What do you see in 50 years? Will there be unconventional designs that don't have cone's or anything? What's the barrier for technology? Will there eventually be a tiny box that does a flat 160db @ 0-100hz with 1000W in any car you put it in?

 

i will be Deceased in 50years so my car will look like a box 6' under with a set of focals in it

 

Physics has never really changed, so why would it in 50 years...

 

there might be better ways to power amps without alot of batts and alts. ( new kind of power source) and of sub well better design will make them more capable than today for sure. like in the 80s 300watt sub was huge and today we laugh at it. and 50 years from now they will laugh at our small powered subs.

ohh and way more efficient amps.

 

you think we will need a car then ?

 

by the time i hit 72 i hope so lol. im not walking :P nan flying cars hahahaha prob not

 

I'd guess nanotechnology will play big role in speaker construction: smaller & lighter frames, stiffer cones, low resistance wires.

Sound wave is movement of particles in a specific way and a particular frequencies. Whatever other technology can make the air move like that can be used to make speakers. Perhaps some tiny ionic blowers? Better electrostatic panels?

Sound is also what your ears receive and brain interprets. Perhaps you will just have implants that will serve as EQ, so if you don't want to hear bass, you can will just think about it and EQ it out

 

OLE is going to start becoming big in decks, or maybe skip it completely and go to HUD's. No more motorized TFT screens.

As for amps, I suspect efficiency will go up, size will go down, "smart" amps will be developed with more sophisticated micro processors in them.

Power transmission may go wireless (Tesla, back in 1891 for goodness sakes came up with that idea), or possibly someone will come up with a replacement for speaker wire that is not cost prohibitive to manufacture.

It's harder to envision what speakers may be like. We've already had many new designs in the last 50 years (Planar) but I think a radical change in thinking is needed. We seem to be stuck on "moving air" with some form of cone, square, etc. Maybe we could come up with something that uses the surrounding air as the "cone", we could give it positive / negative charges or something like that to create sound.

I aint gonna be around to see it, but thats life

 

it doesn't matter at all. we'll just hook up wires up to our asses and "hear" whatever is in the playlist.

 

In 50 years...

You might be driving, and start humming a song you know, and your system would start playing it for you.
Or perhaps some of the power would be derived from the vibrations caused by the sound waves...

Interesting topic.