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Showing posts with label modern loudspeakers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label modern loudspeakers. Show all posts

Concrete Audio - Elegant Speakers Made of Cement, Sand and Water.





Concrete Audio is a Loudspeaker factory in Germany whose founders love music. They design and produce unique loudspeaker systems of timeless elegance and impressive dynamics - housed in, you guessed it, concrete. These speaker systems are produced in a limited edition in Germany.




The following information is from their website:
The Materials


Cement, water, sand are the essential ingredients of a material whose recipe was already known during the Roman Empire - concrete.



Refined by a variety of additional ingredients, concrete in modern times has evolved into a high-tech product with highly varied properties and applications. Resilient, durable, and pourable into almost any form and especially, largely resistant to vibration.

Concrete forms, by its very nature, the perfect base for the housing of our loudspeakers.



The curing process makes each a unique loudspeaker - identical in shape and surface quality, but individually in terms of the grain.

The surface provides for several options of sealing to emphasize the natural feel of the material.

The Idea


The idea of a housing made out of concrete came to us during a conversation about the ultimate sound for loud-speakers. We concluded: concrete is perfect yet hard to restrain. Thus an equally elaborate and passionate experiment began, executed and carried out by superb hand-craftsmanship and attention to detail.



After several years of development and numerous test runs, we finally found the ideal solutions for the design of the mold, the construction and the special mix of the materials and founded the Loudspeaker factory Concrete Audio.



The design of the model N1 consistently meets functional requirements without neglecting the demands of a timeless, aesthetic use of forms.

Each individual piece is worked on individually until it meets requirements for the highest quality.

The Sound
The sound of a loudspeaker driver (sound generator) decisively depends on the quality of the loudspeaker housing.



Unlike, for example, the body of a musical instrument, a good loudspeaker enclosure should not vibrate because modern high-performance drivers operate linearly, reproducing exactly the sound information, which electrically has been transmitted to them.

Commercial housing made of wood or plastic, have their own resonant frequency. Yet at certain points of frequency bands, the housing starts to oscillate, i.e. vibrate, and thus reinforcing exactly that particular frequency. Additionally, this phenomena forms integer multiples of this particular frequency creating additional vibrations (overtones). This facilitates unnatural changes of the overall frequency spectrum. The result is a distorted sound by means of basically, a flawed housing.

We manufacture the housing of our loudspeakers made from special concrete with a compressive strength of at least 30 N/mm². This is harder than conventional concrete curbs. The amorphous structure and the high specific gravity of this material reliably prevents oscillation of the housing. By means of a special casting process, the housing is cast out of one single body with all sides closed and sealed.



This monolithic structure is lined internally with different sound-dampening material made of tightening yet elastic layers to prevent any reflections.



For reasons of sound, we build our housing completely sealed and without a bass reflection-tuning. This way, we achieve an extremely low factor of distortion and superior accuracy even at very high levels.

The drivers, or undercarriage used, in addition to the characteristics of the housing, determine the quality of the loudspeaker-system decisively.

We use the Scan-Speak drivers.
The Danish company Scan-Speak is known worldwide for its high level of innovation and uncompromising quality. Their high-end drivers, built into our systems, are characterized by absolute accuracy and fidelity. This allows us to equip the signal path with a very small number of selected components. We use a 6dB filter of very high quality, fitted with copper foil coils and silver-gold capacitors.



The result is a largely loss-free signal path and a very direct control of the linearly coordinated and selected pairs of precision-drivers. Combined with our high-strength concrete housings, we produce a high quality loudspeaker system –

TECH­NI­CAL DATA for Concrete Audio® MODEL N1.
Housing: Concrete, monolithically poured
System: 2-way closed-box, passive
Frequency range: 34 Hz – 40.000 Hz
Power handling: 100 W
Sensitivity: 83 dB (1 W/1 m)
Total Harmonic Distortion:
< 1% bei 90 dB SPL (1 m) für f > 100 Hz
Nominal impedance: 4 Ohm
Crossover frequency: 6 dB/2,000 Hz
Ports Single-wiring/bi-wiring
Components: Scan-Speak, Kimber Kable, Mundorf, WBT
Dimensions: Height: 110 cm (43,3 in)
Width: 23 cm (9,1 in)
Depth: 33 cm (13 in)
Net weight: 80 kg (176 lbs)

The tech­ni­cal data of the Concrete Au­dio ® N1 is the re­sult of an ex­ten­sive acoustic sur­vey by the Fraun­hofer In­sti­tute for Dig­i­tal Me­dia Tech­nol­ogy IDMT, Il­me­nau. The data was charted us­ing a low re­flec­tion cham­ber of the Class 1 (ac­cord­ing to DIN EN ISO 3745) to Re­quire­ments of DIN 60268-5.




Experience CONCRETE AUDIO
Convince yourself of the quality of CONCRETE AUDIO Loudspeaker-Systems and make an appointment for an exclusive listening-test of the N1 in our showroom in the city of the Classics, in Weimar. They offer you the opportunity to experience our loudspeakers in your own rooms.

Concrete Audio®
Eduard-Rosenthal-Str. 30
99423 Weimar
Germany

Telefon: +49 36422 20 48 51
Telefax: +49 36422 20 48 54
info@concrete-audio.com




The Timbre Speaker by Casey Lin




21 year old Casey Lin is working on her Bachelor of Design Innovation at the Victoria University of Wellington. With a Bachelor of Architectural Studies already under her belt, the New Zealand based Chinese designer is primarily focused on product design, with a special interest in furniture, jewellery, lighting and household electronics. One of her most recent projects is the Timbre Speaker, an unusual design I wanted to share with you.




Timbre Speaker trims the essence of a speaker down to the very bare minimum, allowing the inherent qualities of the materials to become the centerpiece of the design. All superfluous detail is stripped away, leaving only the necessary audio and power ports at the rear, and combined power and volume dial.



Wood and glass were selected for their favourable acoustic qualities which enhances the audio experience of the user. The Black American Walnut wood adds a warmth to the tone, while the addition of the glass vessels bring a more reverberant characteristic to the music.




Surface transducers are mounted on the interior of the wooden box, vibrating the surface and turning the box into a speaker. The glass vessels act as physical equalizers, where the vibrations transfer through the wood into the glass and changes the timbre of the sound. The wooden box can act as a standalone speaker, or alternatively, vessels of other material, size or shape can be placed on the speaker to change the sound according to the users taste.



Timbre Speaker has an elegant, yet playful feel to it, users are encouraged to experiment with different objects and placements to find the timbre they enjoy the most.


above: Designer Casey Lin
all images, video and description courtesy of Casey Lin.

designby-cl.com

Sound You Can See. Transparent Speakers From People People of Stockholm.




A well established definition of sustainability is to satisfy the needs of people, planet and profit. This speaker design by Stockholm design group People People tries to accomplish exactly that.



The transparent design lets the speaker blend in to any living room out there. The size can be big enough to offer a good sound quality, yet the speaker takes little visible space. The box is transparent, but the sound creating components are clearly emphasized.




The speakers come with a small rechargeable WiFi antenna that plugs into any headphone socket. It can plug in to any computer, music player or smart phone out there. It will also work for old stereos or vinyl equipment. The aim is to set the music free regardless where it’s stored.



The speaker is then assembled at home, IKEA style. This also means that the components that breaks first (the rubber ring and the speaker cone) can be easily replaced, keeping the product away from any landfill.



Being big is good for sound quality, but not so good for shipping. Any other speaker will ship a lot of air around the globe before ending up in your living room. This speaker ships in a small, flat package that goes in through your mailbox. The glass sheets making up the box is being ordered through the glass repair shop closest to every single customer. In that way the speaker reduces shipping with up to 90%, and supports local handicraft in one go. A very economical and ecological solution.


all information and images courtesy of people people

The speaker is still under development, and not available for purchase yet. If you are interested you can drop a mail to speaker@peoplepeople.se and we will keep you posted on the progress.

People People

Davone Audio's Newest Speakers, Ray, Are An Homage To The Eames Lounge




Davone Audio of Denmark has just finished designing and producing their second luxurious set of high-end loudpeakers. Following Rithm, their new set of speakers is housed in a bowed walnut wood veneer and set atop metal legs. Similar in color, design and style to the iconic lounge chair by Charles and Ray Eames, the speakers are named "Ray" an obvious nod to the designers of the famous chair.


The iconic Eames Lounge chair and ottoman:

making the bowed veneers for the housing of the equipment:

detailed shots of the Ray Speakers:




The first set of finished speakers have just been sent to New York to appear as a prop in an upcoming major motion picture that will be released in 2011*.

*Update: the Ray speakers are now available for purchase, priced at 2499 Euros per piece including stand. Visit Davone Audio for specs and stockists.

Below is their first set of loudspeakers, the Rithm:

Davone audio

Design That Speaks Volumes. Tiny Speakers With Huge Sound.




I get many requests for paid reviews and posts and turn them all down to maintain the integrity of the blog. Sometimes I find nice little packages for me in the mail, clearly from someone hoping to be added to the hip list. More often than not, the products aren't up to snuff.

But these warranted a mention. The line of speakers from Singapore Based XM-I are not only wonderfully designed (The x-mini even received the prestigious 2008 Red Dot Design Award) but they really work, and are priced right.

They've also received rave reviews from those in the know, so you can be assured from audiophiles far more respected than myself.




Check these out.

The Original X-mini:




The X-mini is the World's first pocketsize speaker with a built-in bass support and rechargeable battery. It strikes the perfect balance of pocketsize portability with uncompromising sound quality.

Pioneering a patented technology which enables an extendable vacuum to mimic the resonance of a sub-woofer, the X-mini is also equipped with high-fidelity speakers to ensure smooth delivery of the mid-highs. The in-built rechargeable batteries would also translate to zero cost on disposable batteries and increased daily convenience.

The X-mini II:



The X-mini™ II introduces a larger 40mm driver to project richer and fuller sounds resulting in superior end-user experience from its innovative capsule design. Not only does the new design deliver unsurpassed audio quality, it now performs even longer. Three times the capacity of its predecessor, the new X-mini™ II comes with a new built-in high capacity rechargeable battery capable of sustained output for 11 hours of nonstop audio pleasure.

A most distinctive feature is the all new system that enables you to connect one X-mini™ II to another, capable of forming an almost endless “daisy chain” of self-powered, bass-enhanced portable speaker system.



Finally to eliminate cumbersome audio cables dangling from the speaker, the connecting audio cable can be tucked neatly into the base for a cleaner and sleeker look.




The X-Mini Max (capsule version):



The X-mini Max (Second generation):



Thanks to Alexander Yap for the red X-mini Max II photos


•Pocketsize Portability
Small enough to carry around. Connected at the bottom by two magnetic base for hassle free storage and portability on a daily basis.

•Bass Xpansion System
Pioneering a patented technology, an expandable vacuum which mimics the resonance of a subwoofer

•In-Built Rechargeable Batteries
The in-built rechargeable batteries will translate to zero cost on disposable batteries and increased daily convenience

And keep an eye out for their latest edition, The X-mini Happy:



all images courtesy of X-mini and XM-I.




Shop for all the cool X-mini speakers here.


above: IM-X CEO Ryan Lee, photo courtesy of BusinessWeek

CEO Ryan Lee's speakers have made him one of Asia's Best Young Enterpreneurs, see the BusinessWeek article here.

If you are into loudspeakers, don't miss this post all about some of the most unusually designed speakers on the market:


Speaker Manufacturers Turn Up The Volume On Design


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