Has anyone played with NXT?
 

Has anyone experimented with NHT 'exciters' and different panel shapes, sizes or materials?

I had a later Mission X space, sub + 2 small satellites,
as a portable system whilst I was working abroad.
(With a portable CD player)

Not bad for music, vocal intelligibility was good and
imaging not too bad, but weak in the treble and
overall weight and solidity.

But absolutely excellent for watching DVD's from
my laptop with a LCD projector borrowed from work.

The 6" x 4" NXT drivers appears to be formed from corrugated
plastic sheet (exactly like cardboard sheet), the stuff they make
lightweight plastic file holders from with two magnetic exciters
and what can only be described as cheap stick on rubber feet
strategically placed on the sheet, (10mm, 3 of them I think)
attached by double sided sticky foam around the edge.

IMO for HiFi, close but no cigar. The little system impressed
those that heard it, its best trait was a seamless unfatiguing
vocal range, but excepting this not great in any other area.

As an active system I'm sure some EQ was used on the satellites.

If I was going to get interested in NXT it would be for AV use.

:) sreten.

I'd concur with Sreten on his verdict. I bought an end-of-line X-Space after HiFi World raved about it, but found problems with transients eg. from piano music distorting. Later products are supposedly improved, but the one high-end product that has tried it (Cyrus) seems to have disappeared...

Ian

I've heard some NXT panels too and concur with your findings.

My intended application is non conventional but, unfortunately, I can't give any details yet (but I will later).

I understand that you can buy the exciters and then use them on whatever panels you like. The panels I've seen so far have been variations on the corrugated plastic sheet described by Sretin. You can actually use cardboard and, I'm sure, plenty of other materials. You can make them any size you want, which will affect the bass extension, SPL and efficiency (I think). If you use one exciter it should be placed non-centrally (on a rectangular panel) - presumably for the usual reasons. You can use more than one exciter per sheet.

I thought that, as this is a very cheap and easy system for DIYers to experiment with, folks here might have made their own panels and could report back with their findings. I'd expect that diyAudio members, with their creativity and knowledge, could take this further than the commercial manufacturers have managed so far.

One things for sure, all the debates on coatings for speakers
could easily be applied to corrugated cardboard NXT speakers.

However AFAIK finite element analysis is used to determine
acoustic output, element placement and damping / mass
loading placement, and the edge termination characteristics.

None of these to me are designable by the usual methods.

I'd also say most of us are deeply suspicious of a technology
depending on approximately controlling the chaotic break up
modes of a flat diaphragm, however well you can get it to
work it will still be rubbish, its surprising they are half decent.

I'd like to see a waterfall plot of an NXT diaphragm.

:) sreten.

Oh no, Dont touch them, its not for you, stick with Bandor,

As if ... I'm not completely crazy (although well on the way) :)

OK guys, you force me into this. Take a look at this and report back if you're interested. It interests me.

Sounds like utter guff to me, all marketing hype and no substance.

Erm that means adding some NXT panels doesn't it ?

:) sreten.

... which the company doesn't sell.

Go to the 'about us' page and check the main man on Google. As I said, it interests me.

Its a licensing company, which means selling "expertise" and
the right to use whatever "buzzword" they have coined for
the technology, in the same way NXT don't sell NXT panels.

However having no product as such to sell, the need to "big
up" the technology they license I'd of thought was obvious.

For an excellent example of licensing guff over substance visit here :

http://diaural.com

:) sreten.