Electrified wrote:

Puncher wrote:

It could be argued that lots of B&O product's have movement that is either superfluous or gimmicky - however others will argue that these movements provide a "wow" factor - the lifting stand of the BV4 85/103 springs to mind as a good example. It's a personal opinion.

No, it's not simply a matter of opinion.

The difference being that having a lifting stand on a telly or a moving front plate doesn't compromise the picture or audio. Having moving speakeri units does.

And now the opinion comes into the frame: I don't think the chavvy approach is a compromise I'd be willing to take, just to have the "wow" factor when I have guests - In car, yes, because it also means very few people will be able to tell from looking in through the window.

I'm sure careful design could give something that would meet people's expectations, after all the speaker itself doesn't actually have to move, it just needs to be "revealed".

Having said that, I'm with you in that I'm not a fan of gimmicky stuff - the lifting BV4 stand I quoted is an example of unecessary movement IMO. The sliding doors less so, being, at least, somewhat practical.

Russ wrote:

Tomaz once again displays his genius.  I fear that it is wasted here though.  Once the wi-fi enabled Beo6 is available, this concept goes straight to the dust-bin.  What I would like to see is for Tomaz to re-work his original concept for the BeoLab 9 Pingvin speaker with a retractable ALT tweeter so that when not in use it folds or collapses into something sleek and smooth, visually quiet.  Imagine the drama of a BV-4-85 rising up on its floor-stand while the speakers present themselves!

Russ thanks I appreciate it ,but I'm far away from being a genius :) you see even to fill a dust-bin needs afford :) .. yes ,the penguin speaker made usage of the acoustic lens unit, we can say the ALT-unit was delibaretely placed on top giving the speaker an identity (face like)+ embedding the radial LED light ,I never thought about to collapse or rectract something, because the acoustic lens makes the speaker even more interesting. Maybe on a new small wall speaker it makes sense to retract the unit ,but here again the issue with the unused space and it doesnt serve any purpose ,just the WOW  and squeaking sound from the motor after 9 years of use :D Inspite of it all ,I have designed a cute wall speaker which only conceals the ALT in standby.

Tomaz wrote:

we can say the ALT-unit was delibaretely placed on top giving the speaker an identity (face like)+ embedding the radial LED light

The actual reason for placing a tweeter at the top is that that is where it's closest to the ears. High frequencies are much more directional than lower frequencies and although it has an ALT lens, that lens tend to spread it sidewise, not up/down.

The seond reason for having it on top, is that a tweeter need less space around the back, whereas a low frequency driver needs lots more space. Placing the tweeter on the top* of floor speakers is basic engineering.

Edit: *on top of fairly reasonably high floor speakers, of course. Very high floor speakers, and you'd try place them lower, in order for them to be at, or near, ear height.

When I wrote deliberately ,actually meant that the penguin speaker was conceived well thought out "around" the acoustic lens design. Applied the small pyramid inside the acoustic lens to the whole loudspeaker design, from top to bottom,from micro to macro. It was not just put there like on the BL9. Beside this agree on everything what you have written above... 😕