TURN IT UP TO 11
From invisible loudspeakers to personal auditoriums, bold design and radical new technologies are changing what’s possible when it comes to audio at sea. Integrators and yacht builders are increasingly pushing the sonic envelope, much to the delight of owners.
With onboard space a precious commodity, accommodating loudspeakers has been a long-standing challenge. But what if you’re no longer constrained by the trappings of traditional speaker design? What if technology made loudspeakers, to all intents and purposes, invisible?
A leading specialist in invisible loudspeakers is Amina Technologies. The company, based in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, has become a world leader in discreet speaker technology. Unlike conventional enclosures, Amina’s speaker panels are designed to be covered and hidden from view. Vibrational Panel Technology (VPT) can be plastered or panelled over, leaving no trace of a sound system – just the curious realisation that stereo sound appears to be emanating, crisp and sharp, from a wall or decorative feature.
An early beneficiary of this technology was 35.5-metre , built by Conrad Shipyard in Poland. Its stylish interiors offer no hint of a pervasive audio system. The boat has been fitted with are light, 200 millimetres wide and just 40 millimetres deep, and there’s no back box required. Instead, so-called exciters create hundreds of tiny vibrations – a similar principle, the brand says, to how an acoustic guitar works.
