Flickr Find: Dodecahedral Speakers!

No, you're not looking at a shrine to d12 dice. This wacky dodecahedral speaker (meaning it has twelve faces) is actually a tool used in the Kettering University acoustics lab in Michigan. So what's it do?

It's used to test the acoustics of large rooms because it produces omnidirectional sound.

But before you write the idea off as silly and unpractical, you might want to know the advantages of a "round" sound. Clearly the omnidirectional sound will give you a richer and just all around sexier sound than a traditional speaker system. But there's another advantage to having pairs of opposing speakers on the same axis: dodecahedral speaker systems have very low vibration, making them ideal for apartments with paper-thin walls and floors.

But dodecahedral speakers are priiii-cey. Expect to shell out more than $3000 for a pair.

Image from crazytales562 at Flickr with a Creative Commons License.

Comments (3)

hmm, I don't thing I would know "sexier" sound if I heard it, but Linkwitz has some evidence that suggests omnidirectional speakers are less sensitive to room placement and room modes than traditional monopole speakers.

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/Pluto/Pluto-2.1.htm

posted by roger_lew on June 27th 2009 at 6:56pm
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They're less sensitive because they have awful imaging, in my experience. They throw off a big spacious sound, but one that's hopelessly inaccurate.

posted by sunspot42 on June 28th 2009 at 3:40am
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Linkwitz says they are less sensitive to room placement because the indirect sound will have the same spectral pattern as the direct sound.

I don't know what omnis you have heard, but the Plutos are definitely not lacking in the imaging department. And I make that claim from numerous subjective impressions including my own. They could have more headroom and better dynamics, but those are different issues. Besides being omnidirectional, their design incorporates other desirable characteristics such as having a very small acoustic point source and limiting diffraction artifacts.

It might be true that some omnis have poor imaging, but I don't think if it is fair to generalize. If you have heard the Plutos I would argue that your experience is valid (It is hopelessly illogical for me to argue with what you perceive) but perhaps an exception given available reports.

posted by roger_lew on June 28th 2009 at 3:07pm
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