Sony's clear, tube-shaped speaker

[Scooby Blu]

Very Interesting indeed !

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/product...speakers_N.htm

[kingofgrills]

That looks like a gigantic version of my dipole ribbon tweeters.

If they shrunk it down a bit, and integrated it with a bass woofer for each channel, they'd be onto something.

[rubberghost]

looks like a bong.

[RUR]

MBL's are much cooler looking.


http://www.mbl-germany.de/Reference_html/101_e.html

or these

[Lucy Diamond]

I would just lay it down in my bed next to me.

[savage1984]

Originally Posted by RUR

MBL's are much cooler looking.


http://www.mbl-germany.de/Reference_html/101_e.html

or these

those look straight alien!

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by savage1984

those look straight alien!

for $60,000.00usd/each they better have some sort of alien technology.

[Gremal]

If I wanted unorthodox speakers, I'd get horns.

[CptGreedle]

Originally Posted by RUR

MBL's are much cooler looking.


http://www.mbl-germany.de/Reference_html/101_e.html

or these

The craziest, most bizarre... and awesome speakers I have ever seen.... imagine 7.1 with those!

[kingofgrills]

Originally Posted by RUR

MBL's are much cooler looking.


http://www.mbl-germany.de/Reference_html/101_e.html

or these

Which tube do you inhale from again?

[RUR]

Originally Posted by Gremal

If I wanted unorthodox speakers, I'd get horns.

You mean like these?



http://www.acapella.de/german/

[Gremal]

Those will certainly get better bass response.

[welwynnick]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

The craziest, most bizarre... and awesome speakers I have ever seen.... imagine 7.1 with those!

I haven't heard any, but according to those who have, they are also, by some margin, the best speakers in the World bar none. There are lots of very good, expensive, speakers out there these days, so that's quite a plaudit.

When I first heard of the Sony Sountina, I immediately thought of the MBL Radialsrahlers, and wondered if they worked on a similar principle. My guess is that Sony apply an electric field from the top to the bottom of the acrylic column, and get the whole thing to expand and contract slightly. It would only need to be a tiny amount, but hopefully they can get it to work uniformly over the whole length and periphery of the column. In that case there would be no beaming or dome resonance or anything like that, which would be a tremendous achievement.

As well a 360 degree dispersion, they would also have very different sound propogation to moving coil speakers. The vertical aperture is several times the treble wavelength, so the output would be highly beamed. Firstly, you won't hear any treble unless you sit down. Secondly, the propogation loss will be 1/r instead of 1/r2. This means the high frequencies will carry much better over distances than the other frequencies. The speaker will have to be voiced for a certain listening distance. Too close and it will sound dull; to far away and it will sound bright.

Very, very interesting.

Nick

[HDJK]

The Sountina is targeting a sophisticated niche consumer, including businesses seeking a speaker that blends into an interior, Kawaguchi said.

Doesn't sound like a natural/flat frequency response was one of their goal. But an interesting concept nevertheless.

[Beta Man]

My current speaker in the other room........