Spintone was My competition entry to Plootu Fennica 2014 which searches and promotes the most innovative sheet metal designs. The concept received a honorary mention in the Designer Series.
This loudspeaker operates fundamentally differently compared to traditional box speakers. Spintone works just like it looks like it would: it has horizontal dispersion of 360 degrees for optimal sound. Ordinary speakers has sweet spot of roughly 30-40 degrees.
Spintone is a 3-way loudspeaker. Bass frequencies up to 300 Hz are covered by Scanspeak Revelator subwoofer in the bottom of the enclosure. This placement eliminates much of the "floor dip" which troubles many compact floor speakers in upper bass region. Midrange and treble are handled by a coaxial driver by SEAS. Acoustic lens reflects high pitch sounds and makes them go horizontally instead of hitting the ceiling. Midrange is housed in a resistance enclosure, which leaks opposite phase sound in a controlled manner. This causes partial cancellation of midrange sound going towards the floor. It also harmonizes the dispersion patterns of midrange and tweeter drivers.
The resulting sound is well balanced regardless of where you listen to it. Spintone speakers are best placed in relatively long spaces where they can provide music for both more focused listening as well as for casual background playback. This way you can actually walk through the "holographic" soundstage created by the speakers: on the other side the left-right axis is simply reversed. Omnidirectional sound can be characterized as airy, natural, big and it "sounds like it's coming from nowhere."
When it comes to manufacturing, Spintone is nothing short of ambitious. It utilizes CNC-controlled water jet cutting for the blanks. The curved shape is achieved by CNC metal spinning process which presses the blanks into finalized forms. The perforated openings are done in automated lathe + milling combo station. Enclosure is a compound structure made in two layers which separates air volumes and eliminates vibrations.