Making Loudspeaker History

The history of the modern loudspeaker dates back to the early work of Ernst Siemens in 1874 when he developed the moving-coil transducer. Soon, Alexander Graham Bell used a similar device for audible transmission in the first telephone. However, the advent of vacuum tube amplifiers in 1906 was what enabled the development of the “loud speaking telephone”, or “loudspeaker” as it is known today.

Through the 1920’s and 30’s, further development produced the moving-coil direct-radiating loudspeakers that still serve as the basis for the drivers in most speaker systems today. In the 1940’s, the desire to fill a room with sound demanded large enclosures as applications focused on theatre systems in support of the growing motion picture industry.

The Golden Era of HiFi followed in the 1950’s and 60’s, as industry pioneers unlocked the secrets to making good sounding and affordable systems for home use. Following this period of innovation and growth, the 1970’s and 80’s focused on further refinements, particularly in the areas of driver materials and enclosure design.

Although many products have benefited from refinements that have resulted in smaller and better sounding speaker systems, two common objectives remained elusive: (1) making speakers disappear, and (2) unifying the source of both audio and visual content for multimedia applications.

These have been significant challenges to address since most loudspeakers are designed around drivers that use a back and forth piston-like motion to accurately reproduce audio content within a range of frequencies. Not only are these types of speakers highly visible, their audio performance is typically compromised by attempts to reduce the number of drivers and by squeezing them into smaller enclosures

Edge Motion™ speaker systems from Emo Labs are the first and only speakers to use side-driven panels to faithfully reproduce full-range audio content. Not only do Emo™ speaker systems accurately generate sound energy through true “pistonic” action, but they also require dramatically smaller enclosures and can be made with optically transparent materials. We believe that this is the start of a revolution in loudspeaker design.