The product record, 2012–2019
What the archive preserves of the product line. Nothing here is for sale; the record is kept because the geometry and the finishes are the evidence behind every other page.
The six documented bodies
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| iPhone 3G / 3GS | Earliest documented body |
| iPhone 4 / 4S | Also offered as a five-unit pack |
| iPhone 5 | Lightning pass-through; three standard colours |
| Braeburn HD | Amplifier in the base; panoramic video cradle |
| iPad 1 / 2 / 3 | Larger body, same waveguide concept |
| iPad mini | Listed in the category index |
How the line developed
The earliest documented model serves the iPhone 3G and 3GS, the latest the iPhone 5 and the iPad. Across that span the waveguide concept is unchanged while the mounting and the aperture position move with each device generation — which is exactly the constraint that justified owning the machines.
Two variants extend the idea rather than repeat it. The HD model integrates the amplifier into the base of a cradle intended to hold the device horizontally for video, described in the record as a panoramic video cradle. A combination pack pairs an iPhone body with an iPad body.
What the record states, and what it does not
Consistent across the product pages: machined aluminium construction, use of the device's existing charging cable rather than any electronics of its own, an integrated microphone port so the cradle can be used for speakerphone calls, a connector that adapts to a fitted case, and the figure of 8 dB without power.
Absent from the record: the band over which that 8 dB applies, the measurement distance and axis, the flare law, and any dimension of the horn itself. The pages that discuss method on this site therefore describe how such a figure is properly established rather than reverse-engineering one that was never published.
Why one geometry needed six bodies
A horn is sized to the aperture it serves. Every time the device changed, the speaker slot moved: along the bottom edge, round to the lower rear face, wider on one generation and narrower on the next. The throat has to sit over that opening, so a cradle designed for one device does not transfer to the next even when the acoustics are unchanged.
That is the whole reason the line has six bodies rather than one adjustable product. The waveguide concept is constant across all of them; what varies is the mounting, the connector position and the footprint. A firm that owns its machining centres can cut a new body for a new device in a production run; a firm that tools for injection moulding cannot.
What a multi-pack says about the buyer
Alongside single items the record lists three-unit packs, five-unit packs and a family pack. A desk accessory sold in fives is not being bought by one person for one desk: it is an office order.
That fits the feature the product pages mention on every model — the integrated microphone port. A cradle that holds the phone upright, aims the sound at the listener and leaves the microphone clear is a speakerphone stand first and a music accessory second. The acoustic gain serves the call, which is also why the geometry is sized for speech rather than for bass.
Reading a discontinued line honestly
Every model here is long out of production, and the fittings date them precisely: a 30-pin connector on the earliest, Lightning on the last. None of it would seat a current device. Nothing on this site is for sale and none of these can be bought.
What survives the fittings is the geometry. A folded horn cut into solid aluminium behaves the same way whatever is plugged into it, and the questions the line answered — where to put the throat, how gradually to expand, how to measure what came out — are the same questions today. The record is kept for those answers, not for the hardware.
Reading the record critically
Repeated copy is not repeated testing
The same sentence describing the waveguide appears on the iPhone 4/4S page, the iPhone 5 pages and the HD page, with only the device name changed. That is ordinary catalogue practice, but it means the record cannot be read as six independent measurements. One figure appears to have been carried across a product line whose geometry necessarily varied.
The HD model is a different acoustic problem
Holding a device horizontally for video puts the speaker aperture in a different place and in a different orientation relative to the listener. The record describes the amplifier as integrated into the base, which implies a longer or more sharply folded path than the upright cradles. It is the one model in the line where the same figure would be most surprising.
What a multi-pack tells you about the market
Three-unit and five-unit packs, and a family pack, sit alongside single items. A desk accessory sold in fives is being bought for an office rather than a person, which fits a product whose main benefit is speakerphone clarity — the integrated microphone port the record mentions on every page.