panels

Just about every speaker you've ever heard uses cone woofers and dome tweeters that feature a coil of wire in a magnetic field that pushes the diaphragm back and forth to make sound. Lots of great audiophile-grade speakers use conventional drivers of this type.

Flat electrostatic panel speakers work on a completely different design principle. These speakers use a superthin, but large, surface area diaphragm, coated with a conductive material sandwiched between two electrically conductive grids.

Electrostatic speakers produce levels of distortion one to two orders of magnitude lower than conventional cone drivers in a box. Electrostatic speakers' clarity is extraordinary. The big downside is high cost, but electrostatic speakers have been popular with audiophiles for many years.

MartinLogan is America's best-known manufacturer of electrostatic speakers. I've heard previous generations of the company's speakers many times, and was consistently impressed by their sound. Its all-new ElectroMotion series of speakers will feature electrostatic and MartinLogan's proprietary Folded Motion drivers. … Read more

Vizio easily bested its competitors in the LCD TV market in the fourth quarter and for all of 2010.

The company shipped nearly 2.9 million LCD TVs in the U.S. during the fourth quarter, capturing 27.6 percent market share, research firm iSuppli reported today. That figure was a 55.5 percent jump from the same period a year earlier.

Samsung nabbed the No. 2 spot in LCD TV shipments in the fourth quarter, shipping 2.1 million LCD TVs and capturing 20.2 percent of the market. The company's shipments were up 22.4 percent from … Read more

Rapid recent solar and wind price falls are likely to bring new markets and mass adoption a step closer over the next decade and raise the prospects of mergers.

The financial crisis coupled with a ramp-up in China, which now leads the world wind and solar manufacturing, have led to over-capacity and pressured prices in the past three years.

Natural gas is the main fossil fuel rival and still wins on price after U.S. shale gas finds created a global glut.

But wind and solar are now competitive in niche markets after prices of turbines fell by a fifth … Read more

Magnepan, based in White Bear Lake, Minn., has built nothing but flat-panel speakers since 1969. The company will be premiering a new speaker, the MG 3.7, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, from January 6-9. To some this may appear to be a deja vu event, mirroring last year's introduction of the MG 1.7, which turned out to be one of my speaker of the year picks for 2010.

But I wouldn't want you to think of Magnepan as one of those companies that rolls out "all new" models every year. The … Read more

Computer hardware is hot among holiday buyers this season, according to data out yesterday from ComScore.

As online buyers scoop up iPads, e-readers, laptops, and other portable devices, computer hardware is ringing in the holidays as the product category showing the most growth for the season so far, a 25 percent increase compared with last year.

Lower prices on flat-panel TVs is spurring growth in consumer electronics, helping that category grow 22 percent among online buyers over the same period last year, says ComScore. Books and magazines are also proving to be a popular gift item, up 21 percent from … Read more

It recently occurred to me (thanks to a few e-mails I've received in the last few months) that many people shopping for monitors are completely unaware of the panel technology driving them and how it affects, not only their buying experience, but their user experience as well.

If you've read our Monitor Buying Guide then you're aware of the different types of panels your monitor can house. If you haven't read it, I certainly recommend you do, but if you'd actually like to get some work done today, you can get a small piece of it here.

The three main panel technologies currently used in modern LCDs are: Twisted Nematic (TN), Vertical Alignment (VA), and In-Plane Switching (IPS).… Read more

Thin-film solar manufacturer First Solar announced Thursday it's building two new manufacturing plants to accommodate an expected influx of work.

One plant will be built in the U.S. and the other in Vietnam, but the company has not released any details on exactly where it plans to build them within those countries.

Both plants are scheduled to be completed by 2012 and to create jobs for 600 people apiece. Together the plants, once fully operational, are expected to produce 500 megawatts' worth of thin-film photovoltaic modules annually, according to First Solar.

The introduction of the new plants, coupled … Read more

In an industry-wide effort to cut the cost of solar power, panel manufacturers are using electronics to boost efficiency and get more bang for the solar buck.

Suntech, a large Chinese panel maker, is partnering with three companies to integrate electronics onto its panels to optimize the output and ease installation. "Smart" solar panels is likely one of the technology trends to emerge at the annual Solar Power International (SPI) conference next week in Los Angeles.

Companies developing these technologies say that making efficiency improvements in panels represents one of the best ways to improve the economics of … Read more

The New York Jets are taking their green image to another level.

More than 3,000 solar panels from manufacturer Yingli Solar have been installed at the team's Atlantic Health Training Center in Florham Park, N.J., making them green in terms of energy as well as uniform.

The solar system will provide the team's 120,000-square-foot training, teaching, and medical facility with 750,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

The New York Jets claim it's the largest photovoltaic system currently installed at any National Football League team headquarters.

"This project is the first of many … Read more