Headphones

Agree. I also was lucky enough to get a demo as well. The demo unit they had which was basically just a driver in a prototype shell clearly not optimized for best accoustics. But it sounded amazing, just fantastic detail and instrument separation. I noted at the time it was almost as good as my MM-500 system, although that may have been expectation bias.

I really wanted one at the time but the only options were a $1000 Diablo amp and some $1000 IEM which were the only xMEMs products on the market. The creators said the technology was scalable down to affordable earphones and I'm glad that product has finally arrived. I really think the game changer for this tech is active amplification (e.g. wireless earphones). Normal consumers aren't gonna buy an a special amp for xMEMs - they don't even know what a headphone amp is. But if the amp is built in, this tech has the potential to catch on and break into the mainstream among non-headphone enthusiasts.

MEMS means "Micro ElectroMechanical Systems". I don't fully understand their application, but using MEMS techniques you could basically manufacture a speaker on a chip instead and other whacky stuff, instead of conventional balanced armatures, dynamic drivers, planars, etc.

And even if you think about manufacturing something like a planar using MEMS, the amt of control you can have in Its construction is on the micrometer scale.

Its honestly a whole new world, and it's probably going to sound like shit at first but I imagine eventually the detail, resolution, and imaging will eclipse e-stats, but in like an IEM form factor.