Canby looks at and listens to FLAT loudspeakers
For as long as can be remembered, the idea of a flat loudspeaker--a speaker that could stand free on the floor without depth like a panel, or even better, hang unobtrusively on the wall--has been a kind of ultimate hi fi goal. Television too. Flat TV for the living room wall. We may get the TV wall picture some day. The hi fi flat speaker is here, right now.
Fisher's ingenious new Sound Panels are not quite two dimensional, but almost. Less than three inches deep, and handsomely wide, all of two and a half feet by two, they sound good as well as plenty loud. This is a real speaker, not a compromise, using a new principle, no paper cones or domes, no acoustic suspension, no ports and baffles. Inside, the two voice coils (one is a tweeter) together move a flat front panel of dense acoustic polymer, a hard plastic, via a resilient and carefully calculated connecting linkage--Fisher calls it hammer action, related to the "hammer" linkage of small bones in the human ear and, perhaps, to the sound post in violins.
The patent, it is rumored, comes from South America. (Argentine, -Ed.) It' one can judge at a press unveiling, the Sound Panel is "flat" in the sonic sense as well, within highly respectable tolerances, down to a good 40 Hz. These are full-range speakers that can till any need where quality is concerned. But looks are what really dominate. The variously decorated Sound Panels--eight picture--like front exteriors in cloth and more to come--make one of the cleverest eye jobs in the business. These speakers, at last, do not look like speakers. They look like décor. That is the intention.
Several inches, first of all, go into a handsome deep-dish curved surround or frame of wood, totally functionless in respect to sound but astonishingly effective as pure decoration. And appropriately, the functioning center panel is covered with one of the print-like or tapestry-like designs, to choice.
Hung on the wall, this ensemble looks for all the world like an expensive and good looking work of art, richly framed. But Fisher also provides feet.
The Panels may be stood up, free of the wall, like decorative screens. Either way, with their variety of stylings, they key into a living room as no speaker system has done before.
A definite plus, very much up to date, is the non directional sound propagation of the Fisher Sound Panel.
Placed on the floor, it radiates sound in front and the rear like a figure 8.
The effect, in stereo or quadraphonic, is to eliminate the close-to beaming directionality of some forward-aimed conventional speakers. On the Wall, the radiation is in a hemispheric pattern. Another ultra-modern plus feature is efficiency. The patented new Fisher drive fills a normal living room with sound from six to eight watts of amplifier power. Extra remote speakers can be driven without strain by modestly powered amplifier equipment.
Can you paste your own choice of painting on the Sound Panel? Not advisable, since the panel is the sound propagator. Without a doubt, Fisher will eventually be persuaded to offer a Sound Panel with a blank "canvas" for creative home artistry. At the user's risk.
Suggested List: $138
(Audio magazine, Jan. 1973; Edward Tatnall Canby)
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