A Short Story on Soundmatters, BDNC and Super-Shallow, High-Excursion Speakers
In this article for audioXpress and The Audio Voice newsletter, Mike Klasco writes about "a very cool" concept from Soundmatters, the company's UPstage speaker design, a new speaker product category, and the next trend from the people that invented the soundbar. In this fascinating revisit of the company’s history and achievements, the article discusses Soundmatters' own Linear Magnetic Drive Twoofers and how the company was founded by the illustrious Dr. Godehard Guenther, NASA scientist and audio legend. Born in Germany, Dr. Guenther immigrated to the United States where he worked with a group of scientists at NASA on the development of America's first space station. In 1972, he left NASA to pursue his passion for audio, initially importing Braun loudspeakers to the US, then founding Analog + Digital Systems (a/d/s/), which later acquired Braun Audio. There he led the development of such innovations as the use of rare earth metals, including samarium cobalt and neodymium in loudspeakers, the first fully digital surround sound system, the first in-wall loudspeaker, and a pet project of a fully automated tweeter production machine. In 1998, Dr. Guenther went on to establish Soundmatters.
The article also details the sophisticated engineering implemented by Soundmatters into the UPstage180 compact high-performance audio system, which was also the launch platform for BDNC's high-power, flat glass woofer that uses a 0.2 mm glass diaphragm and offers the highest excursion-to-thickness Index without the interference of rocking modes common in other transducers. This article also explains what manufacturers need to know about the BDNC glass diaphragm technology.
