JVC Reveals Wood-Cone Speaker Technology
A Little Sake Does The Trick…
JVC has introduced several models of speakers featuring their new wood cone technology. JVC claims the wood cone speakers deliver acoustic characteristics unavailable with other materials by utilizing the combination of high sound propagation speed and natural vibration attenuation (internal loss) that enable the speakers to naturally reproduce a wide frequency range.
While conventional paper cones spread sound at the same speed in all directions, causing unnatural resonant points with limited frequency response, wood cones produce few resonant points because of the grain, so frequency response is improved and sound quality is enhanced.
JVC’s dream of producing wood speaker diaphragms proved not to be an easy one to realize. The wood cone speakers were 20 years in the making because the wood sheets would crack or split when stamped. The answer turned out to be alcohol – sake in particular. A JVC audio engineer in Japan hit upon the sake solution while enjoying dried squid at a restaurant. Discovering the dried squid was so chewy because it had been soaked in sake the JVC team tried the same technique with the wood sheets and it worked – after soaking in sake, the birch sheets could be pressed into speaker cones without splitting.
JVC’s wood cone speakers are featured in the EX-A10 compact home theater system designed for the bedroom or other small room. The EX-A10 consists of a receiver and a matching DVD player with brushed aluminum finish while solid cherry wood cabinets house a 3-3/16-inch wood cone mid/bass driver and a tweeter with a wood dome. The EX-A10 also features JVC’s K2 and CC Convertor technologies found in their top-end AC receivers, which are designed to improve sound quality for both CDs and compressed MP3 and WMA files. The system can play both DVD video and DVD audio discs and provides two-channel decoding of Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound signals. Also built into the receiver are an AM/FM tuner and a clock with a timer that allows waking up to CD or the radio.
The wood cone speakers also available separately in a range of sizes to add to existing home theaters or bookshelf systems. The SX-WD8 and SX-WD10 are both three-driver, two-way, bass-reflex systems, which are comprised of a pair of four-inch wood mid/bass drivers, and a one-inch dome tweeter that uses a birch wood dome. Power handling is 150 watts with the SX-WD10’s tower models designed for use as the front/surround speakers of a home theater system, as are the SX-WD8 speakers, but the smaller size of the WD8’s also allows both vertical or horizontal installation and for use as a center speaker. Smaller again are the SX-WD5’s which are two driver speakers designed for desktop systems and, like the WD8 and WD10, feature real cherry veneer enclosures and include screw-type, gold-plated speaker terminals.
The JVC EX-A10 is available now for $1,099.95. More information on JVC Wood Cone Speakers.
