audioXpress Editor — National Tribune

Sony Electronics has introduced the ECM-AX10, a compact USB-C 24g microphone that brings spatial audio capture and publishing to compatible smartphones. Described by Sony as the world’s first Eclipsa Audio-certified microphone, it combines four omnidirectional capsules with Ambisonics, binaural, and stereo recording modes. A dedicated mobile app handles video capture, editing, and spatial audio export, including an Eclipsa Audio option for YouTube.

Alliance for Open Media’s Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) specification, available under a royalty-free license. The technology supports multichannel and Ambisonics audio, providing an open route for delivering spatial sound to compatible playback systems.

Following Google’s Eclipsa Audio introduction, Samsung announced support in its 2025 television and soundbar lineup, while YouTube began accepting Eclipsa Audio uploads in January 2025.

Sony dates the microphone’s world-first Eclipsa Audio certification to September 15, 2026. In a market where Ambisonics microphones already have an established history, the certification highlights compliance with IAMF-based spatial audio encoding and compatibility requirements as a differentiator. The Eclipsa program provides separate paths for capture devices, encoding tools, and playback hardware.

At the center of the ECM-AX10 is a newly developed spherical module containing four omnidirectional microphone capsules. Sony says it adapted signal processing used in higher-order Ambisonics microphones for four-channel, first-order Ambisonics capture, aiming to preserve the spatial character of a performance or location in a much smaller accessory. For travel videos, live events, and sports coverage, the intended benefit is a soundtrack that conveys the surrounding activity and acoustic space alongside the image. Sony also worked with sound engineers at Sony PCL, drawing on the group company’s post-production experience to tune the microphone’s sound.

The ECM-AX10 uses back-electret condenser capsules and outputs four-channel Ambisonics B-format in AmbiX, or two-channel binaural and stereo audio, at 48kHz. Supported output formats include 16-bit and 24-bit integer audio and 32-bit floating point, with the connected smartphone automatically selecting the format. Maximum input sound pressure level is specified as being at least 120dB SPL and the user can apply 0dB, 10dB, and 20dB attenuation settings, plus low-cut and noise-cut filtering, although noise-cut processing is disabled in Ambisonics mode. A stereo headphone socket provides a monitoring connection, and USB bus power eliminates the need for a separate microphone battery.

Depending on the purpose, users can choose from three recording formats: "ambisonic recording", "binaural recording”, and "stereo recording". Those three recording modes give creators different routes from capture to playback. Ambisonics recording works with Sony’s Spatial Audio Video Tool app to produce content for Eclipsa Audio publishing on YouTube. Binaural mode uses Sony spatial processing also employed in 360 Reality Audio to create a two-channel soundtrack optimized for headphones, allowing the spatial effect to be heard in environments without Eclipsa Audio support. Stereo provides the conventional option for speaker playback and general video distribution.

The software is central to the product. Available for iOS and Android, Spatial Audio Video Tool lets users shoot video, review footage, perform simple edits, and export the finished spatial audio video on the phone. This brings the capture and delivery stages into one mobile workflow, reducing the equipment and desktop processing normally associated with immersive recording. Compatibility requires a USB-C smartphone running iOS 18 or later, or Android 14 or later, and Sony advises checking its tested-device list because recording performance and available functions depend on the handset. At launch, the company says support for 4K recording in the app is planned from December 2026 onward.

The ECM-AX10 expands the applications served already by Sony products such as the ECM-W3 wireless interview system and ECM-S1 wireless/streaming microphone. Competition in this field for capturing Spatial Audio with smartphones exists only with pro-audio-oriented solutions from Røde, Voyage Audio, Zoom, or a handful of binaural microphones and headsets. The ECM-AX10 creates a more accessible entry point for mobile video creators by combining capture, spatial processing, and export around the smartphone.

Why Eclipsa Audio?

Sony already offers 360 Reality Audio as an object-based music experience built on MPEG-H 3D Audio, with a production and distribution ecosystem aimed primarily at music. And in fact, the ECM-AX10’s binaural and Ambisonics mode offers choice and support for MPEG-H or even 360 Reality Audio. Eclipsa uses IAMF and provides a supported delivery route for immersive video on YouTube. These are different distribution opportunities, even though both involve spatial sound.

The user is offered, in fact, four export choices from the Spatial Audio Video Tool app: Eclipsa Audio, binaural, stereo, and Ambisonics audio-only. A creator can therefore retain an Ambisonics recording for subsequent processing and mixing, or use the Eclipsa export route. Selecting binaural or stereo capture produces a rendered two-channel recording with less subsequent spatial flexibility. Ambisonics preserves a sound-field representation that can be decoded for different playback arrangements but without the level of control of a multitrack production.

Sony’s Eclipsa certification gives the ECM-AX10 a timely marketing story, but its broader production value lies in accessible Ambisonics capture. As the consumer promotion describes: “The ECM-AX10 is designed to make smartphone videos sound bigger, natural, and true to the moment.” Sony's newly developed spherical microphone module will open up access to the concept of spatial audio recording and processing, creating an incentive for creators to explore new approaches.

The Sony ECM-AX10 microphone is available for presale at $249.99 US through Sony and authorized retailers.

www.sony.jp | www.sony.com

Sony ECM-AX10 Brings Ambisonics, Binaural, and Eclipsa Audio Spatial Recording to Smartphones

About Joao Martins

Since 2013, João Martins has served as editor-in-chief of audioXpress, the leading US-based magazine and website dedicated to audio electronics, product development, and design. He also acts as international editor for Voice Coil, the premier periodical for th... Read more