Tom Danley, namesake of Danley Sound Labs, is among the worlds most idiosyncratic acousticians an speaker designers. Although he has been obsessed with understanding and creating lifelike sound reproduction since he was a child, Danley also worked for fifteen years at Intersonics, a NASA contractor and rival to Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There, he generated sixteen patents for acoustical devices that found their way into research rockets, zero-gravity airplane flights, and space shuttle payloads. Those experiences expanded Danleys conceptual toolkit and inspired him to invent unconventional solutions for lifelike sound reproduction, his first and enduring love.
Today, Danley and his engineering team deploy patented Synergy Horn and Tapped Horn technologies to create point-source, horn-loaded loudspeakers and subwoofers with superior fidelity, phase-coherence, frequency response, and pattern control. Already well known for making best-in-class solutions in the house of worship, sports stadium, live sound, and club markets, Danley Sound Labs now enters also the Cinema market with the launch of its new Cinema Line of loudspeakers, subwoofers, and DSP-enabled multi-channel amplifiers.
Tom's unique designs are not conventional loudspeaker designs, as Skip Welch, national accounts manager with Danley Sound Labs and the point person in charge of the new Cinema Line explains. "The Synergy Horn and Tapped Horn patents allow Danley to build horns with numerous drivers that combine to create a single, phase-coherent source that performs uniform output across the entire frequency spectrum. The multiple drivers give Danley boxes incredible output, and the patented acoustical summing creates ultra-low distortion that does not appreciably increase with volume. These boxes are made for movies," he states.
Since Danley loudspeakers and subwoofers meet so many of the previously-unobtainable benchmarks for idealized sound reinforcement, numerous theaters and cineplexes have already adopted them years ago. These include Chicago's Museum of Science and Industrys five-story IMAX theater, Detroit's Emagine Novis giant screen (the largest in Michigan), and Atlanta's LanierWorlds outdoor theater, among many others.
Danley's new Cinema Line shares the same fundamentals of its existing product line. However, in the process of working with the engineers, designers, and installers on projects for cinema, the company came to understand the unique needs of the market and incorporated those needs into a completely new cinema line.
Danleys new Cinema Line loudspeakers start with the CJ-1894 and CSH-1196, which are capable of reproducing reference-monitor fidelity at very high SPLs continuous output. These are the big guns (the CJ-1894s sibling electrifies 100,000-seat sports stadiums!). Intermediate loudspeakers include the CSH-996 and CSH-496, which would be useful in a range of applications from large to small theaters, depending on the output needs of the channels they are used for. Finally, the (relatively) smaller (but still quite beefy) CS-100S and CS-8CX are ideal for smaller theaters or surround sound channels at up to 120 and 115dB SPL, respectively. The unique CS-100S coaxial full-range is built with a twenty-degree down angle for simple surround sound installation.
Danley's new Cinema Line subwoofers start with the monstrous CBC-418, capable of thundering 148dB SPL of continuous, directed low-frequency energy in even the largest of theaters. Massive low-frequency output is only worthwhile if the system is capable of doing so with accuracy and with low distortion levels, such as the hallmarks of all Danley subwoofers. "Conventional subwoofers from other manufacturers introduce large amounts of distortion, way more than anyone would tolerate in a full-range box," Welch remarks. "But that low-end distortion is what everyone is used to. So, it's been said that you cant really understand how good un-distorted low-end sounds until you've heard a Danley subwoofer. Its a whole new way to enjoy impactful low end!
At 142dB SPL continuous, the intermediate CBC-218 approaches the output of its larger sibling, and the (relatively) smaller (but still quite beefy) CTH-118XL and CTH-50 subwoofers fit the bill from large to small theaters depending on requirements.
Although the spotlight appropriately falls on Danleys loudspeaker and subwoofer solutions, Danleys multi-channel amplifiers with integrated DSP play an indispensable supporting role. All of the units feature precise 96kHz processing and presets for all of the Cinema Line loudspeakers and subwoofers. These are excellent starting points for comprehensive system commissioning, although installers routinely report that little or no additional tweaks were needed beyond the presets. To accommodate different system sizes and output requirements, Danley manufactures the DNA 20k4PRO (four channels, 20,000 total Watts), the DNA 10k4PRO (four channels, 10,000 total Watts), the DNA 10k8c (eight channels, 10,000 total Watts), and the DNA 3k8c (eight channels, 3200 total Watts). All of the units feature comprehensive loudspeaker and circuit protection, as well as analog, AES, and Dante connectivity.
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