Patent ID: 7369672

Claim:
An improved audio visual system having, a housing having a front face that is substantially planar, a LCD video display with a substantially planar display surface mounted in the front face, the video display being bounded by side edges and top and bottom edges, a first speaker assembly and a second speaker assembly, each of the speaker assemblies being mounted in the housing for generating sound, each of the speaker assemblies having, a driver having a driver axis that is substantially perpendicular to the front face of the housing, a membrane symmetrically disposed about the driver axis, the membrane terminating in a distal end attached to the driver, and a proximal end, the proximal end having a greater cross section than the distal end, the membrane having a nominal diameter at the proximal end, and a rim attached to the proximal end of the membrane, and a first speaker cavity for the first speaker assembly and a second speaker cavity for the second speaker assembly, the improved audio visual system being designed for personal use without disturbing those around the user, the improvement comprising: each of the speaker cavities intersecting the front face of the housing and having a cavity bottom positioned with respect to the front face so as to define a cavity depth which is sufficient in size to accommodate one of the speaker assemblies while providing a free volume therebehind adequate to assure a responsive speaker assembly and a separation between said cavity bottom and the driver, wherein said cavity depth is less than about twice the nominal diameter of the membrane at the proximal end, the rim of each of the speaker assemblies being positioned in the cavity so as to establish a setback distance from the front face of the housing, wherein said setback distance is 50% to 100% of the nominal diameter at the proximal end; and further wherein and each of the speaker cavities terminates at the substantially planar front face; still further wherein each of the cavities is sized at least as large as the cross section of the membrane throughout the portion of the cavity extending between the rim of the speaker assembly and the front face of the housing; and further wherein the first speaker cavity has a first bevel that intersects the front face of the housing and is configured such that it extends the first speaker cavity toward the second speaker cavity as the first speaker cavity advances to and intersects the front face of the housing; and further wherein the second speaker cavity has a second bevel that intersects the front face of the housing and is configured such that it extends the second speaker cavity toward the first speaker cavity as the second speaker cavity advances to and intersects the front face of the housing.