JVC Ultra Thin Speaker System to Debut in Japan

Some things are more important than looks. For a true Audioholics, performance is one of them. But for the rest of society, there are speakers like the SP-FT1 from Victor JVC. With flat panels getting thinner (Samsung and others are breaking the 1.5" mark as we speak - and without the help of OLEDs), speakers have long lagged behind. Sure,we've seen soundbars from the likes of Yamaha and panel-mounted speakers from companies like Artison but even these needed some depth. Physics dictate that you need some room in that enclosure in order to produce good sound, right?

Apparently not.

Victor JVC has announced their SP-FT1 and SP-FT2 speaker systems (1=black, 2=white) due out in Japan this month and next respectively. At a scant 1.2 inches thick, these speakers are by far the thinnest we've seen. The rest of the dimension, however, are much less impressive. At  a bit over 7 inches wide and nearly 12 inches tall, they are like hanging thick pieces of notebook paper on the wall. While the original release article is a bit hard to decipher (because we don't speak Japanese and apparently Google doesn't either), it seems as if there might be a single 3.5" driver which we guess could be planar (questionable at the ~$500 price point for the amp and two speakers). The frequency response looks to be from 110Hz (that seems ambitious) to 23kHz. The speakers can be wall or stand mounted.

The system is designed to be 4 channels with a phantom center. There is a control unit that has a flip down display and looks to be compatible with both DVD and Blu-rays. The control unit packs a whopping 80 watts of power (plenty for this set but you might want to sit close), looks to have a number of inputs, and will support an external sub (not included in the set). Dolby Digital / DTS / AAC / Linear PCM are supported which might mean that the unit doesn't have an internal drive but instead relies on external sources via HDMI.

The whole point here (as is evidenced by the glamor shot right) is that the set is designed to hang like a picture. While that may in fact work (the speakers are light enough at under 2 lbs each - the amp is even less), who hangs pictures that close to their display? While Victor JVC might sell a few of these to the set designers for movies and TV shows to give their sets that "contemporary" look, we imagine that these speakers will be more like the concept cars you see at Sema - they get you interested in the brand but don't really generate much revenue. Only time will tell.