March 15, 2002

9:00 AM

Turn any flat surface into a speaker."The Soundbug can be plugged into the headphone socket of, for example, an MP3 player or a Walkman and then fixed by suction to the flat surface — effectively turning a desk or window into a speaker."
posted by o2b (33 comments total)

Yes, a very cool idea. One thing that is bothering me though is that I am seeing a lot of rehashed /. posts.

I find myself going to these two sites and then I am stuck.

Maybe you could help me with some other leaping off points if you read this comment?

Thus, I am turning the flat surface you are looking at into a speaker(filter) of a different sort. Oh how witty...

So I guess what I am asking is, for those of you who slashdot and metafilter are two of your top three favorite sites, What is your third(fourth)? thanks in advance.

hmmmm, my turn for a link I guess. Oh here. I was pleased to find out that I am the recipient of this channel in Canada via "Testing" of directTV scripting/programming(button clicking).

I hope I am not to far offside in making this comment.

After I read this link at /. yesterday I sent it to an audiophile friend of mine. I would really like a couple of these bugs myself.
posted by kremb at 9:20 AM on March 15, 2002

As if the people living below audiphiles don't have enough to complain about already :)
posted by riffola at 9:23 AM on March 15, 2002

hilarious, I just went to /. and saw this post
posted by kremb at 9:24 AM on March 15, 2002

This is wonderful and cheap. I'm looking forward to testing how it works with different kinds of wood.

On a personal note, I'm glad it's Olympia. I thought they'd packed up years ago. Although my first typewriter was an Olivetti Lettera 22, my second, an Olympia Monica, will always be my favourite. Both are still working and I have tried to use them again but it's just unbearable.

Perhaps the Soundbug will make the Monica reverberate delightfully, since it's so heavy and clunky. Now, that would be cool. Thanks, o2b!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:26 AM on March 15, 2002

omg, I can't wait to get one of these. I run an outdoor theater company, and we are plagued with sound problems and the lack of funds to fix those problems. I'm wondering if these things will work at high volumes, and what kind of range they would give with large surface areas. A couple of hollow wooden boxes pointed toward the audience with these babies stuck on the back would be infinitely cheaper than speakers rated for outdoor use. And the geek factor would just be too much for me to handle :)
posted by starvingartist at 9:32 AM on March 15, 2002

Terfenol makes it all possible. The actual product website.
posted by TuxHeDoh at 9:49 AM on March 15, 2002

the company's websiteis here...

you could get a bunch of them and make your entire apartment one big speaker, or use different sound sources and create some interesting audio installations.
posted by panopticon at 9:51 AM on March 15, 2002

starvingartist: You can also use flower pots to amplify sound. Baked clay pots seem to produce a good sound.
posted by riffola at 9:56 AM on March 15, 2002

Or you could set up a PC to output a variable frequency and you could tweak it until you found the resonant frequency of your building and bring the whole thing down.
posted by plinth at 10:12 AM on March 15, 2002

I'm sympathetic to this vibration.

Used to take the speaker at the drive-in (movie) and put on the roof of the car. Usually made it sound louder. Unless you were in a convertible.
posted by groundhog at 10:17 AM on March 15, 2002

awesome awesome awesome awesome. I'm buying one.

starvingartist: you can probably build a pair of speakers (well, boxes) right now for about the same costs. there's a multitude of sites out there that explain how to do it. (diy subwoofers;sound system design;plans for speaker stands). Also: lots of software to help you design it (1,2,3(free, javascript),4).

Plus you can buy higher quality speakers, and, probably, build a better box than you will ever be able to purchase as a pre-made system. It's really fairly easy -- five years ago or so, I helped a friend build a massive (6' x 4' x 4') bassbin, and it only took about three hours. Probably cost him maybe $100 (and that's including the carpeting that made it all pretty.) Think he sold it to someone eventually (because he didn't want to move it) for about $300-400.
posted by fishfucker at 10:23 AM on March 15, 2002

Okay so here's my question...

Could you connect this soundbug to noise cancelling headphones which effectively record and re-broadcast a signal slightly out of phase thus canceling it, and create a soundproof room?
posted by KnitWit at 10:24 AM on March 15, 2002

Seems to me the thing would generate a massive loopback, KnitWit -- unless you were clear to put the source for the phased sound on the other side of insulation from the microphone.
posted by dwivian at 10:50 AM on March 15, 2002

kremb: sorry, i don't /.
posted by o2b at 10:58 AM on March 15, 2002

any flat surface?
posted by quonsar at 11:14 AM on March 15, 2002

These things have been around for decades in one form or another; they used to be just regular loudspeaker voice coils that you attached to walls with screws. Unfortunately, a random flat surface is generally a terrible approximation of a point source (which is the ideal for reproducing sound accurately). In other words, it almost certainly sounds like ass.
posted by kindall at 11:23 AM on March 15, 2002

Knitwit: Head back to their site and look at the SoundBar and SoundBlinds. Looks like they beat you to the punch.
posted by phalkin at 11:52 AM on March 15, 2002

is anyone else annoyed by the fact that news.com reports on technology but never links the particular technology in their articles? in this example specifically they talk about soundbug but don't link the company's home page. i always end up reading news.com and then having to go to goolge to find more about the company/technology they are discussing. i don't understand their reasoning.
posted by suprfli at 12:02 PM on March 15, 2002

"We're hoping that Soundbug will be the No. 1 product on children's' Christmas present list," May said. "Just imagine what the school bus could be like," May said.

Yes, just imagine...
posted by ColdChef at 12:17 PM on March 15, 2002

The actual product website is here. Wonder if they have any plans to sell it stateside.
posted by lbergstr at 12:19 PM on March 15, 2002

it almost certainly sounds like ass

True. But most folks wouldn't notice the difference. Especially with today's overprocessed and over distorted music.
posted by HTuttle at 12:28 PM on March 15, 2002

today's overprocessed and over distorted music.

???

Aside from the more obvious lo-fi proponents, most of today's music is almost ridiculously clean and, as you say, overprocessed. It's easily accomplished when most of the music in made in digital machines and recorded in digital machines.
posted by argybarg at 1:06 PM on March 15, 2002

today's overprocessed and over distorted music.

???

Aside from the more obvious lo-fi proponents, most of today's music is almost ridiculously clean and, as you say, overprocessed. It's easily accomplished when most of the music in made in digital machines and recorded in digital machines.
posted by argybarg at 1:07 PM on March 15, 2002

today's overprocessed and over distorted music.

Here's a hint: if you're listening to music through a system that has bass, treble and/or equalization controls, you are listening to sonic garbage.
posted by ParisParamus at 1:35 PM on March 15, 2002

Aside from the more obvious lo-fi proponents, most of today's music is almost ridiculously clean and, as you say, overprocessed.

Today's music isn't intended to sound "natural," so nobody will be able to tell that these speakers don't sound "right." A Madonna record in no way resembles the sound that went into it, so why be a stickler for reproducing it accurately? A valid point.
posted by kindall at 1:40 PM on March 15, 2002

Today's music isn't intended to sound "natural," so nobody will be able to tell that these speakers don't sound "right."

Today's music may or may not be intended to sound natural, but today's producers do have a very specific intended sound. An extraordinary level of attention to detail goes into some of these productions, and without accurate reproduction, you're not hearing it.

You can argue that these songs are bad, and thus don't deserve accurate reproduction, but that's another issue entirely.
posted by lbergstr at 2:25 PM on March 15, 2002

I say those mefi members who buy a soundbug should post a follow up in this thread when they get theirs to let us know how it works. I personally would like to see it it works on ice. If so, I'm making a b-line for the nearest frozen lake :)
posted by Hackworth at 3:53 PM on March 15, 2002

An extraordinary level of attention to detail goes into some of these productions, and without accurate reproduction, you're not hearing it.

Well, certainly, but you'd have to know that, and care, before you'd be bothered by the imprecise reproduction of something like the SoundBug. Most people are perfectly happy with $200 stereo systems (note: $200 for the entire system!) and $50 portable CD players with headphones that couldn't have cost more than $1 to make.

My father, for instance, immediately turns the tone control all the way down on any stereo he comes into contact with. It should be a crime, of course, to mutilate music in this way, but clearly he would not care if his speakers failed to reproduce every nuance of the original recording. Since he has already destroyed the music to the extent that nobody could ever tell what it was intended to sound like, any attempts at caring for speaker accuracy is superfluous.
posted by kindall at 4:07 PM on March 15, 2002

Popular music is made to be played on popular music systems. Which as a rule sound like ass. Popular music is really brute force recording - although they may put a lot into it the prime directive is to make all the important bits noticable on a bad system.

Want cheap good sound, get a pair of Grado sr60 headphones. They look unbelievably cool and sound amazing (specifically, exceptionally detailed, quite accurate and well balanced). $69.

But I suppose all people notice about good sound is the lower end anyway.....anything with a huge subwoofer that sounds like a laundry bag full of wet compost being kicked around on a gym floor seems to impress people. To each his own. Audiophilia is a disease.
posted by Settle at 8:07 PM on March 15, 2002

Popular music is made to be played on popular music systems. Which as a rule sound like ass. Popular music is really brute force recording - although they may put a lot into it the prime directive is to make all the important bits noticable on a bad system.

Want cheap good sound, get a pair of Grado sr60 headphones. They look unbelievably cool and sound amazing (specifically, exceptionally detailed, quite accurate and well balanced). $69.

But I suppose all people notice about good sound is the lower end anyway.....anything with a huge subwoofer that sounds like a laundry bag full of wet compost being kicked around on a gym floor seems to impress people. To each his own. Audiophilia is a disease.
posted by Settle at 8:11 PM on March 15, 2002

It appears the soundbug is already available for order right here.
posted by drywall at 7:46 AM on March 16, 2002

Wasn't too impressed with the Grado SR-60s, the 225s sound much better. Of course, they cost nearly three times what the 60s cost, they'd better!

Audiophilia is indeed a disease. A disease that destroys bank accounts...

Popular music is made to be played on popular music systems. Which as a rule sound like ass.

It's my understanding that Phil Spector's "wall of sound" production technique was invented to make music sound good on monophonic AM car radios. Which sound so much like ass, they make even a cheap boom box sound sweet. So this goes back a long way.
posted by kindall at 12:16 PM on March 16, 2002

Although I suspect that this wouldn't work, since I'm a Washington DC person, I keep imagining slapping these suckers onto various monuments. Can you imagine using the Washington Monument as a giant speaker? Or (if you'll pardon the sacrilege) the Vietnam memorial?
posted by dreamsbay at 7:40 PM on March 16, 2002