CES 2024 Innovation Spotlight: Brane Audio's Brane X

Sometimes, a previously unknown company makes a big splash at CES with a new flagship product, and this year, that happens to be the case with Brane Audio. The sound technology company, founded in 2015, showed off its Brane X Portable Smart Speaker — a powerful (and pricey) speaker that offers unprecedented power for such a small device. 

That's due to an innovative proprietary feature known as a Repel-Attract Driver (RAD): RAD uses magnets to alter air pressure within the speaker and push out an impressive amount of air (i.e. low bass frequencies), in spite of the speaker's small size with an 8-inch subwoofer.

As Joe Pinkerton, co-founder and CEO at Brane Audio, explained to TechCrunch, "We developed a new way of making audio. Specifically, we have a novel subwoofer ... It is a factor of roughly 100 times more efficient in the subwoofer range. That enables us to make it a tenth of the size and draw a tenth of the power."

In addition to being smaller and more power-efficient, the portable speaker can last 12 hours before it needs its battery recharged, and has one pair of tweeters and one pair of mid-range speakers for stereo playback. It also comes equipped with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Spotify. The speaker has an IP57 rating, so it's waterproof and dustproof, making it an ideal companion for the poolside.

The Brane X Smart Speaker is available now for purchase and costs $599.99.