The future of loudspeakers

[saikatbiswas82]

I think the speakers and transformers in the B&W TV of the 1960 still remains same even in today's Morden TV. Only they have gone smaller due to SMPS supply and compact screen depth.

That's exactly my point. Trafos are gone from tv and during 60s' no one expected that to happen. At present its reality. Conversational speakers are 60s' and as well as today's technology. No one knows what will happen 30-40 years down the line.

Along with the technology, we have to adapt, otherwise we'll become extinct - My mind.

Here, a peep into future:

View attachment 31704

View attachment 31705

Wow. Omnidirectional. Aren't they?

 

[Kannan]

Here, a peep into future:

Looks similar to the MBL Radialstrahler

 

[sound_cycle]

Along with the technology, we have to adapt, otherwise we'll become extinct - My mind.

Technology will develop. Extinction through obsolescence of that older technology is a matter of course.

That consumers (we are talking audio here and not cold fusion or a cure for cancer) will go extinct as a consequence reduces your otherwise agreeable (and indeed obvious) to extreme hyperbole. Video killed the radiostar and youtube killed video, no mass deaths were reported.

There are many many changes we have seen AM, LP, CD streaming. Mindblowingly better stuff. The media to carry it on, the processors and algorithms have also become faster/lighter/better.

Moore's law holds in several contexts but speakers are to my mind remarkably unaffected. A speaker on a chip or one that adapts to rooms intelligently and gives you pure uncorrupted sound (whatever that is) is yet reported.

Technology is not going to defeat or disprove existing laws of physics, rather it works within those (rather strict) confines and bounds. And I am willing to bet that unobtanium cones, better adhesives (Maggie listener, please excuse) , magnets that attract small aircraft etc are not going to be the big change makers of the future. Sure accurate measurement techniques, simulation, design, processing etc will happen. But you are going to have a large membrane move air to make sound to be heard in a room. And first reflections are not going away because of a processor or software running on it.

Hops off soap box and is off to listen to the latest knopfler album on the day of release on a phone (rather than reading about it in Sun magazine six months later and then eventually hearing it on the Susan Dowling show on radio australia)

ciao
gr

 

[Hari Iyer]

That's exactly my point. Trafos are gone from tv and during 60s' no one expected that to happen. At present its reality. Conversational speakers are 60s' and as well as today's technology. No one knows what will happen 30-40 years down the line.

Along with the technology, we have to adapt, otherwise we'll become extinct - My mind.

Even in SMPS technology they use a pulse EI transformer which is smaller in size. So transformers are not gone completely. They still exist.
Even in modern TVs, the speakers are still the same - a voice coil in a magnetic field.

The transformer is a 150 year old technology or may be more, even the dynamic speakers as of today is around that time period.

The only changes in xformr has been in type - EI, Toroidal or R- core
In speakers it's cone material - Paper, PP, AL, ceramic.....

 

[square_wave]

Guys, this discussion is going bonkers. Can the futuristic tech discussion be moved to a different thread please ?

 

[saikatbiswas82]

Guys, this discussion is going bonkers. Can the futuristic tech discussion be moved to a different thread please ?

Ha ha. I rest my case here. There's no point in going into an argument on what I (or we) have not seen or predicted.

Let's get back to topic then....

 

[Kannan]

I think it would be interesting to rename the topic
"Are your speakers tonally accurate"

 

[saikatbiswas82]

That's a nice initiative. Thanks admin.

 

[RaahulT]

Trying to peep into future
https://www.cnet.com/news/the-next-step-in-speaker-design-you-room-becomes-the-speaker/

 

[tuff]

There is also this upcoming model from LG that turns the entire panel into a speaker, 3.1 for now.

 

[sound_cycle]

Perfect, tonally or otherwise, speaker of future will be a self learning speaker. yes, artificial intelligence based speakers will learn from how many times the listener is adjusting feed signals, in which zones, of what range and many other parameter. This speaker will not differentiate between users but between their tastes.

step 1 towards the future https://appleinsider.com/futures/homepod

The HomePod includes a six-microphone array with an advanced echo cancellation system that allows Siri to understand anyone speaking to it in the room, regardless of their position in relation to the HomePod, and even when loud music is being played in the background.

For audio playback, Apple designed an upward-facing woofer that uses real-time software modeling to enhance bass management, allowing it to provide deep and clean bass tones with low distortion. An internal low-frequency calibration microphone is included to assist the bass management system.

Accompanying the woofer is a custom array of seven tweeters, with each equipped with their own amplifier. Apple's speaker array also has beam-forming capabilities, for highly directional audio at a high quality.

This beam-forming capability is enhanced by the HomePod's ability to sense its placement in a room. Using the microphone array, it can detect the size of the room, its location compared to nearby surfaces, and other potential audio obstacles, using the data to optimize its playback to suit its surroundings.

Driving the beamforming, bass management, and multi-channel echo cancellation in the HomePod is Apple's A8 processor, as previously used in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the iPad mini 4, and the fourth-generation Apple TV.

A trial of the HomePod's audio playback capabilities attended by AppleInsider demonstrated the speaker's capabilities were a mark above a Sonos speaker and the Amazon Echo, giving an "impressively wide and pwerfully deep" sound. The HomePod was found to be audibly consistent throughout the test room, compared to the flatter and "more obviously directional" sound offered by the competitors.

The workings of HomePod's adaptive acoustic capabilities may be explained by a patent, surfacing in July 2017, for a "Loudspeaker Equalizer." In brief, the patent explains that data from a speaker's microphone can be fed into a processor and DSP to filter and equalize audio signals, improving the audio based on its surroundings.

A future upgrade is expected to let a pair or a swarm of homepods to play in stereo while overcoming room effects (okay I made this last line up but it is within the realm of possibility)

ciao
gr

 

[RaahulT]

step 1 towards the future https://appleinsider.com/futures/homepod

The HomePod includes a six-microphone array with an advanced echo cancellation system that allows Siri to understand anyone speaking to it in the room, regardless of their position in relation to the HomePod, and even when loud music is being played in the background.

For audio playback, Apple designed an upward-facing woofer that uses real-time software modeling to enhance bass management, allowing it to provide deep and clean bass tones with low distortion. An internal low-frequency calibration microphone is included to assist the bass management system.

Accompanying the woofer is a custom array of seven tweeters, with each equipped with their own amplifier. Apple's speaker array also has beam-forming capabilities, for highly directional audio at a high quality.

This beam-forming capability is enhanced by the HomePod's ability to sense its placement in a room. Using the microphone array, it can detect the size of the room, its location compared to nearby surfaces, and other potential audio obstacles, using the data to optimize its playback to suit its surroundings.

Driving the beamforming, bass management, and multi-channel echo cancellation in the HomePod is Apple's A8 processor, as previously used in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the iPad mini 4, and the fourth-generation Apple TV.

A trial of the HomePod's audio playback capabilities attended by AppleInsider demonstrated the speaker's capabilities were a mark above a Sonos speaker and the Amazon Echo, giving an "impressively wide and pwerfully deep" sound. The HomePod was found to be audibly consistent throughout the test room, compared to the flatter and "more obviously directional" sound offered by the competitors.

The workings of HomePod's adaptive acoustic capabilities may be explained by a patent, surfacing in July 2017, for a "Loudspeaker Equalizer." In brief, the patent explains that data from a speaker's microphone can be fed into a processor and DSP to filter and equalize audio signals, improving the audio based on its surroundings.

A future upgrade is expected to let a pair or a swarm of homepods to play in stereo while overcoming room effects (okay I made this last line up but it is within the realm of possibility)

ciao
gr

My God.. "...with each equipped with their own amplifier." Apple's approach to innovation is really out of this world. Thanks for sharing.
I think our fellow FM @Hari Iyer will appreciate this one.
Thanks.

 

[Hari Iyer]

My God.. "...with each equipped with their own amplifier." Apple's approach to innovation is really out of this world. Thanks for sharing.
I think our fellow FM @Hari Iyer will appreciate this one.
Thanks.

Looks like a droid from the movie Phantom Menance - Star Wars

 

[square_wave]

I think the thread should be renamed to "Future of loudspeakers ". None of the discussions in this thread revolve around tonal accuracy

 

[RaahulT]

I think the thread should be renamed to "Future of loudspeakers ". None of the discussions in this thread revolve around tonal accuracy

Agree.

 

[jls001]

Agree.

Done!

 

[RaahulT]

Thank you Moderator.

 

[raghupb]

Moderator's Note: posts related to the future of loudspeakers have been forked from this thread.


Perfect, tonally or otherwise, speaker of future will be a self learning speaker. yes, artificial intelligence based speakers will learn from how many times the listener is adjusting feed signals, in which zones, of what range and many other parameter. This speaker will not differentiate between users but between their tastes.

Hmmm ...
I hadn't dived into the original thread, cause it was about tonally accurate speakers.
Don't have much knowledge about such stuff plus I may be going tone deaf too
But this fork off is interesting read for sure.

In the world of music, loudspeakers have held their sway the longest. Basics haven't changed in more than a century.
AI into sound tech, where each ones listening taste is different, each ones room is different, each gear is different.
Wonder how they will all get the magic "whack"

Oh but then AI is already there, innit.
She has a name too and its "Alexa" or "Siri" or "Bixby" (gender neutral is "OK Google")
And she comes in various colors and sizes.

What might hit us in the future is direct activation of aural nerves, cutting out all the middle men, sorry gear.
If this happens, HFV will be no more. Without gear, what do we discuss.

So let's all fight this change if we are still alive by then!!

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[firearm12]

music should also be produced on the fly as per listeners taste, put in some instruments and name of a vocalist and you have got wonderful sounds all throughtout the room as per listeners taste, no more listening to same songs again and again.

 

[RaahulT]

music should also be produced on the fly as per listeners taste, put in some instruments and name of a vocalist and you have got wonderful sounds all throughtout the room as per listeners taste, no more listening to same songs again and again.

That one is an heck of a challenge. I am aware that's there are some apps and software program which convert sound of human beings to mimic others. But getting them to sing as per requirement is definitely "Chitti" stuff.