I don't know if this guy's speaker will ever be marketable but he's got a playing prototype, and I've not seen anything like it before.
If I'm understanding the concept correctly; a typical digital audio setup recreates a music signal as a mixture of pure sine waves that mix and interact via the Fourier transform principle, and the mixing occurs within a digital processor, upstream of the power amp(s) and speakers.
In contrast; in this guy's setup the mixing of the component sine waves occurs at the speaker itself. That is; driving each speaker are twenty separate signal processors feeding pure component sine waves into twenty amp channels-- discretely driving twenty drivers in each speaker. As such, the Fourier transform occurs at the speaker itself, as the separate driver outputs blend together in front of the speaker.
That's a lot of digital processors and amp channels so even if this guy succeeds in taming all the gremlins, it's a complicated and expensive setup.
Enjoy!
If I'm understanding the concept correctly; a typical digital audio setup recreates a music signal as a mixture of pure sine waves that mix and interact via the Fourier transform principle, and the mixing occurs within a digital processor, upstream of the power amp(s) and speakers.
In contrast; in this guy's setup the mixing of the component sine waves occurs at the speaker itself. That is; driving each speaker are twenty separate signal processors feeding pure component sine waves into twenty amp channels-- discretely driving twenty drivers in each speaker. As such, the Fourier transform occurs at the speaker itself, as the separate driver outputs blend together in front of the speaker.
That's a lot of digital processors and amp channels so even if this guy succeeds in taming all the gremlins, it's a complicated and expensive setup.
Enjoy!
Impressive! Love it.
The theory sounds right, let’s see how this speaker sounds.
Thanks for sharing.
The theory sounds right, let’s see how this speaker sounds.
Thanks for sharing.
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Pretentious naming usually exists for a purpose. (to distract, just for instance)
As we all know Fourier transform converts time domain samples of a signal into a frequency domain. Fast one skips trivial operations, thus the name.
Having a plurality of bare speakers without enclosure of any kind with something resembling open baffle... has nothing to do with it (F(D(FT))).
However, it looks extremely nice to begin with. Superb craftsmanship.
As we all know Fourier transform converts time domain samples of a signal into a frequency domain. Fast one skips trivial operations, thus the name.
Having a plurality of bare speakers without enclosure of any kind with something resembling open baffle... has nothing to do with it (F(D(FT))).
However, it looks extremely nice to begin with. Superb craftsmanship.
(F)FT works for time-invariant signals, as far as I know. It does not work for music. I might be wrong.
I'm not getting the difference between this and a "3-way" speaker - only that it's N-Way, where N=25 or something.
A much easier to construct analogy would be an electric guitar with a hex pickup; each string feeding it's own bandwidth optimized amplifier, each amplifier feeding it's own bandwidth optimized speaker and cabinet. Then the whole sound of the guitar would be "mixed" in the air, versus the pickup.
Like this contraption, I'm sure someone somewhere has done it and I wonder what it sounds like?
A true aficionados endevour.
A much easier to construct analogy would be an electric guitar with a hex pickup; each string feeding it's own bandwidth optimized amplifier, each amplifier feeding it's own bandwidth optimized speaker and cabinet. Then the whole sound of the guitar would be "mixed" in the air, versus the pickup.
Like this contraption, I'm sure someone somewhere has done it and I wonder what it sounds like?
A true aficionados endevour.
Yes, using my headphones. Didnt sound like anything unique in particular. I wonder what mics / arrangement was used to record?
jjasniew
But why is there nothing special, the voice of the author of the video is voiced very naturally and organically?In general, the speaker construction scheme is interesting: some of the frequencies (for example, low frequencies) will be summed up, and some will be scattered from the speaker baskets and diffusers located in front.
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It is in an open wheat field that you need to look for dips, pay attention to how small in volume the room is where these speakers are broadcasting, and there slightly different rules apply where the main resonance of the room and its harmonics are involved.
Indeed difficult to predict the sum of all sources, but still: all of them have a directivity like this:
where up and down is the main signal (left and right in image) and the zero (down in the image) is pointing to listener.
Would give a nice effect, that's for sure, but not what you typically want from a speaker.
where up and down is the main signal (left and right in image) and the zero (down in the image) is pointing to listener.
Would give a nice effect, that's for sure, but not what you typically want from a speaker.
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The theory does my sound right to me. This is just a loose and lazy analogy between a mathematical theorem and I physical phenomenon. I do wonder if any of the software available today would be about to actually simulate the radiation pattern to see how the waves combine .... Maybe a software that can calculate the radiation pattern in a plane perpendicular to the axis of a normal floor standing speaker can be used to see what it would look like.
indeed possible: but I can tell you on forehand: the sum of all zero's will still be a deep zero.
After all is said and done, I believe the system basically behaves as a collection of crossovers.....i.e., a very complex multi-way speaker system.
But the frequencies are spread all over the place, spatially speaking. And the inherent non-linearity of each driver will still be present. There probably would be less intermodulation distortion. But imaging? That's a hard sell.
Once in the digital domain there might be some gains to be had by pre-distorting the signals fed to each driver so their output contains LESS distortion but that would require some pretty good characterization of each driver. Particularly since the distortion could vary with temperature and drive level.....
It's interesting but I think it is impractical......a whole lot of work and money for relatively little improvement in audio quality, if any. It sure looks cool though.
But the frequencies are spread all over the place, spatially speaking. And the inherent non-linearity of each driver will still be present. There probably would be less intermodulation distortion. But imaging? That's a hard sell.
Once in the digital domain there might be some gains to be had by pre-distorting the signals fed to each driver so their output contains LESS distortion but that would require some pretty good characterization of each driver. Particularly since the distortion could vary with temperature and drive level.....
It's interesting but I think it is impractical......a whole lot of work and money for relatively little improvement in audio quality, if any. It sure looks cool though.
It looks somewhat similar to a 19th-century spectrum analyser
https://teylers.adlibhosting.com/ais6/Details/museum/4001454
https://teylers.adlibhosting.com/ais6/Details/museum/4001454
