$Creative (C76.SG)$ At this year's CES, Santa Clara-based xM...

At this year's CES, Santa Clara-based xMEMS Labs has been showing off newly released, first-generation earbuds from Creative Labs and Noble Audio utilizing the developer's breakthrough MEMS micro-speakers.

What is MEMS (short for "micro electrical mechanical systems") technology all about? We're talking about "microscopic moving structures inside a silicon chip," detailed Mike Housholder, the company’s marketing and business development VP. "They actuate to move air, creating pressure which generates sound. There are some actual moving parts in these microchips, but their flexing is so minute it can't be seen by the naked eye."

Those all-silicon solid-state components deliver better reliability, part-to-part consistency, and equal-to-better (eventually) pricing, Housholder argues. "And for the consumer, we think [the MEMS speaker] has the most accurate reproduction you're going to get." (We covered xMEMS’ MEMS micro-speakers in detail earlier this year.)

"Almost every component in electronic devices has moved to solid state, with the exception of the 'coil and magnet' driven dynamic speaker," Housholder noted. But with its MEMS technology, xMEMS aims to put the kibosh on that last holdout.

The best of the new MEMS-fitted earbuds I tried in the developer's CES suite were the Aurvana Ace 2 (USD149) and–almost as good - the USS129 Aurvana Ace, both from Creative Labs, which demonstrated a well-balanced, natural, and effortlessly detailed performance on a wide variety of music, from pop (Olivia Rodrigo) to cool jazz (Miles Davis) and even bombastic classical (Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.)