Overview
The Cinema Ribbons are feature- | | |
rich, high-tech, but most importantly | | |
GREAT SOUNDING loudspeakers. | | |
Years of research and decades of | | |
experience have gone into these small | | |
wonders. | CRM-2 | CRM-2C Center Channel |
|
The Cabinet
The Cinema Ribbons feature a carefully designed cabinet that stems from years of research into how the box affects the sound of the loudspeaker. The specialized facets of the Cinema Ribbon have the appearance of a Stealth airplane, and result in a loudspeaker that is free of unwanted sonic bounces.
The Ribbon – A Legacy Refined
The ribbon in this loudspeaker is a remarkable piece of engineering, because it has the output capability, purity, and low distortion of a large 6-foot-tall ribbon – in fact, it is derived from Bob Carver’s award-winning Amazing Loudspeaker from the late 1970s! The sound from the CRM-2 ribbon is deliberately focused in the forward direction, with very little sound going up or down – reducing reflections off the ceiling and floor, that disturb our sense of space and imaging. The CRM-2C features an integrated “acoustic lens,” that disperses the signal for center channel applications.
The Woofers – A Legacy Refined
Sunfire created the category of small-box, high-power subwoofers more than a decade ago with the original True Subwoofer. This design relies on high-pressure, “High Back-emf” technology that provides very high bass output from a very small box. When migrating this subwoofer technology to the midrange and high frequencies on the Cinema Ribbons, you get the same advantages: high output, small size, high efficiency, and years of trouble-free operation.
Sunfire has found that our ears are very sensitive to certain frequencies which our brains use to develop clues as to the size and location of sounds. Bob Carver and team created an electrical circuit called Sonic Holography back in the 1970s that took this into account – and to this day it’s included on Sunfire’s processors and receivers. In the CRM-2 Cinema Ribbons, these critical octaves are output primarily from the two side- firing drivers. This introduces the room as part of the musical instrument by intentionally bouncing the sound off of walls and floors, creating a time delay to enlarge the sense of acoustic space, in all dimensions. This is a noted difference from what we looked at previously with the ribbons – it is a very calculated (and very important) distinction. The CRM-2C features front-firing drivers to maintain focus for dialog in center channel ap- plications.
Conclusion
The combination of a focused, front-firing ribbon and the omnidirectional, side-firing woofers creates a large sense of space with very precise imaging within that space. Depending on the loudspeaker location and demo material, you also are able to discern a sense of front-to-back depth with layered textures of musical instruments playing and performing in thin air! Happy listening!