At CEDIA Expo 2006, The Perfect Vision had a chance to catch up with Alex Bertagni, head of engineering and product development for Sound Advance, a firm that makes arguably the most invisible “in-wall� speakers on earth. Take a good look at the photo that accompanies this blog entry, and you’ll see Bertagni pointing at what appears to be a perfectly blank wall, at the top of which is a sign that reads, “Invisible.� But trust us: There’s a loudspeaker there, and it is one whose capabilities are surprising. Suddenly, the phrase “if only these walls could talk� takes on a whole new meaning.

Bertagni explained that the Sound Advance speakers are two-way designs whose highly unconventional woofers and tweeter are actuated by voice-coil driven motors, but whose operating principles are quite different from traditional piston type drivers. Instead, the Sound Advance woofer is a membrane-type driver that, at a certain point in its operating range, becomes a so-called “distributed mode� driver. Bertagni stressed that a major part of Sound Advance’s know-how involves precise techniques and technologies for controlling and shaping the driver’s distributed-mode resonances.

The Sound Advance tweeter, in turn, is a horizontally oriented rectangular unit that occupies the top of the speaker’s face. If it were a traditional piston-type driver, the Sound Advance tweeter would probably have horrible dispersion characteristics, but it isn’t and doesn’t. Instead, the tweeter is designed so that as frequencies increase, the effective radiating area of the rectangular driver narrows, improving dispersion.

The speakers are provided with an oversized, ready-to-paint membrane whose edges are easy to spackle-in to blend with surrounding wall surfaces (by design, the spackle would be spread outward, away from the drive surfaces of the speaker). Sound Advance is so confident of its technology that its speakers come with a 15-year warranty that covers not only the speakers, but also the labor and material costs of removal and reinstallation.

Sound Advance speakers are sold and distributed through Sonance dealers.

Back to the CEDIA 06 Coverage