereo effect accordingly.
Here's 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 heard in a second environment reproduces the frequency characteristic of a sound wave heard in a first environment”. There you have it. Qualcomm also has a good explanation on its developer blog.
I haven't listened to this particular speaker, but I'd like to – we've come a long way from the downright unpleasant “virtual stereo” and “virtual surround” of early Bluetooth speakers and soundbars; When done right, digital signal processing can produce quite surprising results.
