Strong rival appears against ML in Japan!?

[Rabbit house]

Folks,

I have found this website today. Please check this and let's think about ML's future!

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/NEWS/20061005/121977/?SS=imgview&FD=-1992587816

Shuji

 

[kach22i]

I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but there is a possibility that this speaker has more in common with the Museatex/Melior/Miltner speakers.


Is this the panel's driver?

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/NEWS/20061005/121977/

http://www.museatex.com/

 

[Rabbit house]

kach22i,

Sorry to discribe the 1st post with a little information. Because I was in our office then, I didn't have enough time to explain the detail.

I have just come home. It's midnight on monday in Japan.
So I describe the detail from now.

You are right,kach22i. It's the accutuator that TDK has developed.
(Left on a hand is the super magnetic distortion chi, Right is the exciter including the chip.)

According to Nikkei, Japanese major economy newspaper, on 5th Oct. 2006,

TDK which is famous for cassetes, magnetic disks and video tapes has announced that TDK has developed new 2.1ch SPs using super magnetic distortion. By vibrating the clear acrylic panel, it can make a very wide sound stage in front and back of the panel. This system has the ability to make a 5.1ch sound stage with just 2 SPs and 1 woofer. TDK is starting to sell the system during 2006. Price will be less than 420 USD.

The acrylic panel is vibrated by a super magnetic distortion exciter. The super magnetic distortion chip is activated by only several volt, and the maximum force is 20kgf. The force is quite big compared to the electro-magnetic force (several hundred gf) used for ordinal cone SPs.
The thickness of the acrylic panel is 3mm. These powerful actuator can make many vibration area on the strong acrylic panel, and this means that there is no phase difference between front and back. That's why this SP can make a wide sound stage.

Sigh.... I'm tired of translating it. Can you understand the content?

Shuji

 

[kach22i]

The thickness of the acrylic panel is 3mm...........

That's about 1/8" thick plexiglass.

I would expect some but not as much distortion in the surface as the old Melior speakers (they were thin Mylar).

Are they claiming the acrylic plane is rigid enough to move with the music signal, or that it ripples with some time delay?

no phase difference between front and back..........

Now I'm really confused.

 

[Rabbit house]

.....
Now I'm really confused.

Me,too. Sorry to confuse you.

I guess like this;
The black point in the middle of the panel is the actuator.
The force it can make is Max. 44lb. It's quite powerful.
It make the progressing waves spreading from the center to the edge.
But the panel is thick and strong, so the wave speed is very high on the surface of the panel compared to the sound speed in the air (340m/s).
So what?

Confused.

Kach, I'm sorry. I have to go to bed before my mother get angry.

Tomorrow, I have to go to business trip and will come back the day after tomorrow. After the trip, I will try to find out another articles about this SP. Please wait or be confused until then. :bowdown:

Shuji

 

[MotorToad]

Folks,

I have found this website today. Please check this and let's think about ML's future!

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/NEWS/20061005/121977/?SS=imgview&FD=-1992587816

Shuji

That looks pretty neat. Given that it appears to have a cone midrange I guess these are big effin' tweeters so I don't think they're going to challenge MLs for overall clarity and purity of the music just yet. I wouldn't expect them to move much air at lower (read: midrange) frequencies given the thickness of the material, anyway. It's nice to see that there are still people with new ideas about driver technology, too.

 

[kach22i]

It does look to be a 4-piece system (bass unit on floor). I would think it could have more SLAM than a pure low mass stat, and you could lose some detail. It's all a matter of trade offs. If you can drive these speakers with low watt single ended tubes it could make up for the difference.

 

[Beat_Dominator]

So this is basically a voice-coil-less pistonic loudspeaker?

 

[Rabbit house]

I've checked this TDK products through internet as follows;

(Principle)
As kach22i indicated, the principle is like Museatex's. The difference is the actuator. TDK uses magnetic distortion exciter, and Museatex uses magnetic coil. The motion range of the super magnetic distortion chip developed by TDK is 1000 times more than ordinal magnetic ditortion material.

(SP Units)
As MotorToad indicated, SP units are as follow;
High to Mid range(1.5-20kHz): 1/8" thick acrylic panel
Mid (Human voice frequency range: 0.2-1.5kHz): cone midrange
Low (50-200Hz): 5" woofer

TDK website is as follows. I hope you can understand the information from the pics and drawings though it is written in Japanese;

http://www.tdk.co.jp/speaker/tsp01001.htm
http://www.tdk.co.jp/speaker/tsp01002.htm
http://www.tdk.co.jp/speaker/tsp01003.htm

I think this product is not the rival against ML. According to the rumour in Japan, the sound is not so good as I expected.

To tell the truth, I found this SP when I was serching for the strong magnetic distortion actuator through internet for my robotic business. In order to make a good plain SP, a good and strong actuator is essential. I wasn't surprised at this SP, but was surprised at this actuator which has the good response to 20kHz high frequency and the strong force to Max. 44lb in such a small body. If we use the plural actuators for one strong and light panel with movement sensors, there is the possibility to develop MFB(motion feed-back) plain SP. Nowadays we can find many light and strong materials for a strong panel like CFRP honeycomb or Rohacell used for B&W woofers.

The price for TDK SP system is only 250 USD. That means TDK suceed in the mass-production of this strong actuator. I would not be surprised if the plain SP with stiff panel activated by plural magnetic distortion excitors in MFB mode would appear in near future. :music:

Shuji