A Sound Plan: Design ANC Earphones and Hearables with Balanced Armatures (Download)
As True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earphones become more mainstream, the consumer demands increasingly higher performance and more features, including active noise cancellation (ANC), higher-quality sound, longer battery life, and quick charging.
Balanced-armature (BA) drivers bring improved fidelity and detail over traditional dynamic drivers. BA drivers use an electronic signal to vibrate a tiny reed that’s balanced between two magnets inside a tiny enclosure. The motion of the reed is transferred to a very stiff aluminum diaphragm. This diaphragm is free of unwanted resonances in the audio band, allowing it to produce maximum clarity. The high-frequency response from BAs contributes to the loud and clear audio we hear in our on-ear monitors and hearing aids, for example.