Unfortunately, optimization in one area usually results in
The goal of the CSC Series was to optimize performance attributes in all areas without compromising others. Specifically, the main goals were:
•unifying arrival times within and among the subsystems
•achieving broadband pattern control in the both the vertical and horizontal planes
•creating a modular system that’s easy to move, install, and aim
•setting a new standard in audio fidelity
Optimized
EAW has historically created true
In addition to the sonic difficulties associated with transitioning between subsystems in the heart of the vocal band,
Unlike the relatively simple geometry of a compression driver’s diaphragm, there is a slight but noticeable difference in the point of origin of a cone driver’s dustcap, cone, and surround. Particularly in the upper midrange, these differences create a “smearing” of arrival times at the listener that degrades the clarity and impact of
Traditionally, most manufacturers (including EAW) have asked the
instead of attacking the disease (bad cone geometry), it fails. In contrast, the CSC Series’ entire mid fre- quency cone and phase plug assembly was designed to solve this problem at the source.
The distance from a cone driver’s voice coil
to its dustcap is shorter than the distance from the voice coil to either the cone or surround. Therefore, the energy radiating from the dustcap most often leads the energy from the rest of the system. Tradi- tional phase plug designs have isolated this energy and routed it through a longer path than that which faces the energy from the cone or surround. In so doing, the phase plug attempts to equalize the arrival smear.
Conventional phase plug designs achieve this result by using a circular entrance and exit to the phase plug – they simply convert the output from a point source into a ring radiator. This approach has proven effective with high frequency compression drivers mostly because the simpler compression driver diaphragm geometry and shorter high frequency wavelengths create significantly smaller arrival differences that are less problematic to resolve. But because the wavelengths in the mid frequency passband are so much greater, this ring radiator solution actually creates another more serious problem.
A ring radiator exhibits a more dramatic narrowing of beamwidth with increasing frequency than a cone transducer. When the mid frequency device becomes a ring radiator, its directivity narrows too greatly with increasing frequency to the point where it no longer fills the bell of the horn. This is a problem that virtually all
The CSC Series mid/phase plug assembly approaches the problem in a different way. It attacks the
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