Delivered
LG has a new speaker that enables quality audio in cars without taking up as much space as current sound systems.
This article was first published on thebit.nz
The car isn’t exactly the ideal place to listen to the latest album – especially if you enjoy the simple joys of focusing on the other fast-moving, metal death machines around you on the road.
But if you’ve ever walked past a car that emitted enough bass to vibrate nearby windows, you know that some people in-car audio very serious. More serious than they take responsibility not to annoy other citizens, in fact.
And now LG has a new speaker that enables quality audio in cars without taking up as much space as current sound systems.
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The Thin actuator sound solution – LG hasn’t lost its knack for catchy titles – abandoning the various voice coils, cones and magnets found in ordinary loudspeakers and opting instead for a “film-like exciter technology”. This makes it extremely thin and light: 2.5mm (the thickness “of two coins stacked on top of each other”, in case you don’t have a ruler handy) and weighs only 40g, or about 30% of the weight of a standard car speaker.
All in all, it’s about the size of a passport, meaning it can be tucked anywhere from a display panel to the headrest of a chair. All while producing what LG describes as a “rich, immersive 3D sound experience”.
Ultimately, that means that cars can either contain more speakers for better sound everywhere, or have the same number of speakers and make (slightly) smaller and lighter vehicles, improving efficiency.
I personally don’t drive, but growing up in the 1980s, I can’t help but envy kids being wheeled around these days. In my day, the choice of in-car entertainment was one of the few repeated cassette tapes or the radio. Today, the entire world of Audible or millions of Spotify songs are available on-demand through the magic of Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
There’s just no excuse for the tiresome refrain of “are we almost there yet?” to echo more from the backseat. Although I’m sure it still is.