Von Schweikert Audio
World Class Reference Speaker Systems for Music and Film
somewhat overly detailed, it may be possible that no rear fill is necessary nor desirable. If you hear ‘brightness’ creep into the overall balance, it may be time to back off on the Spatial Dimension Control. In a room that’s fairly dead, with soft sounding gear, it may be necessary to use the Spatial Dimension control fully on.
BASS RESPONSE TUNING
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Since enclosed rooms will affect the bass response due to standing wave formation, a woofer-tuning feature has been designed into the VR series of speakers. Deep bass in the 20-30Hz range is highly desirable in a reference speaker design, since hall reverberation at low frequencies is a sonic clue to both depth and hall size. Classical music simply sounds anemic and artificial without deep bass. In addition, the wide dynamic range found in pop and jazz recordings depends on bass ‘slam’ and efficiency at low frequencies in order to sound like a live bass instrument such as bass guitar, synthesizer, bass drums, and upright string bass.
For this reason, a hybrid triple-chambered transmission line/bass reflex system was engineered which exhibits both deep bass and fast transient response, with a strong emphasis on tight bass. Although it is true that the measured transient response of a sealed woofer system has less ringing than hollow cavity type bass reflex cabinets (but not the VR design), the trapped rear wave of sealed enclosures results in low efficiency, while the compressed air load results in sluggish transient attack. For this reason, transmission line loading has much appeal, and makes more engineering sense, since both deep bass and fast transient response (resulting in “tight” sound) are optimized at the same time. Bass reflex systems, however, which are hollow (lacking 100% stuffing fill), have very unpleasant ‘hangover’ due to cavity resonance. This problem has been eliminated in the VR design by the utilization of a high stuffing density. This technique does not work with standard reflex woofers, nor conventional Theile/Small tuning alignments, however. The resistive damping in the form of acoustic foam and Dacron fill must be compensated in both the driver design and the cabinet tuning ‘alignment’. All VR Series use custom designed drivers with very high magnetic damping (low Qes) and stiff suspensions (high Qms). The tuning ratio is derived from a proprietary over damped Theile/Small alignment with a total Q of less than 0.6, while the woofers themselves have a total Q below 0.3. By using an over damped alignment, maximum tightness is assured due to oversized magnets, stiff suspensions, over-sized enclosures, and a low tuning frequency.
In addition, the midbass rise normally associated with dual woofer formats has been eliminated by the use of Zobel conjugate networks in the VR-4 Series woofer crossover. The inductor coils used at extremely low frequencies have to be massive to avoid saturation and hence are quite expensive and difficult to design. However, the extremely clean bass response of the VR series is the direct result of engineering taken to the extreme.
930 Armorlite Drive, | San Marcos, CA 92069 | 10 |
Ph (760)410-1650 | Fax (760)410-1655 | |
