The two audio companies have joined forces to create a new product that is already thrilling audiences. Funktion-One’s new F132 subwoofer, which features Powersoft‘s M-Force 10kW linear transducer, was recently deployed in the Carl Cox and Friends Arena during the Ultra Miami music festival, causing Carl Cox to proclaim its effect in combination with Vero - Funktion-One’s latest large format touring line array solution - as the “very best sonic sound experience I have ever had in that area”.
The extraordinarily powerful horn-loaded bass enclosure combines each company’s expertise to devastating effect. Powersoft’s M-Force 10kW linear transducer supplies a huge amount of power and reliability, while Funktion-One’s specially designed cone and enclosure technology results in deep, powerful low-bass frequencies.The F132 features a single 32in driver, generating a frequency response focused on the lower spectrum, from 24Hz to 65Hz. Its physical size and the fact it is horn-loaded, allows for levels of directivity that are not typically possible at these low frequencies; a feat that is achieved naturally without any cardioid processing.
Powersoft’s M-Force, based on a novel and patented moving magnet linear motor structure, is capable of handling extremely high levels of power, electromagnetic conversion, and SPL. The solution was the result of Powersoft’s years of FEM magnetic and mechanical simulation, careful integration of the latest magnetic materials, acoustic design and power electronic conversion, released to the world in 2014.
Naturally, Tony Andrews - the renowned founder of Turbosound and, more recently, Funktion-One - was immediately attracted to the unique M-Force motor’s capabilities. “The sheer horsepower got my attention,” he recalls. This led him to think about ways of applying Funktion-One’s unique bass horn technology to the extreme power output of the transducer.
As Andrews explains, “The motor allowed us to make a big enough cone so that we could scale up our horn-loaded bass technique. The near half a ton of push it gives us means we could scale up to a 32in driver and still keep it dynamic. Scaling the size up meant we could load down to 24Hz.”
Funktion-One’s technology is fully able to exploit the full M-Force potential. Funktion-One’s US distributor Sound Investment installed eight F132s in the Carl Cox and Friends Arena, all positioned on one side of the arena, in order to avoid conflicting sources and achieve even bass coverage. The F132s units were used in combination with four F221 double-21” bass enclosures. In 2015, for the same stage, 24 F221s were used, giving an indication of the F132’s considerable output. Each F132 cabinet is almost 1.5m deep and over 1.1m wide.
Carl Cox was impressed. “This was the very best sonic sound experience I have ever had in that area - like I never heard before. It was so warm, pleasing and powerful that it shook all my senses to the core of my soul. Tony managed to achieve the true sound of analogue in the digital age. This is what has been missing in a lot of sound systems over the years,” he stated.
Powersoft’s Research and Development Director, Claudio Lastrucci, followed Funktion-One’s two-year development. “He came over to hear some of the prototypes and definitely got the message,” explains Andrews. “I recall him saying that he’d never heard anything like it. When we got to the final stage, he came over again to help set-up the M-Force.”
Another Powersoft specialist closely involved in the process, and who was personally able to assess the final stage of beta testing at the Ultra Music festival in Miami, was M-Force Project Manager and Sales Manager, Massimo Minardi. According to him, “With the F132 working continuously to the limit - 12 hours a day over three days - it responded brilliantly to the pressure of both artists and a demanding audience; this was very different from the simulations and tests under controlled parameters in the laboratory.”
www.powersoft-audio.com | www.funktion-one.com
