Decware HDT-206-EM Owners manual

High Fidelity Engineering Co.

1202 N.E. Adams Street, Peoria IL 61603 [phone]

High Definition Towers under evaluation in the Decware reference room

DECWARE / High Definition Tower speakers

model HDT206EM

OWNERS MANUAL

This manual as well as additional information and support can

be found at:

www.decware.com

HDT206EM OWNERS MANUAL

Congratulations on your purchase of our reference grade

full-range single-driver loudspeakers!

CAUTION

The Decware modified Fostex drivers installed in your new speakers feature
a phase guide that replaces the dust cap similar to Lowther and other ex­pensive full range drivers. This means the voice coil gap is exposed to
the eliminates since it no longer has a dust cap over it to protect it from dirt
and contaminants. While this may be common practice amongst high end
speaker enthusiast, it does require extra care in using them. A garage or
area with high dirt is out of the question. The biggest fear is that metal
shavings would get in the gap. Because of the tremendous magnetic flux in
this gap there would be no hope of getting the shavings back out so the
driver would be ruined. Our warranty does not cover contaminated voice
coil gaps. We understand accidents do happen, and repair service is always
available in or out of warranty.

DRIVER REMOVAL

If the driver is ever to be removed for any reason, extreme car should be
taken to ensure no metal shavings from the mounting screws or other con­taminants enter the voice coil gap. The best way to prevent all chances of
contamination is to cut a paper circle the diameter of the speaker and tape it
to the black rubber trim piece on the metal frame. This would effectively
seal the cone from all exterior debris. After you re-install the driver you can
remove the paper and tape.

PACKING

Your HDT speakers are shipped with the Decware modified Fostex driver installed.
There is also a top plate and grill (both removable) in each shipping carton.

DAMAGE

Please inspect your speakers for damage when you unpack them. Speakers are always
insured when shipped from our factory. If you have shipping damage you must keep all
packing materials in tact and contact us right away. UPS and most shippers in order to
honor an insurance claim will have to come back to your address and either pick-up or
inspect the package and its contents to determine if the damage was their fault.

HDT206EM OWNERS MANUAL

SETUP

Once you have your new speakers unpacked and inspected for damage it’s time to set
them up and start listening. Your speakers are shipped ready to play.

GRILLS

The removable grills may be left on during playback or taken off. Room acoustics can
largely effect a persons preference as to what sounds better, grills on or off. The
speakers on either side of the cabinet are passive radiators. They are fairly high mass
and pretty tough so no grills are required for the sides. The main speaker is delicate so
protection with the grills is advised.

TOP PLATE

Your speaker comes with a once inch top plate fitted with 4 rubber feet that locate on 4
holes in the top of the cabinet. This plate re-directs the sound that comes out of the
long shaft (T-LINE) that comes up the rear of the cabinet in such a way that it is dis­persed radially into the listening space. If you remove it while the speakers are playing
you will find quite a bit of sound coming from this large shaft.

BOTTOM PLATE or SPIKES

Your speaker can be fitted with your choice of bottom plate, or spikes. The bottom
plate is cut 1 inch larger than the outside dimensions of the speaker and painted black.
It screws onto the bottom of the cabinet. This adds a decorative touch to the speaker
and allows the user to easily slide the speaker around on the carpet. If you have a typi­cal listening/family room area to set these speakers up (and of course want the best
performance possible) consider this before buying spikes. In rooms like this speakers
are often tucked out of the way and fairly close to walls. Spiking the speakers will make
it impossible or at least very difficult to move the speaker. While in theory the spikes
would improve the sound of the speaker - the reality is - only when the speaker is in the
ideal location. In a room like this the ideal location is pulled out into the room right in
everyone's way. Being able to slide them around makes it possible to listen them prop­erly and put them back out of the way when you’re done. In other words, being able to
pull them out into the listening space with no spikes will sound far better then placing
them against the wall with spikes.

AMPLIFICATION

Your new speakers have an efficiency of 96 dB with 1 watt at a distance of 1 meter.
They have a nominal impedance of 8 ohms. These speakers are ideal for SET (single
ended triode) amps because they present the amplifier an easy load and are high in effi­ciency. Your favorite 2A3 or 300B and similar amplifiers are ideal. A good 2 watt am­plifier works nicely for normal listening levels.

What’s nice about these speakers is that they will also play the higher power side of the
fence without distortion or strain. Push pull amplifiers rated up to 30 watts RMS also
work with these speakers and will achieve HUGE playback levels.

HDT206EM OWNERS MANUAL

THE BEST AMPLIFICATION FOR FIDELITY

These speakers are honest. They let you hear exactly what the limitations of all preced­ing gear is. Bad recordings will sound bad. Good recordings will sound REAL. The fi­delity of any system is restricted by the weakest link in the component chain. This is
usually the source, followed by amplification. High quality Tube gear is recommended.
Ideally ours.

HOOKING YOUR SPEAKERS UP

There are standard binding posts located fairly high up on the cabinet back. This was
done to keep the wire connecting the binding posts and the speaker as short as possi­ble. These will accept bare wire up to 8 gauge, or spade connectors and are marked
RED (+) and BLACK (-). These connectors will also accept banana jacks. We recom­mend decent quality speaker cables. Lamp cord or similar budget wire will hamper the
clarity and smoothness of the speaker.

ABSOLUTE PHASE

Just because your equipment is market with (+) and (-) doesn’t guarantee your bottom
line absolute phase will be correct. Absolute phase is a subtle thing that effect image
placement in the sound stage, and sometimes even frequency balance to a small de­gree. Any piece of audio gear from your source to your amplifiers can and does change
absolute phase, usually several times. Lots of audio gear flips absolute phase without
flipping it back again. This can be a source, phono stage, preamp, crossover, power
amp etc. It is a good idea every so often to reverse the (+) and (-) wires on both
speakers to flip the absolute phase and then listen carefully to see which way sounds
better. This should be done every time a component in your system changes.

PLACEMENT and BASS RESPONSE

These speakers have wonderfully accurate bass response. However, in smaller un­treated listening rooms bass frequencies can accumulate and create a bass peak fol­lowed by the inability to hear very low bass. If you are in a small space and have to
place your speakers in close proximity to walls or corners you may find the bass is too
strong. In the back of the speaker cabinet at the bottom is a rectangle port that can
be plugged to reduce bass output.

PLACEMENT AND IMAGING

Provided you have a healthy and happy stereo set, you’ll probably notice right away
that these speakers image unusually well. They can disappear at distances of only 4
feet from your kneecaps. They are so good in this department that when compared to
other single driver full range speaker designs you may feel like it really doesn’t matter
where you put them. If this happens, please realize that just because the sound you’re
hearing is better then what you had doesn’t mean it’s right. Take the time to experi­ment with placement during the first few weeks. In the smaller room shown on the
cover of this manual the speakers are ideally placed. The sound stage goes well beyond

HDT206EM OWNERS MANUAL

PLACEMENT AND IMAGING CONT.

the width of the room as does the depth. This is considered a near-field arrangement
with respect to the listening chair and is ideal for those infatuated with the finer points
of music playback. In the reference room pictured on the manual being fed with a top
notch source the speakers have a perfect frequency balance with believable weight and
dynamics while maintaining a glass smooth top end at all times. They were voiced and
referenced against our Acoustats and sound almost exactly the same. This is very rare
for a speaker to be this good. Point is, these are ideal conditions which you may not
have. We can help you hear the full potential of these speakers by consulting you on
the room and the rest of your gear at any time - just call us.

HDT206EM OWNERS MANUAL

The HDT features a super high order cabinet design

developed in 1989 by Steve Deckert.

Shown in natural Maple with Grill.

FEATURES

The cabinet design offers superior performance over standard reflex enclosures
in both linearity and imaging. It has many of the advantages of a horn loud­speaker with none of the drawbacks. Interestingly enough it works best with
drivers designed for horn loading.