I never understood the whole flat/square speaker craze.......What was the advantage? Was it just for looks? Was it because everyone else was doing it?
When you think about how a speaker works (a magnet pulls the speaker from behind), a round speaker SHOULD be more efficient than a square one, because the "pulling force" is being applied equally in all directions.....Instead of being warped by the 4 corners of a square.
Discuss.
I think it was done in the fact that there was more surface area on a square woofer than a round one.
I think I read that somewhere once.
Yeah, I can see that.........But, if it was such a great idea, how come nobody is doing it anymore?
Don't get me wrong, I think they're cool looking sometimes, but......
I don't think they ever really caught on Reli.
I see Sony did it for a while,but I'm sure it was a lot more costly than regular speakers.....
Let's hope they never need refoaming.
quote:
Originally posted by skippy1969:
I'm sure it was a lot more costly than regular speakers.....
Really? how come?
I think it was also a design issue. Square speakers look more futuristic. It was a trend in car hifi, too.
I had a Sony cf-s9000 .. high power, heavy, great sounding unit with one of the smoothest solenoid operated cassette decks I have seen..It too had square woofers and sounded fantastic. Glad it didn`t need refoaming!
We live in a world where round speakers dominate. Why? Because decades ago thats how they started making them and the trend stuck. The main advantage of square speakers was having more surface area than round which generally implied an improved low end response over its round counterpart. A good design will easily eliminate any warping at the corners.
More surface area generally paves the way for better/more bass therefore some OEMs employed square speakers in thier boxes.
Why do square speakers cost more? Because they
are a specialty in a round speaker world. Its always cheaper to manufacture products from off-the-shelf components rather than have special components built for such purpose.
quote:
Originally posted by Reli:
Yeah, I can see that.........But, if it was such a great idea, how come nobody is doing it anymore?
Don't get me wrong, I think they're cool looking sometimes, but......
just curious, when was the last time you seen a "SQUARE" Bass Drum
transwave5000 - 2009-12-17 21:45
Boomboxes were probaby first with square speakers.
Havent seen any on a home stereo speaker.
quote:
Originally posted by transwave5000:
Boomboxes were probaby first with square speakers.
Havent seen any on a home stereo speaker.
Exactly....If they're so great, why aren't they used in any of today's high-end home audio?
quote:
Originally posted by transwave5000:
Boomboxes were probaby first with square speakers.
Havent seen any on a home stereo speaker.
I'm not sure who had them first.
Here's a Sony APM-33W from 1982. Awia also had a few floor models with square woofers.
transwave5000 - 2009-12-18 10:57
There seems to be two types of square speakers.
The true flat ones and some are cone speakers
shaped to be a square.
.
Now I remember some of them speakers.
Borrowed from the boombox guys.
.
.
Sony did it first (patented) in 1978 and is noted at the following link:
Sony "Accurate Pistonic Motion Speakers"
quote:
But, if it was such a great idea, how come nobody is doing it anymore
Ever hear of a Kicker Solobaric subwoofer?
transwave5000 - 2010-01-18 22:19
Another type of flat speaker
would be the electrostatic speaker.
Never used on boomboxes as far as I know.
A flat surface is the proper way to make sound
but a cone is easyer to make.
quote:
Originally posted by Master Z:
quote:
But, if it was such a great idea, how come nobody is doing it anymore
Ever hear of a Kicker Solobaric subwoofer?
No.
So ok, you've found one example, but why is it that whenever I look at websites of the true high-end home audio companies, selling speakers that cost $50,000 and up, do I never see any square ones? Check this site out here:
http://www.higherfi.com/spkrlist/speakerlist.htmThese companies are in constant competition with each other, and cost is no object for those kind of people, so if there was any advantage they could take, they'd take it. In my opinion at least.
quote:
Originally posted by Reli:
I never understood the whole flat/square speaker craze.......What was the advantage? Was it just for looks? Was it because everyone else was doing it?
When you think about how a speaker works (a magnet pulls the speaker from behind), a round speaker SHOULD be more efficient than a square one, because the "pulling force" is being applied equally in all directions.....Instead of being warped by the 4 corners of a square.
Discuss.
flat woofers have a larger cone area ,this means the woofer can move more air than a similarly sized round woofer,
therefore producing higher spl out put in it's given environment than a similarly sized round speaker, the trade off is lower sensetivity because it takes more power to drive more cone area, in addition ,to me square woofers tend to have a more hard edged bass that becomes less musical the harder it's pushed ,
i've listened to the square solobaric woofers in the real world conditions and they have sick bass but really not very musical ,now the old round solobaric ,thats a bad ass subwoofer.
transwave5000 - 2010-01-19 19:13
The flat woofer was more of a technical novelty.
Works ok for small woofers but large ones
would be different.
They were cool and looked good on boomboxes.
The dual cassette was also a techno novelty
at the time, and HIGH speed dubing!!
Probably popular first on boomboxes.
For good efficiency, the moving part of a speaker needs to be as stiff & as light as possible. The cone shape of a round speaker is so inherently stiff in the direction it most needs to be, that making them out of paper/card was a good idea.
Much pretty technology was used when Sony created their flat & square APM speakers, but they were very expensive & so didn't catch on (an old story for Sony!).
Remember, back then any new innovation was used to compete, & it's real-world usefulness may have taken second place to the wow-factor.
Kicker's solobaric subs are "square cones" really, they're not flat & have the advantage of shoving more air for the physical size of the speaker - useful in the confined space of a car.
I have a (round) 15" CompVR Kicker sub in my car, & I *love* it!
transwave5000 - 2010-01-31 18:57
I just got a pair of sony APM speakers from the thrift store
They look like there from a boombox with attaching rails on them.
What does APM mean ?
i think a p m means "accurate pistonic movement" .
transwave5000 - 2010-01-31 19:58
pistonic
ahhh ya ok
APM stands for accurate pistonic motion...
I have numerous Sony FH models that use the APM speakers and they do sound so rich and full of depth..............gotta be one of my fav`s
vintage
holy grail the WE 15???
