Voice Coil Focus: A Fresh Take on Green Audio 2023

Good intentions for sustainability, circularity, or simply reducing your carbon foot-print in the development or manufacturing stages not always produces the intended results. Mike Klasco reminds us how things are not always as simple as we would like, and that having good intentions and throwing empty claims might work on paper, but not actually work in the real world.

Meta Materials, a developer of materials and nanocomposites will showcase a range of interesting technologies at CES 2023, which highlight global collaborations in the areas of 5G communications, augmented reality eyewear, and Li-ion battery components. The demonstrations include cutting-edge projects with Sekisui Chemical, Covestro, PPG, DuPont Teijin Films and Mitsubishi Electric Europe. During CES 2023, Meta Materials will be at the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, booth 9417.

Discussing speaker enclosures, this article examines all the different options for plastic applications and the implications for loudspeaker driver design in general. Enclosure characteristics, construction features, advantage comparisons between wood and wood particle board cabinets, and production techniques are some of the topics explored. This article was published in Voice Coil, March 2022.

The March 2022 issue of Voice Coil offers a complete overview of loudspeaker cabinet design options, plastic enclosure materials, and production techniques, as well as an updated directory of Speaker Enclosure Vendors. This month, in Test Bench, Vance Dickason characterizes the Mundorf U80W from its latest U Series of Air Motion Transformers. And addressing demanding professional audio applications, this issue also includes a Test Bench on Eighteen Sound’s NSD1095N Compression Driver and XT120 Horn. Start reading online. Printed copies are on the way.

Covestro returns to CES in 2022 to showcase the endless possibilities of sustainable materials and smart surfaces, including a new demonstration device jointly developed with TactoTek. The polymer materials experts at Covestro have been working with the pioneer of in-mold structural electronics (IMSE) solutions, to create the Nighthawk demonstrator with integrated display, which utilizes Makrolon resin and Makrofol films from Covestro.

In this report, Klasco once again shares his knowledge with loudspeaker enclosures and reports on the progress in enclosure materials and technologies in 2020. And if someone has interesting things to share about wood enclosures, composites, plastics, improved plastic-based formulas, ABS/PA (polyimide), thermoset and thermoplastic resins, bulk-molded and sheet-molded thermosets and more, it's certainly Mike Klasco. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2020.

In the first part of this article, Mike Klasco discussed the contribution of the enclosure on perceived overall product quality as well as sonic clarity. This second part of the article looks closely at material testing, evaluation and manufacturability, and other more recent approaches to enclosure materials, including Thermosets and Thermoplastics, Bulk-Molded and Sheet-Molded Thermosets. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2019.

Voice Coil May 2019 features an overview of Asian speaker manufacturing outside of China, with a detail portrait country by country. Mike Klasco reports on Loudspeaker Enclosure Materials, focusing on new and improved material alternatives. James Croft reviews a new patented design from Harman to improve reproduction in boundary-coupled systems, and in Test Bench, Vance Dickason characterizes two new 1” compression drivers, one from Celestion, and another from SB Audience, a new brand from SB Acoustics targeting pro audio applications. All this and the usual Industry Watch updates, now ready to download!