Protection of integrated low power system designed to monitor the acoustic environment

An acoustic apparatus, comprising:

• an acoustic membrane;
• a protective housing defining an interior space in which the acoustic membrane is received, the protective housing including indirect pathways extending from outside the protective housing into the interior space of the protective housing to allow acoustic energy from outside the protective housing into the interior space and to the acoustic membrane and the protective housing forming an acoustic gap configured to provide, in combination with the acoustic membrane, a 0.5 dB-20 dB insertion loss in the frequency range from 300 Hz to 5 kHz;
• and
• a microphone configured with the acoustic membrane to sense an acoustic signal and arranged within the interior space,
• wherein the protective housing defines the interior space in which the microphone and the acoustic membrane are received such that the acoustic membrane protects the microphone from exposure to water.