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Tech That Flopped!

Every few months someone releases technology that seems to be revolutionary, but goes nowhere a couple of years later. Some tech gets acceptance and even imitation. Some goes wildly successful.

Ideas that are a huge success:
  • Acoustic suspension
  • Bass Reflex
  • Soft dome tweeters
Some ideas, well, it's not so clear:
  • Perfectly time aligned speakers ilke Thiel/Vandersteen
  • ESL
  • Line Arrays
  • Plasma tweeters
  • Transmission line
What tech have you seen come and go, was it worthwhile?

Best,

E
erik_squires
erik_squires OP
5,268 posts
 
DBX records - Never even heard of them! But dbx made a comeback in TV stereo transmission. :)

E
mr_m
1,087 posts
 
Infinite baffle speakers. A term from the 60's and 70's. Can't remember if it meant a speaker driver mounted in a wall, or a very large sealed cabinet speaker. Or both......
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Yes, that is baffling.

mr_m
1,087 posts
 
lol......
erik_squires OP
5,268 posts
 
@mr_m

Thanks for bringing that up. According to this article, it means both wall and very large cabinet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudspeaker_enclosure#Sealed_.28or_closed.29_enclosures

I need to make a correction to my discussion with @donvito101 (but just one) based on that article:

I was wrong about sealed always being acoustic suspension. Infinite Baffle designs are sealed and not AS. Definitely a flop! Isobarik enclosures are extremely rare, and technically sealed, but not called "sealed." They are called "isobarik,"

I was not wrong about:

  • In current usage "sealed" is always synonymous with "acoustic suspension" unless otherwise stated.
  • The BBC LS3 models however are far too small to be Infinite Baffle and are clearly AS.
  • Acoustic suspension is still one of the most popular speaker cabinet technologies in the world.
The B&W Nautilus concept is infinite baffle, but not sealed. Very much a niche, though lately Focal has copied the idea for their tweeters.

More info on the LS3 here:

http://www.ls35a.com/

Lastly, most 3-way or more speaker systems use AS in the midrange even if the woofer is bass-reflex. There are weird exceptions.

Best,


E


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