Audio-Technica, a leading innovator in transducer technology currently celebrating “50 Years of Passionate Listening,� is proud to announce that the paper “On the Study of Ionic Microphones� and its writers were selected as the recipients of the “AES 133rd peer review paper award, signifying it as the “best paper of the show.� The paper, composed by Hiroshi Akino, Audio-Technica Corp., Japan, with Hirofumi Shimokawa, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Japan, and Jackie Green and Tadashi Kikutani of Audio-Technica U.S., was presented at a juried paper session at the 133rd AES Convention in San Francisco, California.

Jackie Green stated, “We are honored and delighted to receive this recognition. Audio-Technica has been at the forefront of many technology paradigm shifts, yet historically we have published very little regarding our research. We look forward to taking a more active role in advancing the art and science of audio technology, and sharing this information with our distinguished peers.�

The paper encapsulates the following research: Diaphragm-less ionic loudspeakers using both low-temperature and high-temperature plasma methods have already been studied and developed for practical use. This study examined using similar methods to create a diaphragm-less ionic microphone. The paper reviews the experimental outcome of two ionic methods, and considerations given to resolve issues revealed by the study.