Matsushita develops ultra-slim speaker

Matsushita Electric Ind. Co. Ltd has announced the development of the Sound Slim ultra-slim speaker unit that incorporates a new sandwich-type magnetic circuit, allowing the speaker to measure 3/4 the thickness and 1/2 the width of conventional speakers.

Conventional speaker units use a cylindrical voice coil inserted in the magnetic gap, making it thicker in size. In addition, magnetic leakage from conventional models can damage cards that contain data recorded in magnetic stripes, resulting to a need for a canceling magnet or a magnetic shield.

The Sound Slim speaker unit uses a magnetic circuit which produces a horizontal magnetic flux in the repelling magnetic field formed by two magnets with the same polarity, arranged vertically in parallel to each other.

The company also claims that the magnetic circuit provides a lower magnetic flux leakage, since it provides the same polarity on the entire outer circumference.

The Sound Slim also features a rigid diaphragm and flat, oblong voice coil to suppress vibration, thereby maintaining the quality of the reproduced sound.