Probably need a paradigm shift and make the panel a driver (ie voice coil and spring and stuff) instead of just a layer for hiding the woofer and tweeter.
How would this maintain the integrity of the mud and paint applied?
Speaker is meant to be completely hidden. If the front panel moved on a voice coil it would crack the paint and mud would it not?
This is an exciter design by intention. The exciter design is the paradigm shift here.
I know nothing about products like these, but I have to assume that any filler/paint over the front surface will seriously affect the performance.
Is the front baffle/mesh/cover a hydrophobic weave or something to allow small holes for sound to pass thru or is it truly intended to be homogeneously painted over?
Doubt it, because holes would be clearly visible. Either way, nice product for people who are filthy rich and need something better yet less visible than a soundbar for their living room tv. For 99% of us this is a joke.
Regardless of the intended use case, it’s interesting to me that jbl with all of their R&D funding and world class engineers, made such basic errors such as the driver alignment, on a very expensive product. Did they even measure it?
Howdy, so why assume?
No, the paint should have almost no effects on these unless you applied something very usual or very thick.
Even decals or murals can be applied over the completely invisible speaker.
Even wall paper or veneer can be applied though that will affect the sound to some degree.
The 'filler', where the mud is applied only goes on the edge to create a seamless install. It will not affect the sound.
There are no holes, no openings if any kind. This is a type of exciter design.
The most basic version can be made for a few bucks via P.E. and H.D. runs.
spend 5 minutes on youtube and google.
Exciter designs can be made with a piece of glass, cardboard or even something like a plastic cup and a $5 part.
A 'viral' dipole exciter design was made from H.D. supplies.
to see many other DIY versions including 'in walls' just search 'exciter speaker' on YouTube.
These particular JBLs probably still sound very decent and better than what many are getting from current examples, which for the intended use cases is fine.
This is not a product for a great many hifi enthusiasts but it has a market.
The speakers were designed by Stealth Acoustics for Harman.
It can also be noted that due to the self contained design these can be installed in places other than wall and ceiling cavities and yet be invisible.
@simnick @ocinn We generally hear in 1/1 to 1/6 octave 'accuracy' depending on content, context/situation, individual listener skill and particular frequency area . Most often averaged as 1/3 so these graphs will be smoothed out by us alot.
Also the typical interpretation of the Spinorama and related data is not necessarily applicable to in-wall mounted speakers.
In-walls also sufer much less from some of the main SBIR effects.
The distortion is very low given the design. Try measuring one of those DIY examples.