Tag Archives: woofer

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl

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Error correction

I recently blogged about how building a better woofer in the first place resulted in a much better sound than adding a servo to correct the mistakes of a lesser woofer.

It’s common sense.

The same can be said for analog circuits where designing a low distortion, high speed step-response amplifier without need of feedback will almost always sound more open and lifelike than the opposite that requires massive feedback to fix its problems. (as a side note, feedback itself isn’t bad. In fact, it’s good if applied not to fix errors but to improve an already great performing amplifier circuit).

The point here is that in nearly everything one can imagine, it’s better not to make errors in the first place than to add a system that fixes them when they occur.

I’ll give you another example. This one from the recording studio.

Recordings depend on microphones to capture live sound. The better the microphone and its placement, the better the resulting sound. That seems rather obvious, right?

What I so often hear that makes me cringe is the idea of good enough “and we’ll fix it in post”. (post equates to the mix and editing process after the recording has been made)

Look at most big mixing boards (or their DAW electronic equivalent) and what you notice is an eye twisting bevy of knobs, buttons, and plugins designed to enhance that which has been captured.

I am sure you see where this is going.

It’s the purist’s thing.

If you get it right in the first place, there’s not only no need to fix it later but every reason on Earth not to.

The best enhancement in the world is to get it right in the beginning and then honor that perfect capture.

Error-free will always best error-correction.

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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FR30 crossover

Of course, we’re all interested in what makes a product tick. Inside a loudspeaker is the crossover network that divides the frequencies between the various speaker drivers: tweeters only produce their intended range, as well as midrange and woofers.

Below are photos of the crossover networks in an aspen FR30. They are split between a midrange/tweeter network and woofer network.

Designer, Chris Brunhaver explains:

We are using all air core coils (for the high power handling and low distortion) including a 5.5 pound 12 awg coil on in the woofer network.

Capacitors are all metallized poly film type (excepting the large electrolytic caps required for the 45 Hz conjugate notch filter we use to flatten the impedance curve at low frequency).

The resistors are a high-quality 15W wire wound type.

The crossover slopes are all forth order Linkwitz-Riley acoustic, but the resulting electrical networks vary between second and third-order to achieve this.

lf crossover
What you don’t see here are the years and years of experience and knowledge needed to put the right value parts in the right places.
Every product is an amalgam of its parts and the experience to know where and how to use them.
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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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PS Audio’s new loudspeaker system. Looks good.

Impressions of the FR30

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of living with our new loudspeaker, the FR30. I thought you might be interested in a few of my impressions on those listening experiences.

First, a note on naming. The FR30 is one speaker in a line of what will be 6 models—3 below the FR30 and two above. (The two above are future projects we’ve not yet started work on. The 3 below will be launched within 2022). The series will be named aspen. Like the tree.

The FR30 is unlike any speaker I’ve yet spent time with. It is absolutely seamless from top to bottom of the frequency spectrum. This is something that becomes immediately apparent to listeners, especially if you’re used to the sound of multi-driver speakers that aren’t seamless. Like the Infinity IRSV. As gorgeous as the IRSV are they are not seamless. If you live with them as long as I have you kind of get used to their transitions between woofer and mids and tweeters. Once you hear music without those transitions you find it hard to ever go back.

That’s where I am at. Finding it hard to go back.

And the midrange. For years I had lived with electrostats because of their window-like midrange. From Quads to Acoustat’s to Martin Logans—and later Maggies—I gave up dynamics, bass, and slam to bathe in the glory of that midrange. The FR30 is better than they and without their drawbacks.

I could go on and over time I certainly will.

I have much to learn in their setup, their tuning, their character. What I can share with you is a sense of musicality unlike anything I have ever heard. Chris Brunhaver has crafted a masterpiece of which I have to spend more time with.

Like a great painting or work of art, spending quality time with it is more than a requirement.

It is an honor and a pleasure.

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Rolling the dice

A truly full-range loudspeaker is a rare bird. There simply aren’t that many speaker models on the market that cover 20Hz to 20kHz.

But here’s the thing. Even if they were a common occurrence, few among us would be able to enjoy their low frequency contributions.

The problem of course is our old friend the room.

Rooms and low bass are not good bedmates.

The chances of producing a 20Hz note from where your speakers are placed and hearing it at your listening position are about as good as rolling snake eyes.

Where we place our main speakers for best imaging and tonal balance is not likely to be where it is best for bass reproduction.

Which is why, of course, we often turn to a pair of separate woofer boxes called subwoofers.

We can place the subs where in the room they work to support low frequencies without compromising where our main speakers sound best.

Subwoofers are like loaded dice. They guarantee we win.

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Little speakers and big rooms

There seems a common misconception that big rooms need big loudspeakers.

The truth can be very different.

Aesthetically there’s no doubt a small pair of stand-mounted bookshelf speakers may not fit a large room’s vibe, but from a sonic standpoint, it really shouldn’t matter.

The size of woofer and box determines the speaker’s low end, not how loudly it plays in a room.

A 6.5″ woofer married to a 1″ tweeter in a small box plays at about the same loudness as the same driver complement in a floor-standing enclosure. The floor stander has more internal volume from which the woofer can relax more and go deeper, but chances are good it won’t play any louder.

One benefit of a bigger box is room for more drivers. It’s much easier to build a 3-way or 4-way speaker when you have the available real estate.

And its shape and size may be more aesthetically pleasing in a large room.

If you’re not too concerned with the look, then a small speaker in a big room works just fine.

(And there’s always the possibility of sneaking a couple of subwoofers in the room to augment the smaller woofer)

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Subwoofer history

In one of my Ask Paul video questions, I was asked how far back subwoofers go in 2-channel audio. The community member had only become aware of subs as they related to home theater.

Of course, many readers of Paul’s Post know subs date back much further than home theater.

From Wikipedia: In September 1964, Raymon Dones received the first patent for a subwoofer specifically designed to augment the low-frequency range of modern stereo systems (US patent 3150739). Able to reproduce distortion-free low frequencies down to 15 Hz, a specific objective of Dones’s invention was to provide portable sound enclosures capable of high fidelity reproduction of low-frequency sound waves without giving an audible indication of the direction from which they emanated. Dones’s loudspeaker was marketed in the US under the trade name “The Octavium” from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s. The Octavium was utilized by several recording artists of that era, most notably the Grateful Dead.

Two years later, in 1966, my former partner in Genesis Technologies and the co-founder of Infinity, Arnie Nudell, along with his airline pilot friend, Carry Christie, launched the second and perhaps most important subwoofer of its time, the Infinity Servo woofer, based on an 18″ Cerwin Vega driver.

My experience with a subwoofer began a few years later when I was first introduced to a true high-end audio system. There, in the living room of local audiophile Norm Little, was serial numbers 1 and 2 of aerospace engineer Eugene J. “Gene” Czerwinski’s creation, a pair of 18″ Cerwin-Vega subwoofers capable of producing 130 dB at 30 Hz, an astonishing level during its time (or any time).

I suppose I have never gotten over the experience of hearing for the first time, all there is in the recordings, including subsonics.

Until you hear it all, you’re not going to know what true high-end audio really is.

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Janszen

In yesterday’s post, I reminisced about my first experience with a subwoofer. And boy, not just any subwoofer. Lucky for me, I got a taste of the mighty Cerwin-Vega 18s, then the biggest, baddest subwoofer yet made. In fact, even today there aren’t many that can match what those beasts were capable of producing.

What I failed to mention that was sitting directly atop those woofer boxes was another breakthrough product, the world’s first “full-range” electrostatic loudspeakers, double stacked JansZen 1-30 4-panel arrays. Here’s a picture of those bad boys sitting atop a pair of ARs.

Arthur Janszen founded Janszen in the mid 1950s and I don’t know much about him other than to relay what my former partner and founder of Infinity, Arnie Nudell, told me. That Art was a physicist (as was Arnie) that had to stoop to the level of engineer to get his work done. Indeed, it was said somewhat tongue in cheek but I suspect deep down Arnie had just a wee bit of contempt for anyone not studied in the arts of physics.

What an amazing experience I had that first day of being exposed to a true high-end audio system. I suppose it had on me a lifelong impact that to this day has set the course of my life.

It’s perhaps good to remember that every time we have the privilege of showing for the first time our systems to newbies, it may be an event that sparks their passion for a lifetime yet to come.

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Rumble

In the volumes of email I receive I get some great questions. Mark, in San Jose California, was asking why phono preamplifiers no longer offer switchable rumble filters.

I think it’s a great question. I remember years ago when nearly every phono preamplifier had a switchable rumble filter and I also remember hating it. Every time I clicked that filter all the bottom end of the recording seemed to vanish along with the unwanted woofer movement. Those high-pass filters of the day were pretty aggressive.

PS Audio has been building phono preamplifiers since our inception in 1974 and we have never offered a switchable rumble filter. However, every one of those preamplifiers had built-in rumble filters and that, Mark, is the most likely answer to your question.

By building in a fairly aggressive filter we can keep its frequency low enough so as not to negatively affect sound quality. We do this with a multi-pole high pass filter that has the dual role of keeping any small DC issues from occurring and, at the same time, eliminating rumble without impacting bass.

I am going to guess that what’s actually different is not the lack of rumble filters, but the lack of switches to toggle them on or off.

 

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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On a carousel

Remember the old Hollie’s hit, On a Carousel? They were one of my favorite groups and, when Graham Nash left the Hollies to join Steven Stills and David Crosby, I was at first bummed but later fell in love with CS&N.

Being on a carousel, or as we Yanks might call it, a merry-go-round, can be frustrating. It sometimes takes a lot of energy to get off the rut we find ourselves in and make a change, but change is typically better than going round and round without forward motion.

I remember well when I was first hooked on electrostatic speakers. Man, I was on an electrostatic merry-go-round and for years no one could get me off of it. It had all started with my first listen to a pair of Quads. Holy crap! The transparency and window-like qualities of those speakers were magical. The fact they were extremely directional, had no bass, no volume, nor dynamics didn’t phase me in the least. I was hooked. If they didn’t have what I wanted, I could just go bigger.

Jim Stricker’s Acoustat electrostatic loudspeakers were my next acquisition and they solved the loudness problem because of their enormous size. Still, they had the head-in-a-vice directionality problem, no bass nor dynamics—but volume, clarity, and transparency were abundant. I even tried to add a subwoofer to these tall panels but back then, the subs were awful: slow, sluggish, and did not blend.

For me, the electrostatic merry-go-round was slowing down but it hadn’t yet stopped. After meeting Martin Logan founder, Gayle Sanders, I had to give it one more spin. Gayle’s electrostats were big, curved, and augmented with a built-in dynamic woofer. Nirvana! They could play loud, they had a bigger sweet spot, and by God, they had bass from that subwoofer. Still no dynamics. Still had to hold my head in a vice when listening, but….

Then the merry-go-round stopped and I stepped off into the magic of planars and lightning-fast dynamic woofers compliments of both Magnepan and Infinity.

I haven’t gotten back on the electrostatic carousel since. But, this isn’t a post about electrostats. It’s a post about being stuck on carousels.

If you’re stuck on a merry-go-round and everything you try doesn’t get you where you’d hope to be, consider hitting the emergency stop button and regaining your balance.

It’s better to go forward than in circles.

 

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Thrill seeking

Now that PS Audio engineer Chris Brunhaver has rebuilt the Infinity IRS woofer sections in Music Room II, tracks of music that once overloaded the room or underwhelmed the listener are back on the table.

Tracks like Deeper by Pete Belasco, When the Party’s Over by Billy Eilish, or Handel’s Organ Concerto Number 3 suddenly make more sense.

Before the woofer change, there was plenty of deep bass but it was more an effect sound than a real live note. Now, the system sends chills up your spine when those notes move both you and the room.

In fact, one of the joys of an upgrade to your audio or video system is the opening of new musical opportunities. If it’s better bass, you start looking through your library for tracks that demonstrate the new prowess. If a new tweeter or speakers with airy extended highs, you search for more thrills in that music.

If you want a few thrills and chills to challenge your system, and have Qobuz, you can access what we listen to by going here.

Have fun and give my apologies to the neighbors.