Is this for real???

[Alex D]

Hi everybody, I came across this the other day and as my technical and engineering knowledge is nearer to a chimp (no offense intended to any other chimps lurking in this forum...) than a nuclear physicist, I'd like that those with a better grasp of technicalities could comment on it...

http://www.planotspeaker.com/

Cheers!
Alex

[anthonyTD]

Hi everybody, I came across this the other day and as my technical and engineering knowledge is nearer to a chimp (no offense intended to any other chimps lurking in this forum...) than a nuclear physicist, I'd like that those with a better grasp of technicalities could comment on it...

http://www.planotspeaker.com/

Cheers!
Alex

looks interesting,and seems to be genuine, i have forwarded it to a friend who would know more.

[jandl100]

Well, well ... this is an interesting new thing. It's not often that you see genuine innovation in hifi design these days ..... assuming the website wasn't set up on 1st April .

I too have the engineering expertise of a chimp, this accompanied by quite a few decades of learning from hifi as a hobby .... but as a basic principle this does look at the very least interesting to me.

I must admit that I haven't quite sussed out why or how it pivots around the vertical axis ....

Also ... without a baffle of any sort to separate the 3 drivers, won't they interfere with each other and cancel out/interfere? There will be a rear wave as seen by each driver (from the other 2 drivers), although the phasing will be dependent on the particular design implementation (i.e. the phase of each 'side' of the radiating triangle). This is why planar drivers have a figure-8 radiation pattern - destructive interference at the sides - the wider the baffle the higher frequency diaphragms are mounted on, the lower the drivers can go without the backward radiation affecting that from the opposite side. And without a baffle at all, won't this be a bit of a problem ... ?

.... or perhaps I'm just talking utter rubbish.

[Alex D]

.... or perhaps I'm just talking utter rubbish.

Oooo ooo ooo oo o ooo ooo! (Translated from chimptalk: I wouldn't know I'm more of a chimp than you!)

Leaving the joke to rest (hopefully for good?) I must say that it does seem strange that the inventor claims there is no cancellation.
I hope it's for real because it seems like great idea (if it's real) and if mass produced could bring the high end to a lot more fellas (although you can count in there being esoteric boutique versions of the same technology...), myself included...

[Planot]

I am the inventor of the Planot(TM) speaker and I would be willing to answer any questions that you might have about the Planot. I will check back from time to time.

Thanks,
John

[anthonyTD]

I am the inventor of the Planot(TM) speaker and I would be willing to answer any questions that you might have about the Planot. I will check back from time to time.

Thanks,
John

hi john,
very interesting, i have read partly what has been written about its design, but can you elaborate a bit further on its key design, and what inspired you..
regards,anthony,TD...

[Marco]

Thanks for joining, John. We'll look forward to your input in due course

Can I ask where you heard about us?

Regards,
Marco.

[Planot]

Thanks for joining, John. We'll look forward to your input in due course

Can I ask where you heard about us?

Regards,
Marco.

This thread showed up as a "referring sites" in my Google Analytics.

John

[Planot]

hi john,
very interesting, i have read partly what has been written about its design, but can you elaborate a bit further on its key design, and what inspired you..
regards,anthony,TD...

I was inspired to uncover the weakness in the design of the traditional acoustic transducer (driver). I decided that the one thing that made the driver's operation possible was the weakest part of its design. The surround and spider system. It performed three contrary functions. First it held the voice coil centered in the magnetic gap and next it returned the voice coil and cone assembly to the "rest position" and lastly it provided an acoustic seal at the perimeter of the cone.

How do you eliminate that one thing performs these three necessary functions?

Well, first if you are not worried about making a working device then you are free to let your imagination dictate a solution instead of function dictate it. This is the first step in what I call sphereorizing.

If you want an object to move a certain distance and yet move "only" in the intended path then one method is to have the object turn on bearings. In this way its movement is limited to a specific path and can't "wobble." I had that solution to that specific problem. Next I was able to think about how this new object would function as driver. I setup a hierarchy of functions that had to be satisfied next. I went one by one down the line from the bearings to the polar response to the motor. Then I realized that I did not need the acoustic seal! I had eliminated the need for an enclosure.

When implemented in the particular way I did, the bearings eliminated several problems that were inherent in the traditional Alexander Bell "ear morphology" paradigm. This new design allows me to separate the function of centering the voice coil, which is now perfectly centered as in no other design, and the homing function. Now these two functions are optimized separately. Other advantages are smooth frequency response, perfect phase response, omni-directional polar response in the horizontal plane and incredible imaging and low distortion.

But it was not the bearings or the elongated shape of the diaphragm or the pivoting so much as the three dimensional nature of the diaphragm in combination with these other things. I call it the 3-D Diaphragm (tm). It is the special geometry of the diaphragm that makes its performance magical.

John

[anthonyTD]

I was inspired to uncover the weakness in the design of the traditional acoustic transducer (driver). I decided that the one thing that made the driver's operation possible was the weakest part of its design. The surround and spider system. It performed three contrary functions. First it held the voice coil centered in the magnetic gap and next it returned the voice coil and cone assembly to the "rest position" and lastly it provided an acoustic seal at the perimeter of the cone.

How do you eliminate that one thing performs these three necessary functions?

Well, first if you are not worried about making a working device then you are free to let your imagination dictate a solution instead of function dictate it. This is the first step in what I call sphereorizing.

If you want an object to move a certain distance and yet move "only" in the intended path then one method is to have the object turn on bearings. In this way its movement is limited to a specific path and can't "wobble." I had that solution to that specific problem. Next I was able to think about how this new object would function as driver. I setup a hierarchy of functions that had to be satisfied next. I went one by one down the line from the bearings to the polar response to the motor. Then I realized that I did not need the acoustic seal! I had eliminated the need for an enclosure.

When implemented in the particular way I did, the bearings eliminated several problems that were inherent in the traditional Alexander Bell "ear morphology" paradigm. This new design allows me to separate the function of centering the voice coil, which is now perfectly centered as in no other design, and the homing function. Now these two functions are optimized separately. Other advantages are smooth frequency response, perfect phase response, omni-directional polar response in the horizontal plane and incredible imaging and low distortion.

But it was not the bearings or the elongated shape of the diaphragm or the pivoting so much as the three dimensional nature of the diaphragm in combination with these other things. I call it the 3-D Diaphragm (tm). It is the special geometry of the diaphragm that makes its performance magical.

John

hi john,
i, as i suspect others on this forum would like to explore this exciting technolgy further, would it be posible to have a listen at some point...
anthony.
PS, you have a message...