[nhat_thanh]

Thanks Kiats for the detailed impressions (and Steve too!). Indeed the MEMS speakers benefit a lot from additional power. The Onix with its balanced output of 5W @ 32Ohm is far more powerful than the little AP0, hence your impression of more flourished signature

Back at Canjam Singapore I had a seminar about MEMS and their characteristics, which would explain why MEMS speakers scale a lot with different sources. Let me see if I can reuse it over here.

 

[Kiats]

Thanks Kiats for the detailed impressions (and Steve too!). Indeed the MEMS speakers benefit a lot from additional power. The Onix with its balanced output of 5W @ 32Ohm is far more powerful than the little AP0, hence your impression of more flourished signature

Back at Canjam Singapore I had a seminar about MEMS and their characteristics, which would explain why MEMS speakers scale a lot with different sources. Let me see if I can reuse it over here.

Yeah... It really scaled up wonderfully with the Unix Miracle. I suspect that this definitely one of the direction in which the development of any future energizer can take. Because the sound quality was really stunning.

 

[o0genesis0o]

Thanks Kiats for the detailed impressions (and Steve too!). Indeed the MEMS speakers benefit a lot from additional power. The Onix with its balanced output of 5W @ 32Ohm is far more powerful than the little AP0, hence your impression of more flourished signature

Back at Canjam Singapore I had a seminar about MEMS and their characteristics, which would explain why MEMS speakers scale a lot with different sources. Let me see if I can reuse it over here.

Please do share! I missed that seminar (because I didn’t go to canjam ). I’ve always been curious about that “scaling” characteristic and how one can engineer to make that happen.

 

[Ghawke]

My Mems-3S arrived this afternoon. I was able to benefit from a very generous trade in on my mems-2. Currently I am listening through my Diablo 2, which has the driving power and as the D2 is Mems ready it removed the need for the EP0. Hawkwind's latest album is a good workout for the Mems-3s as the album covers quite a genres of sound. I am very impress so far. Much more detail than the Mems-2 and the open back really helps the the flow of sound.

 

[nhat_thanh]

My Mems-3S arrived this afternoon. I was able to benefit from a very generous trade in on my mems-2. Currently I am listening through my Diablo 2, which has the driving power and as the D2 is Mems ready it removed the need for the EP0. Hawkwind's latest album is a good workout for the Mems-3s as the album covers quite a genres of sound. I am very impress so far. Much more detail than the Mems-2 and the open back really helps the the flow of sound.

With the Diablo 2, you can enjoy more sound tuning options as the xMEMS mode on the Diablo 2 is EQ-ed internally. You can try connecting it straight from the Diablo 2 running Normal or Turbo to the AP0 energizer to get the non-EQ signature, which is also very impressive in its own way!

 

[Ghawke]

I gave it a try but using the FiiO Q15 on Bluetooth, It's very impressive. Later today I am going to see if the ifi go blu has enough power through the AP0.

 

[oratory1990]

Please do share! I missed that seminar (because I didn’t go to canjam ). I’ve always been curious about that “scaling” characteristic and how one can engineer to make that happen.

MEMS speakers (at least those currently on the market) differ from "traditional" loudspeakers in that their electric impedance is almost fully capacitive, meaning they have a very high impedance at low frequencies (Megaohms) but then steadily decrease towards high frequencies. The impedance at 20 kHz is only a thousandth of the impedance at 20 Hz.
They also require higher voltages, roughly ten times the voltage that electrodynamic speakers need. You'll need an amplifier capable of 15-20 Vrms to drive them to full levels.
On top of that, some of the existing MEMS speakers require a DC voltage on top of the signal voltage. The amount of DC required varies depending on the material type used for the active layer in the MEMS stack, but can be as high as 15 V DC. This will influence the distortion levels significantly, but also affects the voltage sensitivity of the loudspeaker.

There are not many amplifiers(*) on the market that can drive MEMS speakers. The iFi Diablo-X has a built-in, fixed EQ filter, which will affect the sound significantly of course.

*There are a lot of components (such as this purpose built one) for amplifiers, but those are ICs to be used in e.g. TWS (or other consumer electronics applications), not in desktop-amplifiers.