Green Mountain Audio Vortex Brochure

Center Channels / Surround-sound

All products include our Happy Ears for Life™ warranty

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Time / phase-coherent, high-performance speakers featuring Balanced-Phase™ first-order crossovers / Q-Stone™ cast marble, designed by physicist Roy Johnson

Green Mountain Audio

Hear it all. It’s about...time.

| Write 310 South 25th Street COSCO USA 80904 | Call 719.636.2500 |

Visit greenmountainaudio.com | Email [e-mail]

Vortex | Aperture Center-Shelf | The Ticket

Vortex

center channel

Summary: Designer’s concept

Our Continuum 2 Center Channel debuted in 1999, with features that are today still considered breakthrough advancements.
However, developing and solving the mathematical formulas responsible for the Continuum 3’s pinpoint perfection also led
to the design and development of its center channel, the Vortex.

I had six design and engineering goals for the Vortex: 1) Fill a large room from a shelf location, built into wall, or above a
projection television; 2) Produce enough bass that a subwoofer wouldn’t be required; 3) Have very wide dispersion; 4) Soundfield

Convergence™ adjustments for proper sound
from any location; 5) Emit little sound directly to
the sides, or up and down, to prevent reflections
off nearby surfaces; and 6) Isolation feet to avoid
shelf resonance.

There was no escaping the math developed for
the Continuum 3. It showed the importance of
beginning at the listener’s ear and then working
back to the speaker’s position to determine the
size, location, and quantity of the speaker’s
drivers and the cabinet’s size and shape.

The need for wide dispersion led to only one
way to create excellent bass response: Two
smaller woofers flank a single midrange driver
and act exactly like one woofer centered ‘over’
the midrange. The tweeter is mounted directly

above to complete the ‘vertical alignment’
needed for the widest left-to-right dispersion. Two 6.5-inch, high-power, ultra-low distortion woofers were chosen and
angled outwards produced the most uniform low-voice dispersion. Because no 6.5-inch woofer will reach quite low enough
in the bass, each woofer required a proper port.

The midrange driver is placed behind the plane of the two woofers so its sound would reach your ear at the same instant,
for time-coherent sound reproduction. This put the midrange driver inside a short ‘tunnel.’ Lining that short tunnel with the
proper acoustic-absorption materials not only prevented reflections from the surfaces, but also suppressed the middle­range sounds usually sent directly out to the sides, and up and down, for fewer reflections off nearby walls and furniture. A
‘resistive vent’ in the back wall of the Vortex midrange enclosure ‘leaks’ low-frequency air pressure before the natural low­frequency resonance of the midrange driver can begin, resulting in the best blend between the midrange driver and
woofers. A unique, acoustic labyrinth between the midrange driver and resistive vent absorbs more sound than any other
method while still allowing the vent to supress that low-frequency resonance.

The tweeter’s large rear chamber captures its own rear waves, and it is, in turn, mechanically compression-damped by
dense wool felt placed between it and its Q-Stone™ cast marble enclosure. Thus, a completely non-resonant environment
is created for the microscopic motions of the tweeter’s dome. The shape of the enclosure allows the low treble to spread
into the wool felt immediately surrounding the tweeter, which cuts off low-treble sounds normally sent directly to the sides

Hear it all.

It’s about...time.

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and upwards, for fewer reflections from nearby surfaces. Wool felt below the tweeter throws an ‘acoustic shadow’ onto the
midrange driver, so little treble is reflected from the midrange cone.

Center Channels / Surround-sound

The cabinet construction is a direct descendant of the Continuum 3. Complicated corner joints and a Baltic-birch front
panel for each woofer provide rigid platforms from which the woofers push and pull. To isolate the Vortex, nine neoprene

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rubber feet of the proper stiffness were used.

Time / phase-coherent, high-performance speakers featuring Balanced-Phase™ first-order crossovers / Q-Stone™ cast marble, designed by physicist Roy Johnson

Through our simple, first-order crossover circuit engineering, all signals from the drivers seamlessly recombine into the

Green Mountain Audio

one original waveform at your ear. For example, the Vortex tweeter is also used in the Continuum 3. It’s so linear in its
operation that the entire crossover circuit feeding it consists of one super-premium capacitor. The midrange driver has a
very rigid and light cone of acrylic polymer impregnated with Kevlar, carbon fibers, and billions of microscopic air bubbles.
It’s 20 percent lighter than the best magnesium cone and has a special suspension. These features allow it to go very high
and also very low to easily blend with the tweeter and imperceptibly with the woofers. It’s also used in the Continuum 3
and, as with the tweeter, is so well-behaved that the entire circuit on the way to it consists of one super-premium capacitor
and three premium capacitors in parallel (making one large capacitor) along with two small Litz-wire oxygen-free-copper
inductors in series. The woofers in the Vortex operate from house-shaking low bass right up to the lower part of the voice
and piano range. Their cones have a low moving-mass of 16.6 grams—lower than most 6.5-inch woofers—and is made of
spun Nomex fibers and polymers that make them very rigid and non-resonant. This allows them to go very high, so they’re
easily blended with the midrange driver. Their special suspensions and intense magnetic fields allow them to go as low as
possible with very little distortion. As with the other drivers, the linear woofers require only one premium, very-low resistance
inductor in their circuit. The first-order crossover design we use presents ideal ‘forks in the road’ for the signal. The
measure of this is a ‘flat impedance curve.’ We call this Balanced-Phase™ crossover design. It’s inside all of our speakers
and allows any amplifier to deliver maximum power with the least distortion.

Since the Vortex midrange driver already lies between the two woofers, its position doesn't need to be adjusted. However,
the tweeter position may be adjusted from front-to-rear to focus the sound up or down in any listening area. This ability to
customize the field of sound was first introduced in 1996 in the Continuum 1 and named Soundfield Convergence™ because
it allows total control and provides the ultimate listening experience. You'll be transported into the action and stand shoulder­to-shoulder with the actors. Since two-channel music will have much greater clarity, depth, dynamics, and bass response,
you'll feel as if you're on stage with the musicians. I'm happy to give you the Vortex and the enjoyment it provides.

Hear it all. It’s about...time.

| Write 310 South 25th Street COSCO USA 80904 | Call 719.636.2500 |

Visit greenmountainaudio.com | Email [e-mail]

All products include our Happy Ears for Life™ warranty

Vortex | Aperture Center-Shelf | The Ticket

Specifications: Drivers, results & pricing

Woofers Two 6.5-inch, low-mass Nomex-fiber rigid cone. Low resonant frequency from highly-compliant ultra-linear

suspension of synthetic rubber and large, fully-vented flat spider; high-power, 2-layer 1.25-inch voice coil, also fully­vented. Cast alloy chassis; 24-ounce magnet, 11mm p-p linear excursion. Enclosure Vented 4th-order Butterworth, tuned
to 45Hz with two-inch ports on front faceplates.
fibers, micro air bubbles). 5.6 grams moving mass. Low resonant frequency from high-compliance suspension. Santoprene
rubber surround, large rear-vented flat spider. One-inch Kapton voice coil, vented via rubber phase plug. Die-cast MgZn
alloy chassis; 12 ounce magnet; 5.2mm linear excursion. Resistively-vented in alliptic, non-diffractive Q-Stone™ cast
marble housing containing damped acoustic line. Response -3dB at 320 and 2870Hz.
linen, hand-coated with polymer. High-compliance, inverse-roll contiguous suspension. Hex-wound copper-clad aluminum
voice coil wire, high-strength aluminum alloy former, Ferrofluid cooled, with 0.46 grams of moving mass. Large, damped
rear chamber. Double neodymium magnets, fully shielded. In alliptic, non-defractive, Q-Stone™ cast-marble housing with
integrated tweeter-chassis damping.
on Soundfield Converged (Soundfield Convergence™) axis, on first-arrival tone bursts, across approximately 75dB dynamic
window.
any two frequencies separated by a 10:1 ratio.
with loudness.
over full bandwidth.
constant until 7kHz, decreasing to cardioid at 10kHz.
Phase™ first-order circuit.
91dB for 2.83V at 1m, at sea level. Dynamically linear within 0.5dB to 100dB. Max SPL 103dB peak at 3m, first-arrival
(without room gain).
crossover parts +/- 0.15 percent. Birthdate November 10, 2004. Size without grille 16.5"H | 14"D | 31"W Weight without

grille 75lbs/34kg. USA pricing, each $4,300. Includes grille. Add shipping, applicable* fees. Finish Black Texture-Kote™.

*Taxes, customs, duties | Prices subject to change without notice | Copyright 2005-2006, Green Mountain Audio | For more visit greenmountainaudio.com

Distortion <0.5 percent harmonic 100Hz to 12kHz, < 1 percent intermodulation, both at 100dB at 1m. I.M.D. is for

Rise time <10 microseconds, positive or negative input. Does not vary with loudness. Polarity Positive,

Dispersion Omni at 41Hz, smoothly decreasing to wide-cardioid at 300Hz; a pattern maintained

Impedance 5.5 Ohms +/- 1 Ohm, from 150Hz to 20kHz. Does not vary with loudness. Sensitivity

Pair matching (when applicable) Amplitude +/- 0.25dB; impedance +/- 0.15 Ohms, 160Hz-8kHz;

Response +/- 0.75dB from 47Hz to 20kHz, -3dB at 41Hz and 24kHz, from 2.5 to 5m,

Hear it all.

Midrange 5.25" Aerogel cone (acrylic polymer gel, carbon and Kevlar

Tweeter Lightweight 28mm dome of

Phase shift +/- 3 degrees acoustically, from 220Hz to 8kHz. Does not vary

Power 7 to 150W (amplifier’s 8 Ohm rating). Crossover Balanced-

It’s about...time.

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