HK's Speakerless Speaker?
erco
Posts: 20,256
Hobby King's latest email is about this: http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__78418__MrRC_Sound_V4_1_Speakerless_Sound_System.html
How exactly is that speakerless? A speaker is included.
One of you rich guys who can spring for a $150 sound chip, please let me know how it works.
For $150, I'd rather have 55 HXT900 servos.
How exactly is that speakerless? A speaker is included.
One of you rich guys who can spring for a $150 sound chip, please let me know how it works.
For $150, I'd rather have 55 HXT900 servos.
Comments
HK is including transducers, which are essentially speakers without the cones.
...and I thought I spent too much on my hobbies!!!
I can't help but think that having an actual speaker cone attached rather than merely the transducer might provide better audio fidelity. What is the true advantage of half-speaker?
Are we getting fictious testimonials from people that never actually buy these things? Virtual reality is very big on the web these days. So are paradoxes.
In this case, one might actually use the object itself, and depending on what that is, the perception of "it" making the sound, as opposed to "it" containing a thing making a sound is the most likely outcome. We can hear that easily. What happens is the cone is in a box, and the box colors the sound through various resonances and phase products. When we hear that, the expected "norm" differs from what the output is, and we know it's a speaker in a box. A transducer can take that away, vibrating the thing itself, and now we've got a thing making the sound itself, and that coloring of the sound is different, and can present as more natural, or realistic, or just very different from the usual, "has speaker in it" use case.
Cones have their problems too. Smaller sized ones reproduce highs, larger ones lows, and when they are combined, the limits of being conical as well as the materials themselves introduce artifacts into the sound at higher volume levels. At lower levels and modest distances, a great cone can actually deliver really great sound, sans cross overs and such, and that's only true when mounted in a way that doesn't add extraneous resonances. Above that, too much distortion happens, which is why we have multi-cone setups with crossovers and well planned enclosures... They also get big quick.
Back in high school, a friend happened to buy a radio that had a very interesting speaker. It was a flat panel, driven like a speaker cone would be. That thing was amazing! No cone at similar size could compete! The response was much flatter than a cone, and having a boom box type radio capable of 20 - 20Khz response without piezo electric assists really made an impact! We could put it in a modest gym and actually get some real bass, especially when locating it near a wall, or corner at lower frequency harmonic distances. It was insane good, but failure prone. Was not on the market long, but that one worked well for quite some time. That's likely due to not being abused. Clipping is toxic to that type of speaker apparently.
The material was a very light honeycomb type structure with a thin coating of aluminum. It had somewhere close to 1/2" of travel, and it didn't distort the highs much when combined with aggressive mids and lows like a cone typically does. The other notable attribute was "imaging" being extremely clear. Listen to a complex Thomas Dolby track on that, placed strategically by a wall, and the processing would result in clear, precise sound placements.
Honestly, for the size, I've not heard anything quite so good, and often thought about building one.
A friend has one of those transducer type sound toys. Put it on a desk, or window, or some object, and it can really make some good sound. Of course, the internal resonances of whatever is making the sound, color things, as does placement. I really want to try a stiff, light, object and one of those things. Make some various shapes and let the surface area do the work. Could be awesome.
Anyway, I submit the advantage of a half-speaker is being able to employ materials other than a cone to get sound. That can have a significant impact. Just a flat surface, light, easy to move, in a sealed box would boom like no other. Shape the box a little, maybe add a port, and some internal resonance limiting baffles, and we might be very impressed. Make it's dimensions unique per side too, so that internal resonance is marginalized.
I grew up exploring passive equalization and sound. The reason was I didn't actually have an equalizer. But I did have lots of stuff. Ended up building a sound system for my room that was pretty darn good, all passive. Put a great CD in there, and it could deliver it to you mostly flat at 80db or so. All with scrounged materials and various constructs and placements possible in a home environment with common materials.
I can only imagine what I would have done with these types of devices back then. Probably could have filled out the bass better without having to deal with a big 15" cone from the 40's...
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/03/balloons-as-speakers-and-microphones/