IT MAY have been a military flop, but a flat panel loudspeaker system that
failed to cancel engine noise in RAF fighter cockpits is set to hit Europe’s
hi-fi shops later this month. NXT, a subsidiary of the British company Mission,
has turned the technology into a £500 flat speaker system known as
X-Space, which lets a PC, personal stereo or TV fill a room with clear stereo
sound from the most unobtrusive of speakers. NXT’s X-Space amplifier simply
connects to a headphone socket and feeds two thin flat panels, which are 30
centimetres square. A conventional bass “woofer” speaker is built into the
amplifier itself to generate the low frequencies the panels cannot handle.
Ordinary speakers use a powerful electromagnet to drive a conical or flat
diaphragm that pumps air like a solid piston. The X-Space panel, which is light
but stiff, is made of a strong honeycomb material. The panel bends and vibrates
freely, instead of pumping, when stimulated by a small central transducer
clamped to its rear. The speakers are much lighter than conventional devices
because they do not require a heavy magnet. And because there is no coherent
wavefront, the panels, which are 2-centimetres thick, can be screwed onto a wall
without the risk of reflections from the rear distorting the sound from the
front.
