Test Bench: The W4-2356 4" Full Range from Tang Band (TB) Speaker

The intriguing W4-2356 driver from Tang Band Speaker (TB Speaker) is built on a proprietary and patented injection-molded polymer four-spoke frame that allows the voice coil not to be centered in the 4" injection-molded polypropylene cone, but offset by about half inch. The aim for this original off-axis design, is to defeat concentric cone modes, a well-known source of coloration in round voice coil transducers. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, September 2022.

This article is a detailed characterization of the HF1460 1.4" exit neodymium motor compression driver from Faital Pro, oriented toward pro audio applications. The Faital Pro HF1460 features a carbon fiber diaphragm, which Faital Pro has been researching for some time, even before the first TeXtreme products were available in the market. The horn supplied for use with the HF1460 was the LTH142, an injection-molded, elliptical tractrix flare horn, with a 60° x 50° coverage pattern. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, September 2022.

Over the course of three days and two nights, June 8–10, the Audio Engineering Society’s 2022 International Automotive Audio Conference in Dearborn, MI, served as a great event for everyone in the automotive audio community to reconnect. The event also featured a full track of sessions promoted by the AES Audio Product Education Institute (APEI). This report, written by Roger Shively, the AES Conference Chair, reviews the most important presentations topics discussed and the exciting demonstrations by companies such as Dolby, Fraunhofer, Dirac, Tymphany, and DSP Concepts, among many others.

This article describes a new workflow comprising the rendering of audio objects for the production and tuning process, as well as the implementation on resource-limited hardware, for immersive entertainment and personalized sound staging of automotive audio. Since the object-based audio is independent of the loudspeaker setup, this significantly reduces the complexity of the tuning processes for car manufacturers. This article was originally published in audioXpress, September 2022.

In this article, Zami Schwartzman shares his personal journey to design and perfect his own accelerometer-based motion feedback desktop subwoofers, including plate amplifiers with MFB control, crossover and voice coil thermal protection that can be matched with any low frequency MFB driver. The proof of concept demonstrated the ability to perfectly complement popular active nearfield monitors, mitigating the effects of room reflection. This article was originally published in audioXpress, September 2022.

Many product designers and manufacturers in the audio industry the world over have been making huge leaps forward in hardware, software, and interoperability that they have been largely unable to show off thanks to a disruption to live events. Following the return of trade shows in 2022, the lid has been lifted on a whole host of innovations in the pro audio space, and among them Holoplot has emerged as a standout with its X1 Matrix Array sound system. This is an inside account about how the Holoplot team has been pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the pro audio space.

Voice Coil September 2022 offers an article about solutions for Smart Speakers and Voice Processing by Mike Klasco, and an updated directory of Magnet Vendors and Distributors for 2022. James Croft reviews a recent patent awarded to Tymphany for a new Coaxial Loudspeaker design, and Vance Dickason characterizes two very original drivers in Test Bench. The HF1460 compression driver from Faital Pro and the Tang band the W4-2356 4" full-range woofer with an off-centered voice coil.

The September 2022 Speaker Focus issue of audioXpress discusses speaker design and testing tools and features two fascinating speaker R&D stories on the Holoplot X1 Matrix Array and Motion Feedback Desktop Subwoofers for nearfield studio application. Geoff Hill explains the latest IEC loudspeaker measurement standards, Roger Shively reports from the AES 2022 Automotive Audio conference, Christoph Sladeczek writes about Audio Objects as Platform Technology in Vehicles, and much more.