Flat panel technology is what everyone wants these days. Besides, it's the "cool" new thing to have. Flat panel monitors also consume less power and generate less heat. But we're not talking about monitors here - Benwin has recently introduced a set of flat panel speakers.

Who? What?

Many have not heard of Benwin, and for good reason - they simply haven't been around all that long. Their US distributor, Kwong Quest, was founded just last year. Benwin really got people's attention at the Fall 1998 Comdex where they introduced what they claim to be "the world's first flat panel multimedia speakers." Really, Benwin was just the first to introduce this technology to the multimedia speaker market.

The technology itself was actually developed by NXT and licensed by Benwin. As an idea of how much potential there is here, other licensees include all types of manufacturers including Rolls Royce, Harman International (who owns Harman Kardon, JBL, and Infinity), Alpine, MB Quart, Polk Audio, Logitech, Samsung, and NEC. Seems like everyone is interested in a share of this new market. Don't forget, this is a new and emerging technology that is really still in its infancy.

A Benwin engineer that we spoke with at this years E3 told us that there is huge potential in this technology - he told us about a setup where the entire car door panel was a flat panel speaker. Another setup did it with the roof of the car. He also mentioned that there is ongoing experimentation with a variety of materials to improve efficiency and sound quality further. This is potentially the future of sound - here today!

BW2000 Specifications

Courtesy of Benwin

Technology Overview

Take a look at a speaker from 30 years ago and your average speaker from today. Other than possible deterioration in the older speaker, they really aren't all that different - the basic principal of a conical diaphragm moving back and forth as a rigid body, usually by electromagnetic transduction is the same. The problem with such a setup is that there is a tendency to produce a colored and very directional sound. Most speaker research over the past 30 years or so has been aimed at reducing these colorations in the sound.

NXT's solution is to do something completely different - instead of using a pistonic diaphragm where it all moves rigidly, they decided to use a completely different approach. To quote NXT's white paper:

We appear to have reached an impasse, but some wonderful things happen if you abandon the concept of pistonic motion and consider instead a diaphragm vibrating randomly across its surface rather than coherently. Each small area of the panel vibrates, in effect, independently of its neighbours, rather than in the fixed, co-ordinated fashion of a pistonic diaphragm. Think of it as an array of very small drive units, each radiating a different, uncorrelated signal but summing to produce the desired output.

With the entire panel acting as an "array of very small drive units" a much larger "sweet spot" is generated and the sound seems to fill the room much better. A small exciter mounted directly behind the .25mm thick panel generates the necessary vibrations. No enclosure is required around the panel. The result is sound that emits directly from the front of the flat speaker.

That white paper from NXT is available online and explains in excruciating detail exactly how their technology works, what's wrong with traditional speakers, and how they've solved those issues. It's pretty detailed, but the general gist of the issues at hand is not too hard to grasp.

Design

In the case of the Benwin BW2000, the flat panel technology is used in a pair of satellites that are 7mm thick and augmented by a traditional subwoofer. The satellites feature a small removable stand for support. Volume for the whole system and the sub are mounted a top the sub, along with power and 3D sound toggle buttons. An LED indicates power status. With the controls located on the sub, it is clear that it is intended to go on top of the desk, not the floor like many other subwoofers. Fortunately, it is small enough to not be too obtrusive on top of the desk - smaller than the satellites of some other systems in fact!

The panels from which sound is generated measure about 5 inches by 6 inches. Each satellite gets 3W RMS power, while the sub gets 6W RMS. That sub uses traditional speaker technology in the form of a vertically mounted 3.15 inch driver and houses the system's amplifiers. The sub supposedly covers frequencies from 50 - 250Hz while the satellites handle 150Hz - 20kHz. 50Hz is quite low for a 3.15 inch sub, so we'll have to check on that carefully.

Setup is extremely simple - one cable provides the input to the system via a 1/8th mini plug, while a second 1/8th mini plug connects both satellites. An AC adapter powers the whole system. Snap the stands in place and your done. Unfortunately, the power brick is designed such that it may block an one additional outlet on a surge protector. All connections are made to the back of the subwoofer. An eleven page manual details this installation and includes some basic troubleshooting information.

With such thin speakers and the sound surface exposed directly, it seems like they would be extremely fragile. However, Benwin has assured us that they are tough and will hold up as well as a regular speaker. During testing, no special care was used and no damage was caused.

Sound Quality

This is the most important area to consider when choosing a speaker set, whether for the computer or a home theater. Once again, the most important thing to keep in my mind when buying an audio equipment is that your ears are always the best judge because everyone has different musical tastes. It is also necessary to keep in my mind what you plan to use the speakers for. Just about anything will get you by if you just want Windows beeps and dings, but if you plan to listen to music 6 hours a day, you are going to need much more. With that in mind, not many people buy three piece speaker sets for beeps and dings, so the focus here will be on music and (to a lesser extent) gaming.

You never know what to expect with such a new technology as we have in Benwin's BW2000 speaker set. However, sound quality is surprisingly good - there's a reason so many high profile manufacturer's are looking into the technology. Let's ignore the sub for a moment and admire the incredible job the satellites do with sound reproduction. Their response is incredibly smooth with little coloration. It seemed as if the frequency response of the satellites was completely flat in their intended range of operation, producing extremely accurate sound. The claimed response of 150 - 20kHz is also surprisingly quite accurate. Who would have thought that something so small could go so low?

Benwin claims that there is no sweet spot thanks to the NXT technology. While not quite true, the sweet spot is definitely greatly enlarged over conventional systems, especially small ones. This is again due to the nature of traditional speakers, which act much more like a point source. Those satellites also do a great job of filling the room with sound.

Really, the limiting factor is the sub, which seems both too small and underpowered. Bass response is weak and distorts quickly when turned up. Although the sub supposedly goes down to 50Hz, that may be somewhat of a stretch. It may respond that low, but only every so slightly. Don't expect to shake the room with these speakers. What the sub does is provide sufficient fill in of the lower frequencies that the flat panels simply cannot generate.

The volume output of the system as a whole was also a little weak, but then again, you can only expect so much from such a small system. This is partially do to the low efficiency of the flat panel technology at this early stage - something that Benwin and NXT continue to work on through experimentation with new materials.

The 3D surround sound feature is an interesting one. In general, the goal of such algorithms is to make the sound from two speakers feel like they fill the room better and remove the listening "sweet spot." As mentioned above, the flat panel technology has already helped to take care of those issues to a certain extent. It works through a combination of amplifying certain frequencies and adding a certain amount of reverb.

I have never found the sound from such algorithms to sound better, but rather it seems to produce a sort of "funny" feeling sound that is hard to describe. In the case of the Benwin's where the sweet spot is already greater enlarged and the room filled with sound thanks to the flat panels, the 3D sound feature probably won't get a lot of use.

Conclusion

With a recent price drop to $89.99 directly from Benwin or through a variety of retailers, the BW2000's bring flat panel technology to the masses. While not quite as cool or useful as a flat panel monitor, these speakers will bring just as many comments from anyone that comes in the room. Just be prepared to demo them and explain how they work ;)

Undoubtedly, part of what you get with this package is a set of the coolest looking speakers available today. You do get more than looks, however, and sound quality is surprisingly good. Now, if Benwin can come back with a stronger sub, they could easily have one of the coolest speaker sets on the market without compromising sound quality at all.