Glass Loudspeakers

[sdclc126]

I recently came across an article in the January edition of Popular Science about these:

Greensound Technology | Home

Glass to me would seem to be inefficient and prone to resonance, and I'm having trouble seeing how the motor imparts movement - does it propagate upwards through the glass panels, or do the curved panels at the base actually provide horizontal pistonic movement?

They're $8,000 a set - you could pay a lot more for boutique stuff, but it's still up there. I do thing they're rather pretty though. Would also seem to be a very challenging DIY - machining the glass for one thing.

Anyway, I just wanted to post this to see if anyone knew anything about the technology/mechanics, and if you've seen anything like this before; it's new to me.

Cheers

[Rodeodave]

I may be wrong, but the frequency response is a joke and, to my eye, they're insanely ugly.
Check out the Crystal Cable Arabesque (insanely expensive) and Waterfall Audio for more glass speakers. I'd like to hear some IRL, I imagine they could be real nice.

[adason]

uglyyyy!

[sdclc126]

Yes - the frequency range is limited, but Crystal Cable is just that - cables, not loudspeakers. And the Waterfall Audio speakers use conventional cones with glass cabinets.

With Greensound the actual sound generating membrane/diaphragm is glass - if you notice there really is no cabinet - these are like open baffle or planars/electrostats.

So, I was just soliciting thoughts on what the motor structure might be, and how glass panes could possibly make a good speaker diaphragm.

[slam]

I was wondering if these speakers are using technolog similar to those parts express excitors.

[planet10]

Those, AFAIK, are exciters for NXT-style DMS loudspeakers. A very plausible way of turning a sheet of anything into a loudspeaker (of sorts)

dave

[sdclc126]

Originally Posted by planet10

Those, AFAIK, are exciters for NXT-style DMS loudspeakers. A very plausible way of turning a sheet of anything into a loudspeaker (of sorts)

dave

Then the question becomes how good would the speaker be, with a (big) sheet of glass as the diaphragm, and what kind of amplifier power would it take to drive it.

It would also depend, of course, on the quality of the exciter.

[planet10]

And the substrate characteristics, its shape, and the placement of the exciter(s).

dave

[whgeiger]

Originally Posted by sdclc126

I recently came across an article in the January edition of Popular Science about these:

Greensound Technology | Home

Glass to me would seem to be inefficient and prone to resonance, and I'm having trouble seeing how the motor imparts movement - does it propagate upwards through the glass panels, or do the curved panels at the base actually provide horizontal pistonic movement?

They're $8,000 a set - you could pay a lot more for boutique stuff, but it's still up there. I do thing they're rather pretty though. Would also seem to be a very challenging DIY - machining the glass for one thing.

Anyway, I just wanted to post this to see if anyone knew anything about the technology/mechanics, and if you've seen anything like this before; it's new to me.

Cheers

Distributed Mode Loudspeaker

Conventional loudspeakers employ a reciprocating diaphragm of relatively small area, operated over relatively large excursions, to achieve the required volume displacement of the surrounding air. Alternatively, bending waves, of very small amplitude, are generated within a glass panel of much larger area, to produce the same output. To suppress inherent panel resonances and mitigate the acoustic (and mechanical) fragility of glass, panels are fabricated from two thin glass sheets laminated to a PVB (polyvinyl butyral) core. Unlike the up-front acoustic image of conventional loudspeakers, that of large panel speakers lies far behind them.

Regards,

WHG

[Radugazon]

Hello,

Some examples of laminated glass cabinets here :

and their "white paper" here.

I think it's not totally honest because they cheat on the range
of the CSD plots when it's their glass product, anyway can be read.

In case you would order, just prepare 556.000 $.

Diamond cabinets ?