Interesting OB's found during e-Bay search

[2litre]

One of my favorite e-Bay stores had some flat panel speakers for sale and while doing a search for other flat panel speakers I found these.

http://cgi.ebay.com/TRIO-OF-RARE-BER...QQcmdZViewItem

I think they're 2ft x 2ft. Also in the article link is a picture of one with 2 drivers, one centered in the panel and another bolted in just off the floor.

I like the rails they're mounted on. Allows you to raise or lower the driver for the listening level of an audience.

Always looking at what others have tried.

R/

Jim

[Scottmoose]

Interesting. Not familiar with them myself, but it's always nice to see something a little different crop up.

[fred76]

The same technology was licensed to Yamaha for their organ speakers.

Notice the 'ear' shape:




fred

[2litre]

So they have a transducer that is coupled to the big panel?
Big radiating area.

Interesting to see little (big) things like this.

R/

Jim

[Nelson Pass]

Yamaha also brought these to the hi-fi market in the 70's as
I recall. At the time, there was some snickering about the
"ear shape", but I believe Yamaha's intent was to distribute
resonant modes on the radiating surface.

[badgerboy]

Is this the same (or similar) technology that NXT use?

[infinia]

I wouldn't mind playing with some of those, just to see what the T/S and EQ looks like.

[TerryO]

The use of an asymetrical shape for the cone certainly serves to eliminate, or at least diminish, brake-up modes that can occur on the cone.
I've had some luck with the old Radio Schack 40-1297, which unlike it's distant cousin the 1197, is a fairly narrow oval shape.
It's a 4x10 driver with an Fs of "about" 110Hz or so and generally has a very nice sound. Other than the goofy shape, it would be an ideal midrange and I think it rolls of somewhere around 12-14kHz.
Now I guess I'll have to dig out a pair and get to work on something or other.

Best Regards,
TerryO

[Variac]

They are not the same technology as NXT.
I think they are basically a voice coil attached to a pretty rigid piece of styrofoam with various ridges/valleys for resonance control

The particular ones on E-bay look like they were meant to be used in a suspended grid ceiling system for voice and background music. The 2'x2' size reinforces this opinion.

I heard some wall mounted "audiophile" versions at a store in Berkeley back in the day, and vaguely remember them as OK considering how flat they were, but nothing special..

[chrisb]

Originally posted by Nelson Pass
Yamaha also brought these to the hi-fi market in the 70's as
I recall. At the time, there was some snickering about the
"ear shape", but I believe Yamaha's intent was to distribute
resonant modes on the radiating surface.

I had a chance to hear these when selling audio gear in the mid-late 70's, and while you'd never confuse them for NS1000M (one of the best loudspeakers ever from any mainstream corporate Japanese IMHO) - highly dynamic and detailed they were not, but on a whole there were other commercial products in the store (whose name ryhmes with rose) that sounded worse.

I can vaguely recall several other attempts at styrofoam flat panel speakers over the years, none of which were memorable (is that a contradiction?) - so it would be interesting to audition them with an open mind, and limited expectations - there's always the opportunity to be pleasantly surprised.