LOUDSPEAKERS

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go to: Contents | Features | Bookshelf, Stand-Mount and Desktop | Floorstanding | Editors' Choice Awards Creating a musically satisfying loudspeaker within the limits imposed by a small cabinet is a particular challenge to loudspeaker designers. Loudspeaker Designer Roundtable The Art of the Small Speaker Here the trade-offs are more acute, the design skills put to a greater test, the aesthetic differences heightened. When done right, small loudspeakers can be magical despite their limitations in bass extension and dynamics. But just how does the designer go about creating that magic What’s the secret alchemy that results in great sound from a small enclosure To shed some light on the art of the small speaker, we’ve asked five of the world’s best loudspeaker designers—Paul Barton of PSB Speakers, Michael Børresen of Raidho Acoustics, Yoav Geva of YG Acoustics, Andrew Jones of TAD and Pioneer, and Kevin Voecks of Revel—to weigh-in on the same set of questions. — Robert Harley Paul Barton (PSB Speakers) Michael Børresen (Raidho Acoustics) Yoav Geva (YG Acoustics) Andrew Jones (TAD) Kevin Voecks (Revel) 24 Guide to High-Performance Loudspeakers www.theabsolutesound.com previous page NEXT page
go to: Contents | Features | Bookshelf, Stand-Mount and Desktop | Floorstanding | Editors' Choice Awards Paul Barton • PSB Speakers Speaker Designer Roundtable Paul Barton, founder and chief designer of PSB Speakers, began designing speakers more than 40 years ago for a Grade 10 Physics project. His engineering bent coupled nicely (for speaker designer purposes) with his abilities as a violinist, who as a young musician played with Canada’s National Youth Orchestra and the University of Toronto’s Repertoire Orchestra. His two passions converged permanently in 1972, when he founded PSB Speakers. One of the first to use the anechoic chamber at Canada’s renowned National Research Council facilities in Ottawa and other facilities there, Paul has combined research into the correlation of measurements and audible performance with testing of successive modifications of every speaker in process. In the mid-1980s, PSB became part of the Lenbrook Group of Companies, whose expertise in marketing specialized electronic products and widespread distribution in North America and around the world has established PSB Speakers as one of the most respected international loudspeaker manufacturers worldwide. What are the particular challenges and trade-offs of designing a small loudspeaker Which sonic qualities are you primarily trying to optimize, and which qualities are you most willing (or compelled) to give up The most challenging aspect of a small design is the ability for the small form factor to produce full-scale musical events realistically, both for loudness and dynamic range. This is even more challenging when the music contains wide bandwidth especially at low frequencies. One must remember that as the frequency is halved the excursion requirements for the woofer must double to maintain flat response. This means that a small speaker can produce very low frequencies, but can also be very strained if the low frequencies it is asked to reproduce are played too loud. The smaller size can also result in a design that is less efficient than a larger design. This means that you need more power to drive the small design to the same volume level as a full-sized speaker system. I am willing to compromise these things, but I like to think of a small design as the challenge of balancing all of these limitations. For me this has come from a lot of trial and error over my 40-year career in loudspeaker design. Do you have your own design techniques that maximize the performance of small designs One technique that I like to use to overcome the small size and realize a bigger sound than one would expect from such a small enclosure is the use of a Neodymium booster magnet on top of the woofer’s pole piece inside the voice-coil former. What this does is increase the force in the magnetic gap around the voice coil and results in more sensitivity and deeper bass response for a given box volume/size. In theory, if you increase the magnetic force around the voice coil to an infinite amount you can decrease the box’s air volume to nothing and maintain the same frequency response. Has your design work on larger loudspeakers informed your approach to stand-mounted ones I sort of see the reverse influence because small two-way designs have been helpful in keeping me grounded as to the basic rules that apply to good, cost-effective designs of any size. For me, a small-system design sets the bar for what you can do for a given amount of money and therefore puts things in perspective for what can be justified in cost for larger speaker systems. What, if any, sonic and technical advantages do small two-ways have over larger multiway systems The main advantage, whether intentional or by default, is the fact that the drivers (woofer and tweeter) must be close together, and along with the selection of the proper crossover frequency, can produce a coherent integration of the woofer and the tweeter at the crossover frequency. What I mean by this is if the drivers are physically closer together than the wavelength of the frequency that they both produce at the crossover point then the drivers together behave as a single source, which is what you want. It is also desirable to choose the crossover frequency where the woofer, at its highest operating frequency, has similar dispersion to the tweeter at the same frequency (its lowest operating frequency in the system). This approach always results in amazingly natural timbre, wonderful soundstaging, and very flexible positioning of the listener (seated or standing) and positioning of the speaker itself in your listening environment. 25 Guide to High-Performance Loudspeakers www.theabsolutesound.com previous page NEXT page
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