To expand on ernestov’s comments, I received the following email from Dr. West when I asked “What’s new at SoundLab?”:
“Concerning new things going on in our company, we discovered that some people would like a more narrow version of our speakers.
I am working on our website and a dealer news letter to announce this. As you know, our panels use a single membrane. The supporting
frame creates flat sectors about 5 inches wide which are the length of the speaker. Each sector is angled with respect to adjacent sectors by
about 15 degrees to provide controlled horizontal dispersion. We have given these sectors a name: cells. As you know we
basically have three models and each of these models is available in 5 different sizes. Take as an example our Majestic 745. The
7 suggests the approximate height and the 45 gives the horizontal dispersion. The number of cells is a standard 7. However, the same
speaker is also available from 3 to 6 cells, so if someone wants a more narrow Majestic 745, for instance having 5 cells instead of the standard 7, the
model name would be Majestic 745-5C. I am not putting the number of cells on our standard models, only the narrow versions which are options.
Having this option provides a speaker that has less effect on room decor and helps to pass WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). As you would
expect the approach reduces bass dynamics some, but surprisingly not as much as I had expected. Anyway, this is the latest innovation and
is something that you can mention to others as it is now available.”
In a subsequent email, Roger wrote:
” I am not offering them as
independent models. Rather, I am offering them as variations of our standard
models, which is in fact the case. We are demonstrating them in the South-West
Audio Fest in March to see how much interest develops. I have attached a
copy of a photo, see below, that we are using, which shows our most narrow model, which is about 20 inches wide.