According to the California-based speaker driver company, the LM10n is a unique planar ribbon transducer, with an exceptional midrange band reproduction, superior transparency and resolution, and constant directivity in the horizontal plane. Sharing many of its features with the rest of the Radian Planar Ribbon family, the LM10n stands-out for its larger dimensions while still remaining free from resonances, mechanical filtering, and transmission delay and losses.
According to Radian's speaker designer Igor Levitsky, the LM10n offers accurate impulse response, very high sensitivity, and an output extension up to 40kHz. The driver's wide band response allows creating configurations with no crossover network resonance in a stop band, no phase shifts and group delay, all from a single flat radiating surface, with even dispersion. All features that pave the way to new exciting uses for a planar driver, spanning from higher power sound reinforcement vertical arrays, all the way to minimalistic dipole home audio configurations.
Speakers based on drivers with thin-film diaphragms are known to deliver exceptional sound quality in mid- and high-frequency ranges. Radian's Planar Ribbon drivers embody the latest advancements in this technology, matched with production know-how based on nearly four decades of experience in the development of the technology for a wide range of applications.
At the heart of Radian’s planar ribbon technology lays a symmetric push-pull, FEA-optimized magnetic structure based on very high MGO energy neodymium magnets with very even magnetic flux distribution. A lot of care has been applied to the metal parts design to minimize stray flux, maximize efficiency, and reduce and even eliminate distortion related to the magnetic structure.
Special attention has been given to the mechanical design to ensure dimensional stability, longevity, and toughness of the drivers for demanding applications (e.g., pro, portable PA, and outdoor). According to Radian, the weather-resistant design was especially challenging. It was tested and proven during more than 700 hours of direct salt spray baths — enabling use of Radian drivers in the most challenging outdoor applications.
The new Radian LM10n planar ribbon transducer was designed with a flat pattern of straight conductors - evenly distributed over a stretched polymer diaphragm and disposed in a symmetric magnetic structure - eliminating the inductive component of input impedance, and minimizing intermodulation distortion at the recommended operating frequency band of 150Hz-20kHz.
"The LM10 has exceptional, if not technically ideal, electro-magnetic properties for a transducer. Most conventional drivers struggle with distortion mechanisms related to magnetic structures, modulation of magnetic flux by signal current, eddy currents, hysteresis and other factors generating most subjectively offensive distortions," says loudspeaker engineering veteran Igor Levitsky, who's been designing planar ribbon drivers and speakers since 1986.
"The LM10 magnetic circuit does not have metal that plays any significant role in magnetic flux conduction. Naturally, the LM10 is devoid of parasitic effects that generate those distortions. Another unique feature is that the LM10’s current carrying conductors are not formed in a cylindric coil but represent a flat pattern with almost zero inductance. Inductance is a well-known parasitic factor directly linked to different distortions among which intermodulation is most prevailing and sonically disturbing," he details.
According to the specifications, optimal application's for the LM10n include its use as a midrange paired with the also renewed Radian LT3 or LT2 tweeters. Open back/dipole nearfield monitors, augmented with a subwoofer - one of the configurations being demonstrated at CES 2023 - result in a very airy, three-dimensional presentation. Closed back alignment results in a more direct, immediate and focused sonic images. The LM10n is also a great choice for line arrays having a maximized ratio of active radiating area to overall driver height, and also for coplanar/coaxially located array configurations.
Radian Audio is showcasing the new LM10n and other new drivers at the ALTI Association Hospitality Suite at CES 2023, Lido 3101B - Level 3 of the Venetian Expo and Convention Center.
www.radianaudio.com
