Another insightful issue of Voice Coil is now available and includes a good lead article by Vance Dickason reminding us that the loudspeaker industry is global and that we cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of Ukraine. For that purpose, in this month’s Industry News & Developments, Dickason reminds us of MAG Audio, a company that has been featured twice in Voice Coil’s Test Bench column. MAG Audio is located in Bila Tserkva, about 85 kilometers south of Kyiv, Ukraine. Unable to reach the company, we can only assume its employees have joined the efforts to fight for their country.
In the same section, Dickason revisits the DSP amplification product range from SpeakerPower, an OEM amplifier manufacturer from Irvine, CA, where the company continues to manufacture and ship its extensive range of solutions. The company was originally founded in 2002 and is currently owned by SpeakerPower’s CEO Justin Ryan. SpeakerPower delivers a complete line of multichannel and subwoofer amplifiers, incorporating unique high-performance technology.
In this month’s Voice Coil Focus feature, Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific) writes about "Innovative Speaker Drivers," and more specifically the recent crop of efforts with a different take to achieve more of something (e.g., higher efficiency or acoustic output, etc.) or less of something (e.g., reduced depth, or lower distortion, etc.). As Klasco comments, the industry has seen a massive shift over the last decade with the widespread acceptance of size-constrained mass market audio systems, especially smart speakers and soundbars with subwoofers. His article discusses material selection risks and details recent innovations from Premium Sound Solutions (PSS), Tectonic Audio Labs, Trulli Audio, Resonado Labs, Sound Solutions International (SSI), Dinaburg Technology, Mayht, KEF and others.
As a complement to this issue’s focus, Nora Wong (Menlo Scientific) compiled an updated Microspeaker Vendor Directory for 2022. The listings have been limited to vendors supplying microspeakers for smartphone and laptops applications only, with additional subdirectories on MEMS speaker transducers and Haptic Actuator devices for mobile applications, such as smartphones and headphones.
In this month’s Test Bench, Dickason characterizes a new transducer from the Dayton Audio Epique lineup, the E180HE-44. As with the E150HE from the same range, featured in the December 2021 issue of Voice Coil, the E180HE-44 uses the patented Multiple Magnet Air Gap (MMAG) technology, invented by Enrique Stiles and patented by Step Technologies. Stiles is still developing MMAG woofers, and one of the latest examples is precisely this E180HE-44 full-range subwoofer. While a full-range subwoofer may sound like an oxymoron, it is actually an interesting concept, and one that is ideally suited to the MMAG technology given the typical high-excursion/low inductance aspect of this motor design.
The E180HE, which as you would suspect is a scaled up (7”) version of the E150HE, and has a similar feature set, features a curvilinear shaped carbon fiber cone and wide NBR surround, fitted with a 1.75” ferrite rear ring magnet, directly providing flux to the second rear 7mm gap. However, the secondary magnet system is comprised of six 28mm × 8mm ferrite disks, which act as magnetic “diodes” (aka gap balancing magnets) pulling the flux from the main magnet into the top 7mm gap. These disks also provide an 8mm space between the two 7mm gaps as well as a convention cooling path for the voice coil as it travels between the two gaps. A very interesting design that Dickason measures in detail.
The second driver in Test Bench this month is the 2FE24 2.5” full-range driver from FaitalPRO. Again, an interesting small diameter full-range design now suitable for pro audio applications such as PA line source speakers, the 2FE24 is built on a proprietary injection-molded polycarbonate four-spoke frame. The cone assembly consists of an uncoated paper cone, with a 20mm diameter paper dust cap, and suspended with a low loss half-roll NBR surround and a 40mm diameter elevated cloth spider (damper). Powering the cone assembly is a neodymium ring magnet and a milled return cup fitted to a 19mm diameter voice coil wound with aluminum wire on a Kapton former.
The usual dose of Industry Watch stories closes another issue of Voice Coil, highlighting the Celestion HornWizard horn design software update, Listen’s latest SoundCheck 20 software release with a new perceptual Rub & Buzz sequence, and more notes from the ALTI association.
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