Owings Mills, Md. – Definitive Technology plans to introduce
three more super-thin speakers later this year to join the 1.5-inch-deep
, a $699 two-way LCR
designed to complement ever-thinner LED-backlit LCD TVs, said Paul DiComo, and
product development senior VP.
The 27-inch by 6-inch
by 1.5-inch XTR-50, sized for use with
46- to 55-inch flat-panel TVs, can be mounted horizontally or vertically on
walls or stands. It’s positioned as the market’s thinnest component speaker
that be placed up against a wall.
The additional
models will be positioned above and below the current model in price point and length,
but like the XTR-50, they will be only 1.5-inches-deep at their maximum depth at
the center of their enclosures, which get thinner toward their edges.
Definitive will
introduce the new models at the CEDIA Expo in September and ship them later in
the year.
Strongly rising sales
of LED-backlit LCD TVs are creating new opportunities to improve TV sound
quality, especially when the TV speakers fire downward, DiComo explained.
A number of Definitive
dealers have already begun demonstrating the XTR-50 speakers with TVs, and DiComo
said he expects dealers who do so will enjoy greater volume than if they display
the speaker with other speakers in their stores.
Definitive thinned out
the XTR-50 without thinning out the sound by using dynamic drivers, which use a
voice coil sitting in a magnetic field, instead of turning to flat-panel
drivers, which DiComo said don’t perform as well. Definitive also avoided
electrostatic and ribbon technology for multiple reasons, including expense and
a bipolar-radiation pattern that prevents them from being placed up against a
wall, DiComo said.
To get dynamic
drivers into a 1.5-inch-deep chassis, Definitive turned to dome drivers instead
of traditional cone drivers, enabling the company to place the voice coil
inside the dome to reduce depth, DiComo said. Another strategy was using
small-but-strong neodymium magnets and allowing the magnets to protrude through
the enclosure’s back panel while remaining flush with the back of the
enclosure. A gasket around the magnet prevents air leakage and conducts heat to
the aluminum back panel, turning the back panel into a heat sink.
