Tymphany's LAT250 subwoofer: smaller than you'd think

Believe it or not, that thing you see above actually is a subwoofer, albeit a wee one. Tymphany's LAT250 (Linear Array Transducer) deviates from the traditional cone approach and instead "displaces air using a linear array of multiple smaller diaphragms." A pair of internal motors drive both sets of diaphragms, and the unit itself can be mounted either horizontally or vertically depending on your install needs. Most notably, this thing reportedly checks in at just 10.24- x 3.5-inches in size and weighs only 1.86-pounds, but it can somehow still handle 100-watts RMS. As you'd expect, Tymphany is aiming this unit at users with tight space requirements, and while a variety of impedance configurations are available, the standard 4-ohm dual-coil version is available now for $58.

[Via AudioJunkies]
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[Flashpoint @ Dec 10th 2007 7:59AM]

Any car modder will tell you that ENCLOSURE IS EVERYTHING.
A cheap sub will sound better in a properly designed enclosure than a larger/more powerful sub in a crappy enclosure.

As for space requirements... Bose, SONY and a number of other companies offer speakers you can install in the wall so you should look there first. My home theater came with a sub and my Xbox360 sits atop it (vertically) mostly out of sight.

[Reader @ Dec 10th 2007 8:10AM]

The idea of putting an zbox (with a hard drive) on top of a humungo speaker is somewhat disheartening.

[Reader @ Dec 10th 2007 8:10AM]

Lol zbox... Anyways you get what I'm saying.

[Carbonize @ Dec 10th 2007 8:00AM]

That's a sweet price if this thing works. Wonder how much bass it can produce though.

[Reader @ Dec 10th 2007 8:12AM]

100 RMS is more than I will ever need, but the real question is: how good is the sounds quality? Speaker statistics don't really mean anything to me so I am not going to bother looking them up, but the price seems pretty low, and that can often mean low sound quality.

[Carbonize @ Dec 10th 2007 8:16AM]

Yes power is one thing but power does not equal quality.

At least they gave the power in RMS instead of trying to make it sound better by using PMPO.

[earthling @ Dec 10th 2007 8:41AM]

Can you say combing artifacts and vent noise.

The problems with any multi-driver array come on several fronts. Multiple drivers create an opportunity for both temporal displacements of driver movement (not exactly in physical synch). Even if the drivers are connected to the same motor there will be physical effects at certain frequencies caused by harmonics, boundary effect, etc. Think of waves meeting in the middle of a lake and creating a sum which is greater than their different parts. The driver(s) meet this waves as a physical force and distort slightly (and differently) trying to overcome them. In typical driver/small sub configurations this is overcome by running the drivers out of phase to try and cancel out the effects.

Combing noise is caused by overlaps in sound waves typically near the edge of the drivers or in this case the vents. You get small cancelations in sound from out of phase waves and re-inforcement from others. This is very similar to the distortion effects created earlier but the waves have escaped the box at this point. To minimize this you typically place the drivers at or above the box surface to minimize these diffraction effects and far apart to minimize straight combing.

Vent noise will be a similar but much lesser problem in this type of setup. Typically subwoofers have nice flared vents to overcome the woosh noise or huffing caused by the air moving past the vents. The only other way to overcome this is to make the vent so large relative to the amount of air moving past it but this eliminates the tuning effect of the vent (and probably the box to a large degree).

In any case this is probably aimed more at the bose crowd.

[Ladderless @ Dec 10th 2007 10:17AM]

Given the wave lengths for the low frequencies, and the small compartments in the typical vehicle (along with the reflective surfaces everywhere by the listeners' ears), is combing really going to be an issue?

Plus, I bet most of these will be installed under seats and in trunks...

[earthling @ Dec 10th 2007 11:42AM]

First, I just want to say that these types of technologies *can* cause problems, not that they *will* (although its likely). Secondly, if the consumer doesn't care about the sound then it doesn't really matter one way or another, my point is that TANSTAAFL and this is not that revolutionary a product, its a development based on compromise.

Having said that: Combing and distortion will always be an issue, it does not matter what environment you use. Its like saying bose speakers sound better in your bathroom than your living room. (they don't). I guess if you don't care, then it doesn't matter. Putting a speaker in your trunk is about being loud for everyone else, its not about quality sound.

[iczer2 @ Dec 10th 2007 8:53AM]

Now this is interesting. Alpine already had out the PLV-7 LAT sub system, but it was larger, and had a lot higher RMS (500 I believe). And not to mention much more expensive.

I wonder how this little sub would perform in a car instead of a home theater. It could be a great option to use if you didn't want to use something as large as the PLV-7.

[NxP3 @ Dec 10th 2007 9:28AM]

I checked out the distributer, this thing is over 250 bucks...what a markup if that's true. I thought I'c check it out at 58 but 250....I'll pass.

[mkygod @ Dec 10th 2007 10:17AM]

This thing can't be called a subwoofer. It only produces sounds between 50-300hz which only covers midbass. Most medium-size bookshelvf speakers can go down to 50hz. REAL subwoofers produces around ~25-100hz.

The only people that should these are people who really want to save space and own tiny speakers that aren't able to go down to 100hz.

[rbuszka @ Dec 10th 2007 11:31AM]

Actually, the question of what qualifies as 'sub'-bass is still the topic of some debate. You've got three crowds to satisfy - car audio, home audio, and pro audio, and pro audio typically works with subs that are most efficient between 60 and 200 Hz (with some notable exceptions, especially newer designs). I like Wikipedia's definition of sub-bass: everything between 16 and 90 Hz. It satisfies all three audio sectors.

[droopy1592 @ Dec 10th 2007 11:40AM]

http://www.caraudiomag.com/testreports/0702_cae_alpine_plv_7_subwoofer/index.html

the bigger brother is serious bzns

[nd @ Dec 10th 2007 11:55AM]

yeah, i'm pretty sure that the alpine uses a tymphany driver. this one to be more precise:
http://www.tymphany.com/datasheet/printview.php?id=139

bad ass. has anyone ever used or heard the alpine? that review was sure good...

[toyotaboy @ Dec 10th 2007 1:25PM]

I think the 10.24- x 3.5-inches is off a bit. According to my conversion it's more like 1.5" dia. x 8" long. Might be good for tiny boomboxes but probably not much more.

[Hotwings @ Dec 10th 2007 4:15PM]

Electrical Data
Nominal impedance
Zn
2
ohm
Minimum impedance
Zmin
2.1
ohm
Maximum impedance
Zo
8.4
ohm
DC resistance
Re
2
ohm
T-S Parameters
Resonance Frequency
fs
60
Hz
Mechanical Q factor
Qms
3.4

Electrical Q factor
Qes
1

Total Q factor
Qts
0.79

Force factor
Bl
5.6
Tm
Mechanical resistance
Rms
4.9
Kg/s
Moving mass
Mms
44
g
Suspension compliance
Cms
0.16
mm/N
Effective cone diameter
D
15.8
cm
Effective piston area
Sd
196
cm2
Equivalent volume
Vas
8.9
ltrs
Sensitivity (2.83V/1m)

90.5
dB
Sensitivity (1W/1m)

84.5
dB
Ratio BL/√(Re)

4

Ratio fs/Qts
F
76

Power handling
Rated Noise Power (IEC 18.1)
100
W
Misc. Parameters
Effective Frequency range (IEC 21.2)
50-300
Hz
Frame dimensions
260x90
mm
Total Mass
845
grams
Frequency at ka=2
1518
Hz

[abomb @ Dec 10th 2007 4:26PM]

holy mounting holes batman

[Richard Lai @ Dec 10th 2007 4:55PM]

I'm pretty sure this model (or technology at least) has been out for months - 3 months at least. They owe credit to a much bigger company for this though...

[Dr. Niphon Nimboonchaj @ Dec 20th 2007 8:22AM]

Having noted LAT 500 FR-Curve dB/Hz @1W1m = 78/20 88/50 90/70 88/150 88/200 88/400, wonder if its big brother LAT 700 improves a few dB at low end 20Hz. Or parallel 2 or 4 to achieve optimum result in mating with RAAL 140-15D Ribbon with flat FR 500Hz-40kHz, should be a good marraige for small box system that excels all others and perhaps bigger box ones. Can you supply or recommend the best active and passive 2-way X-O for this configuration which will be driven by FM ACOUSTICS FM411 Mk.II 400W-Amp/FM 268 Harmonic Linearizer Line-level Preamp, the absolute best topnotch.