Jvc Ex-a1

[junkeroos]

So is this all gimmick and marketing? Has anyone actually owned one of these mini components with wood cone speakerss?

http://www.jvc.com/presentations/exa1/

"The World's First Wood Cone Speaker - Raising the Speaker to the Level of a Musical Instrument. A popular material for violins, pianos, guitars and many other musical instruments, wood is blessed with superior acoustic characteristics not found in other materials. This is the reason why many speaker enclosures are made of wood. Then why not make a speaker diaphragm out of wood? The sound from the EX-A1’s wood cone speaker is astonishingly clear and natural with dynamic bass that is usually impossible without a subwoofer. The superior acoustic characteristics of wood are working in synergy with the high-grade parts and devices that JVC has chosen carefully for the EX-A1."

[ericl]

I think the 'wood cone' speaker is something companies have been trying to find a way to produce for a while, on the theory that wooden instruments sound good, why not speakers? I did see it at CEDIA, i recall it sounding pretty good, although thats hard to judge on the convention floor with all the noise blaring. they use sake to treat the wood to make flexible enough to shape into a driver.

regarding the rest of the unit, it looks cool. Newfangled "Digital" amplifier, dvd, dvd-audio, subwoofer output, video, looks like a really nice complete mini-system, WAY better than a silly Bose wave radio for about the same price. I'd like to try it, but don't really need one right now, too many other toys to buy. Would make a great gift for mom though.