The Technology Behind Samsung's Soundbars

[NTK]

COMSOL made this promotional video to showcase their acoustics simulation and analysis capabilities. (COMSOL sells finite element analysis software for general purpose scientific and engineering analyses.) The video is from their blog post on the R&D activities at the Samsung Audio Lab in Valencia, California, a suburb of LA, just a few miles from Harman at Northridge. This lab was started a few years before Samsung's acquisition of Harman.

You may recognize the guy who runs this lab, Allan Devantier, as a coauthor of Todd Welti's multi-sub paper. He is a Harman veteran and is well acquainted in the science Dr. Floyd Toole and colleagues developed at NRC Canada and Harman. You can see this influence in the emphasis of off-axis measurements in anechoic chambers, blind listening tests, and their version of speaker (in this case TV) shuffler at the Samsung lab.

Just when you think the hifi speaker market is a bit crowded, and may be tempted to explore the mid/lo-fi world of soundbars, know that the competition there can be pretty stiff too. The 800 lb gorilla may know a few tricks you don't expect it to have.

 

[JJB70]

Some of the Samsung (and indeed, Yamaha and other) sound bars perform very well nowadays.

 

[LeftCoastTim]

My favorite quote was “can we make it better for less money”.

In Toole’s book there is a lovely figure that shows the idealized speaker market: everyone gets flat frequency response and good directivity index, that is, good sound. But when you pay more, you get higher volume (loudness) and lower bass extension.

Hopefully with the likes of Samsung mass producing good sound and lower price, we the consumers can benefit.

 

[Thomas savage]

I switched off when they said about people listening with their eyes , what a bunch of morons .

 

[LeftCoastTim]

I switched off when they said about people listening with their eyes , what a bunch of morons .

After that they showed the blind testing setup.

Why are they morons?

 

[pozz]

There's a more in-depth presentation by Andri Bezzola here:

The numbers he quotes on research spending are incredible.

BTW, Allan Devantier of Harman, Infinity and JBL, who worked with Floyd Toole at the NRC, is now VP of R&D at Samsung.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I switched off when they said about people listening with their eyes , what a bunch of morons .

 

[FrantzM]

This may be a revival of the notion of High Fidelity. i-e things that process music as faithfully as possible. Since music is mostly heard in a volume, things that make it sound as close as possible to the original or simply to original events should be welcomed.
Meanwhile High End audio is on a different course/path/philosophy: rather than espousing science to push the boundaries of home reproduction , they are too happy pushing the boundaries of what some people are willing to pay. These days speakers that would not sound better than a JBL LSR 305 sells for $5000 and are deemed "entry-level"... To be frank some of those "soundbars" sound rather good... On another vein, some Sonos speaker would wipe the floor with many an High End offering. Am I wrong? Am I being an heretic? When you see how a $9 DAC outperforms a $15,000 offering , one has to wonder.

In the end it is a push in the right direction. At some point in time, JBL had a speaker, Paragon, that was a precursor to the present soundbars ... The time for a better integration in one sleek appliance may have come.

 

[Soniclife]

Their simulation engineer looks and talks like an inhabitant of the uncanny valley, that's some real commitment to the job.

 

[pozz]

This may be a revival of the notion of High Fidelity. i-e things that process music as faithfully as possible. Since music is mostly heard in a volume, things that make it sound as close as possible to the original or simply to original events should be welcomed.
Meanwhile High End audio is on a different course/path/philosophy: rather than espousing science to push the boundaries of home reproduction , they are too happy pushing the boundaries of what some people are willing to pay. These days speakers that would not sound better than a JBL LSR 305 sells for $5000 and are deemed "entry-level"... To be frank some of those "soundbars" sound rather good... On another vein, some Sonos speaker would wipe the floor with many an High End offering. Am I wrong? Am I being an heretic? When you see how a $9 DAC outperforms a $15,000 offering , one has to wonder.

In the end it is a push in the right direction. At some point in time, JBL had a speaker, Paragon, that was a precursor to the present soundbars ... The time for a better integration in one sleek appliance may have come.

Definitely. Richard Little (VP of Sonos) gave this talk on their tranducer design:

These companies will definitely out-design the boutique offerings. My impression is that the two-channel stereo setup is basically a market outlier at this point.

 

[jhaider]

Definitely. Richard Little (VP of Sonos) gave this talk on their tranducer design:

These companies will definitely out-design the boutique offerings.

There's considerable cross pollination. Tom Holman et al. are (last I checked) at Apple. The former president and chief engineer at Snell has been at Bose for a while. Going the other way, I believe Dan Wiggins (Starke Sound speakers, Periodic Audio earbuds) was heavily involved with transducer design at Sonos when they were getting off the ground. Wiggins is coauthor of a patent on a woofer motor design with a single voice coil assembly passing through multiple magnetic gaps

 

[Ilkless]

Definitely. Richard Little (VP of Sonos) gave this talk on their tranducer design:

These companies will definitely out-design the boutique offerings. My impression is that the two-channel stereo setup is basically a market outlier at this point.

https://www.sausalitoaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Sonos-Play-One-Charts.pdf

Spinorama from Sausalito Audio Works (they also release Homepod spins) of the Sonos Play One (anechoic >500Hz). We're already seeing remarkably competent designs (result of immense R&D, prototyping and manufacturing economies of scale) that are limited only by packaging. Now just to give them an excuse to let loose in less-compromised packaging...

 

[restorer-john]

Wiggins is coauthor of a patent on a woofer motor design with a single voice coil assembly passing through multiple magnetic gaps

So, he's patented a linear shaft motor?

 

[jhaider]

So, he's patented a linear shaft motor?

https://patents.google.com/patent/US7039213B2/

 

[JJB70]

It has been apparent for quite a while that there has been serious research and investment in wireless speakers and soundbars and that this is paying a dividend in the performance of such speakers. Some of these soundbars and wireless speakers are now very good and provide a genuinely high quality and enjoyable listening experience. I don't think that the mainstream market which has abandoned traditional hifi to embrace soundbars and wireless speakers like Sonos is the preserve of cloth eared and tone deaf half wits that some high end audiophiles like to pretend it to be, some of these systems are excellent and I think that they make perfect sense for many.

 

[oivavoi]

https://www.sausalitoaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Sonos-Play-One-Charts.pdf

Spinorama from Sausalito Audio Works (they also release Homepod spins) of the Sonos Play One (gated <500Hz). We're already seeing remarkably competent designs (result of immense R&D, prototyping and manufacturing economies of scale) that are limited only by packaging. Now just to give them an excuse to let loose in less-compromised packaging...

That’s impressive. Have you by any chance seen similar measurements for the Play 5? My subjective and anecdotal experience is that I prefer the sound of two play 1 plus sub in stereo, over two play 5. I don’t know if that’s related to the dispersion or baffle etc of the speakers, or if it’s merely that the sub anyway digs lower in the bass.