Resonado Labs, audio technology startup, is taking on a century-old technology – the speaker.
The speaker driver everyone is familiar with today is the conventional electrodynamic speaker driver, recognized globally as the volume icon. The conventional speaker structure is found in virtually all devices that play music – including the latest smart speakers, soundbars, and cars. While products and other components have been rapidly advancing technologically, the conventional speaker driver remains largely unchanged.
Resonado Labs announced their intention to change that reality at CES 2020 with their first product and will be announcing their latest innovations at CES 2021.
Resonado Labs’ proprietary Flat Core Speaker™ (FCS™) technology functions in the same way as conventional technology and with the same essential components, albeit in a different mechanical arrangement. Instead of a cylindrical voice coil suspended within a bulky cylindrical magnet, Resonado designed a structure with a flat voice coil suspended in between two bar magnets. The sleeker motor design has three primary advantages over the conventional motor design: it allows for a speaker driver with a thin profile and flat diaphragm; it enables the driver to distribute force evenly along the entire diaphragm; and it is modular, meaning there can be several of these motor assemblies in one speaker driver.
FCS technology is coming at a time when everything is becoming sleeker, more efficient, and increasingly immersive. The thin profile and flat diaphragm of the driver architecture cater perfectly to the growing demand for slim, space-efficient product designs. Even force along the entire diaphragm leads to a smooth frequency response and expanded acoustic spatial coverage, meaning sound performance isn’t sacrificed and can even be enhanced. This allows for an immersive experience from a compact form factor.
“We imagine a world where Resonado Labs’ audio technologies foster innovation across industries, enabling companies to design and build products that challenge traditional design expectations.” said Brian Cho, Resonado Labs Co-Founder and CEO.
One of the biggest challenges that low-profile speaker technologies have faced in the past, and still face today, is in the reproduction of low frequencies. Resonado Labs solved this problem by engineering FCS technology to have a modular motor. By having multiple voice coil and magnet arrays under one diaphragm, the company can design powerful subwoofers that are able to maintain a thin structure. Another pitfall that other new speaker technologies tend to fall into is in high manufacturing cost and scalability – Resonado Labs sidestepped this by using the same core components and not requiring exotic materials or tooling.
The technology is currently available to brands through licensed manufacturers in its base form, FCS SingleCore™, and in its dual-motor form, FCS DualCore™. The first FCS-Enabled™ product, a vehicle, is slated to launch in early 2021. It will be followed by FCS-Enabled soundbars, headphones, and electric vehicles. Resonado Labs has also alluded to releasing a new FCS driver type that will showcase the technology’s innovative versatility at the first-ever, all-digital CES 2021, the world’s most influential technology event, happening January 11-14, 2021.
FCS technology is a fully scalable electrodynamic speaker type perfectly tailored to fit the growing demand for innovative, space-efficient product designs without compromising sound performance. It’s the first scalable speaker driver architecture that can deliver a slim form factor without compromising sound performance or breaking the bank – positioning the technology to be the first to truly challenge the ubiquity that the conventional speaker driver has enjoyed for the past hundred years.
To learn more about Resonado Labs, visit www.resonado.com.
