It's really annoying. To be many people gathered in a room with bad acoustics. We don't understand what each other is saying, and the minimalist decor is often blamed for the bad sound. But sound and design can actually go hand in hand.
Imagine something (slightly) bizarre.
You sit in a room, in the company of 8-10 people. The acoustics are terrible, but you can control your voice so you only send your words to the person you're talking to. Clever, like in a science fiction movie.
You only talk to those you actually talk to. In the real world, we can't control our voices like that, so having a conversation in a room with bad acoustics is a problem.
But hold on to the idea of controlling the sound!
Music sounds significantly better with speakers that have control over their sound dispersion.
It's all about speakers and their sound
Most speakers emit sound just like the human voice.
That is: in almost all directions, including the unwanted ones.
Therefore, even a good speaker will not sound good in a room with poor acoustics. Sound bounces around between the floor and ceiling of the room, causing reflections of the sound (sound reflections).
In a minimalist living room, we (in other words) need speakers that can control the sound.
And that's why we have MTM.
An acoustic design principle you'll find in many SA speakers.
Music gets closer with MTM
One of the only ways to limit sound reflections is to control where the sound is sent. And in a way, it seems simple: Sound is not reflected from a surface when it is not sent there, and while the task is not simple, it is worth working for.
The dream is to experience the music clean and clear ... and live as we want.
That's why System Audio has been working on MTM design and improving the principle since the 90s. The acronym stands for midrange-tweeter-midrange, and the design limits the speaker's sound radiation towards the floor and ceiling, making the music sound noticeably clearer and better.
The Mantra family is a good example of speakers with MTM design. You can see them above.
Saxo also wins with MTM
Mantra is not the only SA speaker built around MTM. Saxo was also developed with the idea that good sound is linked to controlled sound radiation.
As you can see, the new SA saxo 70 (right) is also built with MTM.
Ole is the founder of System Audio. His 3 greatest passions are music, design and technology. Every day, Ole is working on some kind of projects, and you find him in the workshop, in the production, behind a computer or on one of his many presentations around the world.
