Glass speakers....Perfect 8

[Lindell]

Sure why not?







http://www.perfect8.com/index1.htm


"One key technology used in the PERFECT8 product line is the proprietary Super Silent Glass (SSG). SSG is a proprietary special glass type which virtually eliminates all vibrations – there is no ringing whatsoever associated with SSG"

"The vibrations on our baffles and enclosures were actually so slight that it required the development of new super sensitive acceleration measurement devices to detect them. The result is of course a very pure sound, totally uncolored by baffle or enclosure induced sounds.

All energy sent to the drivers are converted to sonic energy instead of being compressed through absorption of the cabinet, followed by re-emission which destroys the sound twofold"

[Svante]

Mmm...

The transparent cabinets have forced them to not put any stuffing inside the box. I would be surprised if these designs do not have problems with standing waves inside the boxes.

[Ron E]

The green edge is characteristic of regular soda-lime plate glass. Nice aesthetic, but acoustically impractical.

[Cal Weldon]

Visually very attractive for those in love with speakers.

I wonder if they sound as good when hidden behind a screen.

[sq225917]

"The vibrations on our baffles and enclosures were actually so slight that it required the development of new super sensitive acceleration measurement devices to detect them."

so nothing to do with laser interfereometry not working too well on transparent surfaces then.

[noah katz]

"The vibrations on our baffles and enclosures were actually so slight that it required the development of new super sensitive acceleration measurement devices to detect them.... All energy sent to the drivers are converted to sonic energy instead of being compressed through absorption of the cabinet, followed by re-emission which destroys the sound twofold".

This is a claim overstepping the bounds of physics.

The glass will obey Newton's law of action/reaction accordong to its mass relative to the drivers', same as any cabinet material.

I'm certain any standard accelerometer would have no trouble measuring the vibrations.

And glass doesn't have particularly high internal damping, either.

[Svante]

Well, they HAVE mounted the LF drivers so that the mechanical rection forces to the cabinet is minimised, for sure. From a pure vibration point of view, that is good. And further, we cannot say anything about the damping of the glass from the images alone, I mean they COULD have a laminated structure that particularly well attenuates any vibration transfered to the box.

But one thing that is certain is that the acoustical resonances inside the box are severe. And even if nothing of these resonances leak out through the walls, they will leak out through the drivers, and the drivers will sense a funny acoustic impedance at the resonance frequencies.

And actually, I do too doubt the statement that special vibration measurement techniques had to be developed. Accelerometers are darn sensitive.

[sq225917]

edge views of the glass would indicate it isn't laminated, there appears to be no perturbence of light as would be expected due to differences in index of refraction in the different layers. unless of course they go the whole hog and cool the glass incredibly slowly as is done for high quality optics.

[Cal Weldon]

Perhaps there are additives beyond "normal" glass to make this SSG.

[CeramicMan]

Well the satellites do appear to be very small - the internal width appears to be around 10cm (judging by the tweeter face plate), so by my guesstimate they'll be pressure loaded with no box resonances up to around 1.5kHz.

Above that it's likely that there'll be notches in the frequency response and diffraction ripples, perhaps giving the upper midrange a "whiny" quality.

Engineering constraints aside, they look pretty cool to me