JVC's quiet 1BOX speakers, shhh

JVC Victor is showing off their 1BOX speaker system in Japan this morning which, despite its apparent size, is meant to very quietly throw multi-channel audio at very close range. The idea here is for you to hear the audio, not your neighbors, so the 1BOX cancels-out all the undesired signals resulting in a 56% reduction in leaked sound. The system is only a prototype and requires the listener to sit within 1-meter of the speaker. Still, for those of us livin' in the big city with lots of noise and little space, well, let's just say we'd like to buy a few for our neighbors while harboring an Everest system for ourselves...what?

[disciple83 @ Sep 21st 2006 10:23AM]

so, lemme get this straight. You have this massive fancy plasma screen fit to throw a crazy movie marathon with 15 of your closest friends. What could be more complimenting to your massively massive tv than...a small speakerbox fit for one? I got an idea, GET SOME HEADPHONES!!!

[disciple83 @ Sep 21st 2006 10:53AM]

my guess is that it works the same way the headphone systems work, except rather than using just the cup around the earphone for the cancellation field, it is using a much larger field, in this case, the cancellation waves have an effective distance at around 1 meter, which isn't really that bad, for the one user, but like i said before, if you are that into home audio, chances are you are also into home video, and willing to show it off to your friends. Why oh why make a system fit for one? just get headphones.

[Rick Lyon @ Sep 21st 2006 11:33AM]

It works because it;s a foot from your face. I couldn't hear anything either with a huge speaker in my face. Yea, I want a table 2' in front of my and my TV 8' away. Kinda silly really.

[DeShaun @ Sep 21st 2006 2:23PM]

It's a meter. Not a foot. That's more like 3 feet. You could sit it on your coffee table and watch things that way. However...

What's the cost going to be? Because if it's not cheap, it's certainly not worth it. If the thing ends up being like, $400, then I might as well put that money into a pair of Shure headphones and get that awesome quality on ANY device, wherever and whenever I want. I suppose it's a novelty.

[sidney johnson @ Sep 21st 2006 12:06PM]

I have to agree, the marketing points are flawed, but for thoose of us who work in cubicleville and love to listen to music while we work this would be perfect.

[Tomppa @ Sep 21st 2006 12:21PM]

I don't know about that quiet thing, but just that "multichannel" audio without satellite speakers, wow. I know it has been done before.

[Richard Kaufmann @ Sep 21st 2006 12:27PM]

From the article, they're getting a 5db drop when compared to a normal 5.1 system. Although significant, it's a miniscule drop compared to open-air headphones.

My guess is that the customers for this speaker have VERY small living rooms, e.g. center-city apartments. A couple sitting on a couch would probably nicely fit in the "near field," and they could move the speaker from the coffee table back to the TV stand when done.

Maybe has a niche, but certainly not for those lusting after their very own 100-seat theaters. I wonder how it sounds compared to the Yamaha?

[Nate @ Sep 21st 2006 1:35PM]

I know it seems a bit niche in America, but I bet their target audience is in Japan, specifically those in the big cities with tiny apartments. I only stayed there a week but man, those spaces can get tiny, so this will probably be good for not annoying the neighbors. Probably a bit more than a niche market there, but not a much in the USofA considering people tend to have larger spaces here
Still the idea is rather interesting, I like listening to music/sound effects fairly lound, especially if I can crank the bass, but the sound does tend to carry so I can't be doing it late at night. If it works as well as claimed then I should be able to enjoy my beats and explosions without getting a noise complaint from the apartment below me.
And as for multichannel, that really sounds kinda gimmicky, with only one unit it seems unlikely to be full 5.1 It feels like anything other than mono could be called "multichannel" like it's stereo or 2.1 therefore its "multichannel".

[Ryan P @ Sep 21st 2006 5:08PM]

Why are they showing this as a home theater solution. This is so much better from use with a PC where you usually can't have multiple channels and you are already sitting very close.