In preparation for this year's Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) Expo event, being held for the first time in San Diego, CA, from September 5-9, 2017 (exhibits take place from September 7–9), Vance Dickason highlights the most important learning and training opportunities. As has been the tradition, CEDIA University will again provide a selection of workshops, classes, and seminars related to the various aspects of the AV install industry, with several courses of interest to loudspeaker industry.In this month's Spotlight, Manuel Spehr (Klippel GmbH) writes about the new Klippel Analyzer 3 (KA3), a Platform for Expanded Possibilities. Klippel GmbH is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2017 and the new KA3 provides more capabilities than its Distortion Analyzer 2 (DA2) launched in 2000, and the Production Analyzer (PA), launched in 2006, combined. The KA3 is a 19”/2U frame that is able to host up to six peripheral “Cards,” which interface with the analog signals. Each card supports streaming of up to 192 kHz sample rate and locally performs the actual AD/DA conversion and further signal processing. Read all about it in this month's edition.
In this month's Acoustic Patents, James Croft (Croft Acoustical) looks at a speaker patent, awarded to inventor Shengbo Li from Guangdong, China, on behalf of Harman International. The abstract from that patent details a speaker including one or multiple transducers, an enclosure, and a suspension mounted on the enclosure, wherein the suspension and the enclosure are configured such that the enclosure is capable of vibrating as a result of operation of the transducer so as to produce audible sound. You read it right, the enclosure is also a passive radiator! Croft looks back at the many other attempts to explore this, several of which were also patented by Harman, and explores the potential benefits and applications. A fascinating read.
Another Spotlight article for this edition of Voice Coil, is about "Acoustic Methods of Microphone Calibration," written by Chad Walber, Carmine Salzano, Mark Nowak, and Nicholas Larratta, all from PCB Piezotronics, Inc. A very interesting article detailing the vast experience in this field by one of the leading designers and manufacturers of measurement microphones. The article looks at the frequency response of a measurement microphone, general acoustic calibration, and the benefits and challenges of free-field calibration, and pressure calibration, among other approaches.
For this month's Test Bench, Vance Dickason characterizes the VM752 3" midrange dome from Volt Loudspeakers, and a new 10” subwoofer from Scan-Speak, the 28W/4578T00. The midrange VM752 features a massive 200 mm diameter ferrite magnet, with a 2 mm Xmax, a coated single piece fabric dome/surround, a 75 mm diameter Nomex/Kapton voice coil former wound with round copper wire, a short flare horn built into the rear-mounted (0.75” depth) faceplate, 94 dB sensitivity, and 100 W (AES) rated power handling. The 28W/4578T00 is a new 10” (28 cm) subwoofer from Scan-Speak, with a well-chosen feature set that includes a proprietary cast seven-spoke cast-aluminum frame that has minimal reflection surfaces and is completely open below the spider mounting shelf. Other features include a very stiff and lightweight paper sandwich cone — further stiffened by a 3.25” convex coated woven fiber dust cap.
This edition also includes the customary selection of industry stories, including important new market data from Futuresource Consulting and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), as well as updates on the Association of Loudspeaker Manufacturing and Acoustics (ALMA) International activities and preparations for the upcoming AISE 2018 events.All this is now included on Voice Coil September 2017, available on print and download for all registered subscribers. If you already subscribe, just go to - www.gotomyvcoil.com - to download it.
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