Ideas for Speaker Enclosures Now in Voice Coil March 2024

Voice Coil March 2024 focuses on speaker enclosures with a unique directory of innovative material ideas, followed by an always insightful patent review, where James Croft revisits the pivotal Dinaburg invention. For Test Bench, this month Vance Dickason characterizes the SIG180-4 6.5” woofer from Dayton Audio’s Signature Series, and a midbass shallow-profile 6.5” driver, the Stereo Integrity TM65 mkIV.

From midbass to bass, Voice Coil November 2023 provides the lowdown on some of the loudspeaker industry's most interesting developments. James Croft explores a recently granted "Venturi expander" patent. Mike Klasco explores speaker design and signal processing techniques to achieve more bass, and Vance Dickason characterizes the Wavecor WF152BD09-04 6" midbass driver, and the UF295FAS Ultra Flat Series 10" thin-profile dipole woofer from Neotera.

For this first issue of 2023, Voice Coil compiled a set of valuable headphone and earphone driver vendor directories, updated with the latest factories. The remainder of this issue is centered on Test Bench characterizations of two very innovative drivers that Vance Dickason has received. The first one on the Test Bench was the PTT6.5M08-NFA-01 6.5" Midrange from Purifi Audio; The second driver was the already popular SW26DBAC76-4 10" shallow subwoofer from SB Acoustics.

Sonos announced the acquisition of Mayht Holding BV, a Netherlands-based company that invented a dual-driver topology speaker design that uses multiple motors, symmetrically distributed across the membrane, allowing for a shallow design. In demonstrations of its technology, dubbed Heartmotion, Mayht frequently compared the performance-to-size ratio with the nearest example from Sonos, and the company's advisory board included two former Sonos technical and sales executives.

Resonado, the technology startup that is now ready to bring to market its patented Flat Core Speaker (FCS) technology introduced at CES 2020, announced that Catharina Lavers Mallet has joined the Resonado board of advisors. Mallet, a former Bose Corporation executive with significant experience in both startup and large corporate environments, will work with Resonado’s executive team to hone strategic direction and mature their operating model as the company expands its licensing efforts.

Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific) writes about "a very cool" concept from Soundmatters, the company's UPstage speaker design, a new speaker product category and the next trend from the people that invented the soundbar. The sophisticated engineering implemented by soundmatters into the UpStage compact high-performance audio system was also the launch platform for BDNC's high-power, flat glass woofer that uses a 0.2 mm glass diaphragm. This article also explains what manufacturers need to know about the BDNC glass diaphragm, high-excursion, ultra-low profile woofer technology.

This edition of Test Bench characterizes a new shallow mount 10” home audio subwoofer. The SW280WA01 is a new low-profile subwoofer from Wavecor, the China-based high-end OEM partnership with former Vifa engineers Allan Isaksen and Per Madsen. This new driver, the SW280WA01 represents some interesting driver technology that has application in small narrow spaces. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, June 2019.

During the High End show in Munich I caught up once again with Wavecor, the expert high-end driver manufacturer, which usually has an important presence at the Munich show. They always have many clients that release finished products using Wavecor drivers at this show. Not that all brands will reveal that they do... We spoke with Allan Isaksen, General Manager and Chairman of Wavecor to learn more about the latest products and the company.