Voice Coil January 2019 is Here and Ready for Another Year!

Voice Coil January 2019 is now available. This edition focuses on New Materials for Earphones and Headphones and also includes a valuable listing of Earphone and Headphone Manufacturers and a schedule of headphone-centric events for the year. In Acoustic Patents, James Croft looks at a new patent of a multilayer voice coil plate and flat speaker based on the same, while in this month's Test Bench Vance Dickason features a 1" compression driver from Radian Audio Engineering, and a 1" soft dome tweeter from Eminence. This is much more, now available in print and download.

In this Test Bench, I characterized two new 28 mm dome tweeters from Dayton Audio — the RST28A-4 and the RST28F-4 from the Dayton Reference Series. Both are similar tweeters that share pretty much the same platform with the primary difference being the RST28A-4 uses an 30 mm aluminum dome and the RST28F-4 has a 30 mm coated silk dome. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, September 2018.

Voice Coil September 2018 edition is now available and features all the essential information about this year’s CEDIA Expo event. James Croft reviews a Harman patent for a multi-coil transducer approach to improve the cooling structure of loudspeakers, while Vance Dickason characterizes the ambitious new Dayton Audio Epique E160CF-8 midbass driver and two new 28 mm dome tweeters also from Dayton Audio — the RST28A-4 and the RST28F-4. Now available for download or in print.

While many in the audio industry work to establish the ideal target frequency response for audio reproduction on studio monitors, speakers and headphones, others are providing "familiar" listening references that, with all their imperfections, are already familiar to working professionals. That's exactly what affordable high-quality audio products producer Avantone Pro now announced with the introduction of the CLA-10 Nearfield Monitors - which many will instantly recognize.

Dayton Audio announced its new MK442 center channel speaker, designed to complement the Dayton Audio MK402 bookshelf speakers in a multi-channel home theater system. The new 80 watts RMS speaker features two 4" treated paper woofers optimized for low-frequency extension, with a centered 3/4" silk dome tweeter, offering a balanced combination for wide dispersion and impressive room-filling sound. The speaker features an attractive textured, black vinyl finish with 5-way binding posts.

This Test Bench carachterizes Scan-Speak’s 1″ wide surround silk dome tweeter, the D2604/833000, a high-end home audio driver from their Discovery lineup. The D2604/833000 features a large surround 1″ diameter silk dome, a low 475Hz resonance, CRT shielding, a separate rear chamber, a ferrite magnet motor, an injection-molded faceplate with a five-point mounting configuration, voice coil wound with copper-clad aluminum wire, and gold-plated terminals. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, February 2011.

Audioengine, from Austin, Texas, could very well be called “the sensible audio company” because their products always make sense: they have great design, sound great, are reasonably priced and they match today’s consumer profiles perfectly. Audioengine knows wireless and computer audio well and knows how, increasingly, people listen to music on a desktop or in close proximity to speakers. For that market, Audioengine released a passive version of their HD6 powered speakers.

Introduced at recent shows in US and Europe, the new Denon DN-304SAM high performance monitoring system will be available in Spring 2015 for $149.99. A very affordable price for a powered stereo speaker system able to produce pro-grade sound in a compact footprint.