Podium Sound speakers -- Revolutionary?

Dear all,

Anyone familiar or had any experience with Podium Sound speakers?

http://www.podiumsound.co.uk/homepage.html



I stumbled across these speakers recently, by reading an ad in Hifi+ and reading a preview on 6Moons by Henk & Marja (who I know personally and trust). Here a quote from the website:

I will be listening to these speakers next Tuesday, but was curious if anyone has ANY experience yet.

Else, I am hereby spreading the word...

Thanks!

 

I heard them at a Heathrow show.

It's a difficult place sometimes to get a good sound, and obviously caveats occur regarding individual taste.

Having said that.. I completely, utterly, no-holds barred totally ran from the room which sounded dire with either pair of speakers playing.

Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible.

Not words I usually say, but the only room in the whole place I couldn't wait to get out of, listening to music in that room was actually uncomfortable and unpleasant.

 

Interesting...

 

It looks kind of like NXT stuff from the pictures.

 

It is a bit NXT-like according to the designer:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread/t-100256.html

 

it's a big nomex panel, driven by normal dynamic drivers with the cones removed. he then tunes them by ear by putting bits of stuff on them and fiddling with the driver placement.

the panel itself must weigh about 400gms based on his use of nomex and glass fiber.

i'm actually quite intrigued by them, though they are probably closer to the NXT 'barbecue' speakers than anytyhing else.

 

So your saying these have a membrane and attached to that is one or more voice coils sitting in traditional motors? Sounds very much like the Manger bending wave stuff to me. The technology has got some way to progress before it can be considered mature. Its actually a rather crude method of producing sound because the vc has far less control over the moving mass than a cone based loudspeaker.

I'm not surprised Chris thought they were horrible.

EDIT: I just read that the prototypes were at the Heathrow show and the production ones have been breathed on by a musician with a seemingly impressive portfolio. Hopefully they're better.

 

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/podium/1.html

 

Some of the worst speakers we have heard, truly grim.
Even equipment that is not very good has some redeeming features/plus points, these had none imho.

 

If anyone can dig up the posts on the last heathrow show, there are a few comments by other people.

My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I don't remember positive comments.

Hopefully they have been 'tweaked' since these prototypes into something that sounds different.

There is another heathrow show soon. Perhaps they will be there again.

 

The whole room was surreal, Popeck with a £30.00 amp he had bought from Ebay, and the most peculiar 'sounds' coming from the speakers. Theres a pair on Ebay at the moment btw.

 

Sounded awful

 

agreed. Wrong in every way!

 

Is this a first here? A unanimous view? I wonder what the magazines will say.

 

haven't HiFi World already reviewed (and liked ???) these?

 

LOL, that says a lot I guess.

 

yeh they got 4 globes. martha and henk from 6 moons liked em as well.

without even hearing them i fail to see how nomex with two layers of whatever on the front and back side can great sound. the concept is bending wave, like manger, but oh so low tech oin comparisson.

carboard wobble boards for the 21st century.

 

I heard Rolf Harris owns the patent

 

Aweful things. Sat in on a 30 min demo at the Manchester show and they were just lifeless and entirely uninspiring with any kind of energetic music.

 

I have heard them and I think I must agree with most here: not good at all... The sound had an unnatural tonal balance, with a hardness and general lack of air and real detail in the high frequencies. Bass was fair and the sound was homogenic (one driver), but they had no mid-range presence at all and couldn't cope with dynamic stuff at all I thought.

The good point is that you cannot locate the speakers themselves and they are very easy to place (totally non-critical). You hear mostly the contibution of the room. This can be good or bad, depending on the room acoustics.