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Flat Panel Speakers

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the ain't-that-nifty dept.

ugene sent us a link to something I've never seen before: 7mm thick speakers. They claim they sound as good as conical speakers, but they project sound 360 degrees. Nifty looking if you're aestheticly anal, or low on space. I wonder if they can be removed from their stand and hung right on a wall. Update: 04/11 06:17 by CT : Cyberdiva sent me a review as did Alan Dang from 3DGaming.

4 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Poly-Planar speakers by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 3
    Poly-planar speakers were the rage of the 70's. They were flat, rectangular, and made of styrofoam. They did OK but were not tremendously good-sounding. Then there were the electrostatic speakers, someone mentioned Magneplanars. Those were excellent, but required a high-voltage power supply and amplifier and sometimes even smelled of ozone.

    But recycling of audio trends is nothing new. Remember Quadraphonic? (4-channels instead of 2 as in stereo). It's now "Theatre sound system" or some such, and is used mainly with video.

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  2. Short comment... by Anonymous+Shepherd · · Score: 3

    Anyone given to the idea of a single strip speaker, using NXT flat panel technology, one foot high, 1/2 inch think, and surrounding an entire room?

    Or a theatre placing large flat panels as the projector screen and along the walls for even sround sound?

    AS

    --

    -AS
    *Pikachu*
  3. New technology... by Anonymous+Shepherd · · Score: 3

    I think I forgot to explain something...

    I was wondering if one speaker using NXT's flat panel technology was capable of 3d sound =)

    If one could encode phase variation to be played by the speakers, perhaps the speakers could produce truly directional sound, like the way phase array radar works; a grid/array of radar units can actually scan directionally despite being immobile and stationary, by some sort of differential phase calculations.

    Likewise NXT panels, since they may be thought as an array of millions of speakers, can you encode delay into the sound and play directionally delayed sound from one panel?

    The left edge producing a different direction than the right edge? The middle?

    Because it's a panel, you can conceivably create a flat 1 foot tall curved speaker wrapping around an entire room!

    AS

    --

    -AS
    *Pikachu*
  4. Flat is old, tech is new.. by Anonymous+Shepherd · · Score: 3

    These speakers use a different vibrational technique than that of magneplanars or electrostatic speakers. The goal is still to produce massless driverless speakers, and towards that goal the NXT technology has shrunked the speaker elements towards the size of molecular clumps.

    Magneplanars and electrostatics use smaller distributed drivers, and in this sense are similar to NXT's speakers, but they still use larger elements with more mass and more frequency distortion issues. However, since the technique has been done previously by Magenplanars and electrostatics, they can be drawn from...

    One thing I can see as a disadvantage is that NXT speakers might not be able to deal with 3d sound other than multiple speakers arranged in an enclosing formation. Perhaps with more computational power and advanced encoding of sound, a single sheet speaker can produce phase varying sound, and multiple speakers can produce delay varying sound, for a better 3d sound experience.

    Can a magneplanar speaker be used in this sense, since it is an array of many small speakers? Has anyone tried to create a simple/single 3d sound solution out of a magneplanar speaker?

    AS

    --

    -AS
    *Pikachu*