Finite Elemente Active Equipment Stand
All prices in euros (€) unless otherwise noted.
At time of report, 1 € is approximately 1.37 US dollars.

Germany’s Finite Elemente premiered its newest creation at High End 2009, an audio stand that is said to cancel resonance actively (there is no formal model name or price yet). Shown above are the company’s co-owners, Luis Fernandes (right) and Bernd Brockhoff (left), who were in charge of developing the product. Luis and Bernd were demonstrating how their technology could, with the flick of a switch, cancel the ringing of the tuning fork that Brockhoff was holding. This, in turn, is what they try to achieve with the stand. The stand in the photo above is a prototype built to showcase the technologies and materials used in the finished product’s construction.

The shelf construction uses a combination of wood and foamed aluminum. But the real story behind this new stand requires peering ...

...underneath, where you will see the active components: piezoelectric ceramic elements that can counteract the mechanical flexing of the shelf. The company determined the positioning of the elements by measuring the various points where the shelf can vibrate and flex. In a nutshell, any vibration that occurs in the shelf material from above is cancelled by the force from below via the piezoelectric ceramic elements.

We arrived at the show so early that the company wasn't ready to show off a finished stand yet. However, we convinced Luis and Bernd to unveil the production version of their new creation a bit early for our camera. The finished stand looks gorgeous, with no sign of the rough edges seen in the prototype.