You Can DIY! The Live-Edge Dipoles

For the speaker builders, Perry Marshall details everything there is to know about his beautiful Live-Edge Dipoles project. A design that was inspired by two slabs of birch the author brought home, allowing to finally bring to fruition his idea to build these dipoles. Marshall reveals all the specifics of the driver choices, radiation pattern, and crossovers, while explaining the effects of the obtained radiation pattern and how the speakers behave in practice. This article was originally published in audioXpress, January 2021.

In this article, Brewster LaMacchia concludes his series on Automotive Audio Bus (A2B) applications (not just for automotive). After an introduction to the properties of this locally networked audio transport, a look at A2B system design, and A2B data transport and interface, in Part 4, the author looks at systems and tools that are available to speed prototyping and evaluation. This article was originally published in audioXpress, January 2021.

In this article, Vance Dickason characterizes the Bold North Audio BWX-6502 Midbass, which comes from a series of exciting new drivers designed and manufactured in the US by MISCO (Minneapolis Speaker Company). The BWX-6502 is built on the same platform with a similar XBL2 "dual-gap" motor design structure to the BWX-6501 model but with a cone assembly consisting of an Abaca fiber (paper) cone and a 60mm (2.4") diameter Abaca fiber dust cap, with compliance provided by a wide high excursion NBR surround, and a 3.5" diameter flat cotton spider (damper). This article was originally published in Voice Coil, January 2021.

The driver in this Test Bench is the Wavecor TW022WA09 22mm high-end textile dome tweeter. The TW022WA09 was unveiled by Wavecor together with the TW022WA08/10 high-end tweeter, a new series of 22mm chambered neodymium drivers with increased sensitivity. The precision cloth (textile) dome ensures an extended frequency response, while the voice coil design offers higher power handling and low resonance frequency. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, January 2021

Resonado Labs is ready to bring to market its patented speaker technology. This article describes Resonado's core Flat Core Speaker (FCS) technology that uses a reconfigured design with a planar voice coil mounted perpendicularly to its flat “racetrack” diaphragm - an ingenious architecture that enables slightly thinner, lighter, and more efficient speakers than conventional equivalents. Applications are wide-ranging from soundbars, home theater, column speakers, automotive to headphone drivers. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, January 2021

In this article, Menno van der Veen explains everything about the Vanderveen Trans-SE10 amplifier, which is available as a DIY kit manufactured by Tentlabs. This letter-sized stereo amplifier is a single-ended design with an output power of 10W per channel, but there's a lot "under the hood" (and the glass) to understand. The article explains the “why and how” of the unusual Vanderveen Trans-SE10 design. This article was originally published in audioXpress, January 2021.

This contributed article by Hermann Schenk, and Lutz Ehrig describes a new transducer technology that promises to be a power efficient solution for wireless earbuds. Arioso Systems is a successful Fraunhofer IPMS spin-off company that is now launching an innovative sound transducer principle for miniaturized headphones, in-ears and hearables. The article describes how this new technology, and specifically the company's new MEMS topology can contribute to the next-generation of true wireless earbuds.

Looking forward to serving the loudspeaker industry for another year, Voice Coil starts strong with a focus on Headphone OEM Devices and Parts, and a Spotlight article on speaker design, written by Brian Cho, the CEO of Resonado Labs. In his first Acoustic Patents column for 2021, James Croft writes about a signal processing system, allowing users to control a lower frequency acoustic range of a loudspeaker system, and Vance Dickason kicks off his Test Bench characterizations with the new Bold North Audio BWX-6502 Midbass, and the Wavecor TW022WA09 22mm textile dome tweeter.

Celebrating 50 years of The Audio Amateur - the publishing company that started it all for us - and 20 years of audioXpress, we begin 2021 with a great - and expanded - edition. We discuss market and technology trends in Speakers and Transducers, a new MEMS transducer topology for wireless earbuds, and the latest innovations in haptic drivers and transducers. Perry Marshall details his unique dipoles speaker project, and renowned tube expert Menno van der Veen explains all the secrets of the latest Vanderveen Trans-SE10 amplifier. Now available in print and digital