Sony Launches World's First Eclipsa Audio Certified Smartphone Microphone
Sony has announced a spatial audio microphone that plugs straight into a smartphone over USB C. The company calls it the first microphone for phones to carry Eclipsa Audio certification, a standard built on the IAMF specification. It reaches Singapore shops at a suggested retail price of SGD 249.
The microphone is aimed at vloggers, mobile filmmakers, and creators who shoot on a phone and want sound that holds up. Four omnidirectional capsules sit inside a newly developed spherical module, and Sony's processing uses them to suggest the direction and distance of whatever is being recorded. Street performances, festivals, sport, and travel footage are the stated uses, and the aim is sound that feels closer to the moment than a phone's own microphones manage.
But the microphone records in three different ways, and the choice depends on where the video will be watched. Ambisonics captures a full spatial field and pairs with Sony's app for publishing in Eclipsa Audio. Binaural mode leans on the same technology Sony uses for 360 Reality Audio to build a three dimensional effect for headphones, while stereo is the ordinary option for speakers and everyday clips that also works with apps other than Sony's.
A companion app, the Spatial Audio Video Tool, handles the rest of the workflow. Creators can shoot, review takes, make basic edits, and export the finished clip with spatial audio without leaving the phone. Sony frames that as the point of the product, a route from capture to upload that never touches a computer, and the app is planned for both iOS and Android.
Portability is part of the pitch. The unit weighs about 24 grams and connects over USB C, so there is no separate recorder to carry or cable run to manage. Sony says the direct connection also lifts audio quality above what a phone captures on its own.
And the tuning was not left to the hardware team alone. Sony worked with Sony PCL, a group company that produces content and spatial experiences, to shape how the microphone sounds. Michihiko Iwana, a sound engineer at Sony PCL, said orchestral recordings made with the unit carry depth and quick response in the low ranges, and that ambient sound keeps the spaciousness of a 360 degree field.
Compatibility is narrower than the feature list suggests. The microphone needs a phone running iOS 18 or later, or Android 14 or later, with a USB C port, and Sony points buyers to a compatibility list before they commit. Recording video, editing, and exporting all depend on the app, and Sony warns that the quality of a phone's own recording can vary by device, while recording in 4K is planned but not available at launch.
Eclipsa Audio itself is an open source spatial audio format, licensed royalty free through the Alliance for Open Media, and Sony is a licensed adopter. Publishing spatial audio to YouTube runs through the same app.
So two things stay open for buyers. Recording in 4K is set to follow the launch, and the release does not say what the app will cost or whether it is free.
Sony describes the ECM-AX10 as the first Eclipsa Audio certified microphone for smartphones
Four omnidirectional capsules feed Ambisonics, binaural, and stereo recording modes
The unit weighs about 24 grams and connects over USB C with no separate recorder
Suggested retail price in Singapore is SGD 249, with 4K recording support still to come
Source: Sony
