Screenshots of several search results

Here below are three typical top results for a search terms, from March 8, 2019. (See also the images in chapter 2, which are very similar)

Google Images search phrase: designer stereo system 2019.

Google Images search phrase: home cinema loudspeakers decoration.

Google Images search phrase: Fashionable high-end audio 2019.

The search terms from March 8, 2019

Here are the search terms that I searched for on March 8, 2019, and took screenshots of:

„Home audio“ search terms

Style „Home audio“ 2019

Stylish „Home audio“ 2019

lifestyle „Home audio“ 2019

design „Home audio“ 2019

designer „Home audio“ 2019

„Home audio“ decor 2019

„Home audio“ decoration 2019

„Home audio“ „interior design“ 2019

„Home audio“ „interior decoration“ 2019

„Home audio“ „interior architecture“ 2019

Fashion „Home audio“ 2019

Fashionable „Home audio“ 2019

Luxury „Home audio“ 2019

„Home audio“ concept design 2019

„Home audio“ conceptual design 2019

I searches for the same for other basic search terms, replacing the two first words above with them:

• Hi-fi
• High-end audio
• Home theater systems
• Stereo systems
• Hi-fi speaker

In all we are talking about 90 search terms.

I also did some searching on Instagram Pinterest and a few other websites, although not using 90 search terms. Just using the basic search terms like „home audio“, „hi-fi“ and „home theater“ was really enough to show that there wasn‘t much happening in this respect.

Addition

On May 30, 2019, I added „home cinema“ loudspeakers, searched 14 combinations on Google and took some screenshots. The search term combinations were:

„home cinema“ loudspeakers

Style „home cinema“ loudspeakers

Stylish „home cinema“ loudspeakers

lifestyle „home cinema“ loudspeakers

designer „home cinema“ loudspeakers

„home cinema“ loudspeakers decor

„home cinema“ loudspeakers decoration

Decorative „home cinema“ loudspeakers

Fashion „home cinema“ loudspeakers

Fashionable „home cinema“ loudspeakers

Luxury „home cinema“ loudspeakers

High-end „home cinema“ loudspeakers

concept design „home cinema“ loudspeakers

conceptual design „home cinema“ loudspeakers

I believe that with 104 search terms, this is enough search to reach the conclusion of this chapter, presented above.

Disclaimer: I present here and in the videos the results from these searches, as anyone with access to the Internet can check this out himself or herself. These results and this book are not endorsed by the websites in question or the companies that own them, being Google.com, Facebook.com, Instagram.com, Pinterest.com. Deviantart, Behance or Dribbble.

Analysis of the product offering from Linn

As was said above, I did discover one instance, where a company was doing something similar to what the Desaudio project is about. That is the 5 line from Scottish company Linn.

It is pretty remarkable that two hours and fifteen minutes, in nine languages, revealed only one instance. But let‘s look further at this product line of Linn.

Linn is a Scottish high-end home audio and home cinema devices company. Its line has eleven loudspeaker models, and two of them, the Series 5 speakers named 502 and 503, are offered in several colors, as well as covered with specially designed, printed, patterned fabric. There are five muted colors in what looks like Harris tweed, six monochromatic colors, and seven print designs by a well known, Scottish designer team named Timorous Beasties.

The line with those designs was introduced in April of 2016, it seems. These are very nice looking designs, as one would expect, with plant, bird and abstract motifs in various colors. The color hues are towards earthy, greyish tones. They are in the signature style of the said designer team, but are not presented with reference to any of the well-known interior decoration styles that are listed in chapter 4.

The loudspeakers are priced at around USD 11,400 and 14,700 a pair. The designs are only available on these two models, the 502 and 503. These are floorstanding tower loudspeakers. There are no designs available on standmount loudspeakers, center speakers or woofers. The designs are not available on other loudspeaker models made by Linn.

While some people may be very fond of the designs of Timorous Beasties and their signature style and color scheme, then I predict that they will not be to everyone‘s liking, and that they will not be seen as being a good fit with all styles and color schemes that people may desire to have in their homes.

So these two loudspeaker models would appeal especially to those who like the style of Timorous Beasties a lot, and want to emphasize that kind of style and color scheme in their homes, and are also interested in tower speakers, and are interested especially in speakers that cost the above said price of either around 11,400 or 14,700 USD per pair. (Note: Prices may be different today due to exchange rates and different prices in different countries).

I would like to predict that the market niche that these parameters apply to is rather small, and that this offering would probably not have the potential to become a huge, international success story. For that, the offering is too narrow.

In news releases when the loudspeakers were introduced, it said that more designs of this kind would be available later. As of the end of the year 2020, there seems to be none such in sight. That gets you to believe, that this line of loudspeakers was not a particular commercial success. You have to search well on the website of Timorous Beasties to find anything about the loudspeakers.

So it seems like this very interesting experiment in offering more creative looks in loudspeakers did not fulfill the commercial expectations, and that further expansion of this idea has been abandoned.

Never the less, kudos to Linn for signing up the very capable design duo of Timorous Beasties to introduce to this market a new and fresh take on loudspeaker designs.

The approach of Desaudio is more wide-encompassing and flexible. It focuses on really any interior decoration style, any color palette, and any size and shape of loudspeakers, be it standmount, floorstanding, center or woofers. As such, there are much less constraints as to which demographic groups with which personal taste in interior decoration product offerings based on the Desaudio theories can potentially appeal to.

I noticed the possible situation in these markets, and started thinking about possible viable solutions many years ago. I made various attempts to “crack the code” of this issue, several years ago, and that work exists. It is only recently that all pieces of the puzzle came together, in terms of the technological and production methods, and market information. So I am certainly not copying anything from Linn in the Desaudio project.

This product line from Linn was the only one that I could find. If there were others, as early as mid-2019, which could not be found during two hours and fifteen minutes of search, in nine languages, on the Internet, it would certainly be interesting to hear of that.

Flat panel wall art speakers

Another technological solution in loudspeakers are the so-called flat panel speakers. This is a technology where the speaker does not have the traditional, round loudspeaker cone. Instead, there is a flat panel, that is optimally excited by a transducer (exciter). The surface vibration technology lets the panel vibrate, which generates sound waves.

Examples of brands, or companies, in flat panel wall art speakers are Stealth acoustics, Soundwall, Soundart, Pro-display Speaker Art, and Wallart Speakers. Monitor Audio has also been offering a Soundframe 1 On-Wall of loudspeakers, that can also be printed with a work of art or photograph. There may be some others offering this as well, so apologies to those who are not mentioned here.

The flat panel is, among options in just one color, being offered with the option to print an artwork or photography on the flat panel. The flat panel loudspeaker can then be hung on the wall, and look exactly like ordinary wall art of photography that people hang on their walls to decorate their home.

This of course is somewhat similar to the designer home audio and home cinema devices explained in this book. This is a take on the idea that audio devices, loudspeakers, should at best be invisible. You should not see a loudspeaker. Instead, you think you are looking at a painting, or photograph, on the wall.

The difference is that while flat panel loudspeakers can offer excellent sound, then they are known to be lacking punch and substance in the bass range of sound. Ordinary loudspeakers, and not less loudspeaker configurations with one or two individual subwoofers, offer much better bass sound.

Since flat panel speakers are hung on the wall, then they will most often be hung in places and in the height that is reserved for ordinary artwork. The optimal height for the tweeter of a loudspeaker is often in ear height of a sitting person, or at around 1 meter. The artwork are typically hung higher on the wall, which is not necessarily the optimal height for a loudspeaker.

Also, in order to create the optimal acoustic experience, the placement of loudspeakers is of paramount importance. Everyone who is knowledgeable about loudspeakers and acoustics knows about the triangular placement of the right and left loudspeaker in a two channel hi-fi setup, and the importance of toe-in or toe-out of the loudspeaker to optimize the sound quality. Placing two flat panel wall art loudspeakers, one left and one right, in the optimal place for an optimal acoustic quality can be difficult. It can work out fine, of course, but it can also be very difficult.

It is much easier to place ordinary loudspeakers optimally.

Flat panel wall art (or monochromatic colored) loudspeakers can come instead of in-wall loudspeakers in some instances, as part of a multi-channel home cinema or home theater system. However, if the interest is in having loudspeakers in the ceiling, the flat panel speakers are possibly not the best option.

The designer home audio and home cinema devices ideas, presented in this book, are on the other hand, about covering conventional boxy loudspeakers, (floorstanding tower loudspeakers, standmount or bookshelf speakers, sub-woofers and center speakers), with a printed speaker grille fabric, in carefully chosen patterns and colors, that wraps around the entire loudspeaker, (instead of the common black, grey or brown loudspeaker grille fabric that covers just the front of the loudspeaker). Designer home audio devices mainly emphasize stylish patterns, rather than traditional, framed works of art, although designer home audio devices can, and will, be available as one-off pieces that are works of art in themselves. Seamless patterns can be placed on loudspeakers in any dimensions, as loudspeakers are vastly different in width, height and depth.

These loudspeakers can then be placed in the optimal listening position anywhere in the room in question, without „destroying“ the sensitive decorational balance of the room. This carefully designed printed and patterned loudspeaker grille fabric can be wrapped around almost any type of loudspeakers, meaning that there are very little restraints on what types, sizes, power of loudspeakers can be set-up as designer loudspeakers.

An option for consumers

Of course, the US$ 15,000 tower speakers from Linn, in the trademark style of the designer studio Timorous Beasties, and the printed flat-panel wall art loudspeakers, are options that consumers can choose if they like so, and they will work perfectly well, even fabulously well.

Designer home audio and designer home cinema devices, including designer loudspeakers, are another option that can be made available for consumers. They can be made available in a very large variety of choices, and are not less interesting as a choice, in my opinion.

In the end, these have the potential to increase the number of options available for consumers to choose the solution that they like best, in addition to the traditional black, grey, brown (and sometimes white) loudspeakers, and silver or black colored components, that have been the most prominent among the equipment offerings available to the public.

Disclaimer: Any designs, trademarks or content that appear in the searches in the videos are owned by their respective companies. They are not affiliated with the Desaudio project in any way. The searches were not conducted or published here to offer any kind of comparison regarding the quality or desirability of various devices. The purpose was simply to investigate what the situation is in the market and among designers and creative people when it comes to the visual styling of home audio and home cinema devices, to make sure that the approach of Desaudio is unique and there is no possible copying taking place, as Desaudio is introducing these, apparently, new and exciting possibilities.

The conclusion is, that apart from these mentioned here above, it was not possible to find instances of others, presenting designs or suggestions of designs for loudspeakers, and home audio or home cinema components, with designs created especially to harmonize with different home decoration styles, which is the core in the designer home audio and home cinema ideas presented in this book. It seems fair to say that “designer home audio and home cinema devices” are an innovation that was not known in the market.

Do you want to read more? Chapter 4 is also available:

Chapter 4: How Well Does Current Black, Grey Or Wooden Home Audio Styling Harmonize With Popular Interior Styles?