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Tech That Flopped!

Every few months someone releases technology that seems to be revolutionary, but goes nowhere a couple of years later. Some tech gets acceptance and even imitation. Some goes wildly successful.

Ideas that are a huge success:
  • Acoustic suspension
  • Bass Reflex
  • Soft dome tweeters
Some ideas, well, it's not so clear:
  • Perfectly time aligned speakers ilke Thiel/Vandersteen
  • ESL
  • Line Arrays
  • Plasma tweeters
  • Transmission line
What tech have you seen come and go, was it worthwhile?

Best,

E
erik_squires
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Yes, that is baffling.

mr_m
1,900 posts
 
lol......
erik_squires OP
16,676 posts
 
@mr_m

Thanks for bringing that up. According to this article, it means both wall and very large cabinet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudspeaker_enclosure#Sealed_.28or_closed.29_enclosures

I need to make a correction to my discussion with @donvito101 (but just one) based on that article:

I was wrong about sealed always being acoustic suspension. Infinite Baffle designs are sealed and not AS. Definitely a flop! Isobarik enclosures are extremely rare, and technically sealed, but not called "sealed." They are called "isobarik,"

I was not wrong about:

  • In current usage "sealed" is always synonymous with "acoustic suspension" unless otherwise stated.
  • The BBC LS3 models however are far too small to be Infinite Baffle and are clearly AS.
  • Acoustic suspension is still one of the most popular speaker cabinet technologies in the world.
The B&W Nautilus concept is infinite baffle, but not sealed. Very much a niche, though lately Focal has copied the idea for their tweeters.

More info on the LS3 here:

http://www.ls35a.com/

Lastly, most 3-way or more speaker systems use AS in the midrange even if the woofer is bass-reflex. There are weird exceptions.

Best,


E


teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
Infinite baffle, as a term.. can ’loosely’ apply to a sealed box where the box resonance is below the woofer’s natural resonance and spring volume equivalent. When saying it, meaning, applying it to this given scenario... try to indicate this is the reason why you are misusing and throwing the term about.

Some confuse open baffle with infinite baffle. Open baffle is open, it has no sealed enclosure for the given low frequency driver.

Infinite baffle, as a term, more correctly applies to an actual infinite baffle, ie a wall mount where the other side is another fully separate room, or fully separated space. but it does not have to truly be sealed, this separate space... just that the two spaces, the front to be listened to and the rear to be separated - have something akin to zero capacity to interact with one another.

eg, most guitar amplifiers are what one would more correctly call open baffle, and most bass amp cabinets are either bass reflex or sealed. This is an area where the problem with home audio has created very very bad bass on the music production side. Big freaking mistake.

Home audio applications of bass reflex have made it to the bass guitar end of things and bass players are buying and using bass reflex cabinets. BIG MISTAKE. When we play this back on our rigs that use bass reflex speakers, we end up with the bass guitars sounding like MUD.
erik_squires OP
16,676 posts
 
Teo,

Interesting, but maybe we need a new thread? I'm having trouble following your logic at the end.

Best,

E
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