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ARTS
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arrive in Jacksonville, Florida, only to be
surprised on two counts: the first being
that what I took to be a small village
I
turned out to be a sprawling city bustling
with life; the other being that if I don’t find the
United Speaker Systems building soon, the humidity is going to do me in. Fortunately, Ken
Hecht, president of the company, is there to
usher me into the building and the blessed
A/C. What’s interesting is that I’m in a working
factory for speakers – it’s not just a place where
engineers toss ideas around and then call someone overseas to take care of. United Speaker
Systems has been producing speakers for wellknown manufacturers for more than 50 years.
Ken conducts a tour of the facilities, noting
that they produce the entire product from beginning to end. And through a rapid turnaround and a number of innovations, they can
turn on a dime (as it were) and change the
procedures to handle just about anything those
having speakers made can ask for.
Normally we’d have a lot of questions, but
since we’re interviewing Ken later (Industry
Giants, p. 68), we can dive right in.
The process of making a speaker distilled
down to its basics – and ignoring the obvious
fact that it has to be designed in the first place
– is simple enough: you build a box, take
speaker drivers and put them into that box, wire
the speaker drivers up, close and finish the box,
stick it in a package and wave goodbye. But
as Ken takes us through the 60,000-squarefoot plant, we can see there’s a lot more to each
of these steps. For instance, in a corner is a thin
wire (that will be used for voice coils) being
stretched from one end of the plant to the other
and coated with a thermosetting adhesive. After
the wire is wound on the voice coils, it is baked
at 500 degrees to thermoset it. This insures it
will not soften due to heat from the electric current flowing through it when in operation. In
passing by some of the testing cubicles, we’re
told that they match each speaker to +-1 1/2dB
of the reference speakers for an exacting sound.
In the room where the speaker boxes are
being cut to size – by people actually using machines, not machines being watched by people – a vacuum system keeps all the wood chips
and sawdust moving away so it doesn’t settle
down on the speaker enclosures, which are being cut with a near-fanatical precision (the CNC
router weighs around 1,700 pounds!). In the
paint room, slightly more air is being pumped
into it than being evacuated out, so as to keep
the paint from being sucked out before it has
time to evenly spread on the cabinet. And of
course, computer workstations are used in conjunction with human testers to make sure the
various speaker drivers are tested for frequency
response and accurate motion, in order to accurately reproduce and handle the type of musical power for which they are intended (i.e.,
There are three versions of the dARTS speaker system:
free-standing, wall-mountable (on or flush) and in-wall.
at one station, a worker delivers a spike of 100W
to a tweeter driver, then analyzes the response
to verify the driver hasn’t given up the ghost
and can handle such demands in the future).
Ken also points out that the word “tolerance”
is treated like unto a god here: voice coils (basically wire wrapped around a metal core that
is then magnetized) are of such a tight tolerance that it seems a wonder that they can fit so
perfectly snugly into their intended speaker
drivers’ magnets. This, by the way, is just one
of the reasons that work done here is so exacting. While overseas expertise is quite good,
tolerance factors such as this are not followed,
as a wider tolerance is considered good enough.
Maybe for others, but not for Ken, which is also
why every speaker is checked twice on the assembly line before being boxed. Additionally,
samples of each group of boxes are pulled out
to be rechecked once again before a production run is released for shipment.
The result is a near 0.1% failure rate, which
not only makes United Speaker Systems’ clients
(you’d know their names because you probably have one of these speakers) and the consumers happy, but also ties into the Phase
Technology line, giving it excellent quality right
out of the starting gate.
52 HDTV ETC•December/January 2006 www.hdtvetc.com
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The dARTS speaker system is designed to remove your
listening room’s anomalies from the sound equation.
But there’s more to that – which is one of
the reasons we came over. While Phase
Technology was created originally as a “showcase,” Ken says that they expect to strengthen
the line and give it more prominence in the future. The dARTS system is one heck of a way
to get it going through an evolutionary leap into
their second half-century.
dARTS stands for Digital Audio Reference
System and basically consists of four distinct
parts. First, you have the speakers themselves,
the best dynamic products Phase Technology
makes, consisting of free-standing speakers that
are aesthetically pleasing and deliver superior
sound, a complete set of speakers that can be
either mounted on or flush in the wall, and a
series of in-wall speakers that include their own
dedicated, damped, in-wall enclosure, utilizing
a patented Positive Clamping System to assure
optimal performance regardless of the wall’s
construction. In the factory’s demo room in
which the system is set up, we have a pair of
left/rights, each featuring a one-inch variable
axis soft-dome tweeter (United Speaker Systems
invented the soft-dome tweeter in 1962!) and
two six-inch glass/honeycomb woofers that are
able to synch together so as to form one sound
output. Each of these is sitting upon a powered 500-watt subwoofer. For the center channel there’s a one-inch variable axis soft-dome
tweeter and two six-inch glass/honeycomb
woofers. The side surrounds consist of two
5.25-inch glass/honeycomb woofers and two
one-inch variable axis soft-dome tweeters,
which are bipole/dipole switchable. All the
woofers and tweets are powered by their own
250-watt digital amplifier channel. The digital
electronics in the amplifier control all aspects
of the speakers, including crossovers, phase
and frequency response. Because this is done
in the digital domain, they are able to keep the
speakers’ tolerance to an incredible +-1/2dB to
their reference standard.
Of course, there is a matching powered subwoofer featuring two of Phase Technology’s 10inch long-throw drivers, coupled to one
250-watt amplifier each, for a total of 500 watts
per cabinet. The subwoofer’s cabinet is the
same width as the front speaker, so it can be
used as a stand for a speaker.
All models are designed using the same drivers, and voiced identically so they can be used
interchangeably in any position in the system,
no matter if that system is stereo, 5.1-, 6.1-, 7.1channel or any other future format. If more
bass impact is needed, multiple subwoofers can
be used. Systems can be stacked to provide
adequate volume levels in even very large
spaces. Phase Technology will even work with
clients and their A/V installer to design custom
systems with larger speakers and custom designed software to match. Add to that the magic
of the digital processing power of the amplifier’s setup modes and the optional Audyssey
MultEQ XT room calibration package, and stunning realism, involving effects and dynamic
power are assured in any listening environment.
Rooted to them all is a 4,000-watt digital amplifier able to put out 250 watts per each of its
sixteen channels. Barely over 20 pounds in
all, the digital amp runs extremely cool and
the fan inside barely purrs. The amplifier also
contains powerful DSP configuration tools for
each channel, allowing Phase Tech to individually tweak each speaker (and the entire system) to match each other and the target
response curves, within +/-1/2dB. By setting
the crossover point, frequency response and
time alignment, a perfectly-matched system can
be provided to each consumer.
The amp also has a front-mounted USB con-
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d
ART S HITS THE BULLS-EYE
nector that is designed to accept input from the
additional system component – the software.
Using a PC rather than a chip in the digital
processor enables greater abilities in the digital
measuring and room correction applications that
are needed. This is opposed to those processors on the market that do this through a builtin chip – functional to a point, but limited in
scope and unable to match the power of a PC
devoted to this task through software.
The final component, used in conjunction
with the software, is a microphone on a stand
and a digital audio mixer. These will be used to
measure the audio response of the room in several locations to let the software work its magic.
The dARTS speakers may be perfectly
matched to each other and to a chosen target
curve, but that’s not enough in the real world.
As I understand it, the real problem with sound
is that no matter how well a speaker has been
designed, it can’t take into effect the room in
which it will be placed, and therefore the
acoustic impact that will occur. Sound bounces
multiple times off the floor, walls and ceiling,
and is also affected by such things as carpeting
or whether there are glass windows or a fireplace, etc. So the idea is to correct for this – or
to be more accurate, the hope is to take the room
out of the equation of the resultant sound.
To date, the process has been to place a microphone in the “sweet spot” of a single listener,
play and analyze tones and then calculate an
equalization curve. Obviously this doesn’t bode
well for those not seated in the sweet spot, and
so additional techniques have been added to
average in reading from those in other positions
as well. But the end result is still averaging –
person A who is seated in chair #4 will not gain
the benefit of hearing what person B might,
since B is in the best position for listening. Ken
adds that when different positions are averaged,
if one seat has a peak at, say, 200 Hz, and another has a dip at the same frequency, the resulting average will yield NO correction at all.
Where dARTS is different is that the software
(from Audyssey Laboratories) isn’t doing an averaging – it’s actually able to compare and
weigh the responses from the different seats
over and over, and then modify the sound so
that people in various positions hear it the same.
This is possible due to the speed and power of
the digital processor – something that Ken notes
wasn’t possible earlier on. He places the microphone in the first position – which is for one
seated in the center of a couch – and provides
the processor with its delay and channel level
settings. Readings 2 and 3 are for those seated
at the sides, while 4 and 5 are for hypothetical
people standing behind those seated, and 8, 9
and 10 are for a second row of seats. After the
software does its thing (a process taking a few
minutes, at most), I can see a graphical display
of the sound for each channel, and then how
each position has now been evened out with
the other so that no matter where you are, you’ll
hear the same sound without the room getting
in the way. Ken says that up to 32 positions
can be enacted, though realistically there is a
sensibility that needs to be applied. But this
works regardless of small or large space, as the
correction filters which are derived compensate for the room’s anomalies, making the
speakers sound the same regardless of the
room, and again, at every seat.
A key press now sends this information into
the amplifier’s EPROM for permanent storage.
This process can be repeated at any time to increase/decrease/change the number of people
who will be in the specific listening space, or
to correct for new room furnishings.
So, let’s watch some movies and listen to
some music. Ken keeps the software running
so I can toggle the digital technology on and
off (as dARTS is sold through a dealer/installer
bringing his/her own PC as well as the other
needed installation equipment, the system is
left “on” without this toggling available to the
end user). He puts on “House of Flying
Daggers,” which features an amazing sequence
of drums sounding off as they’re struck by both
pebbles and coiled cloth. I focus on the echoes
of the drum strikes, which fade rapidly and indistinctly. Toggled “on” however, I can now
hear a gradual fading of the echoes around me,
creating a much more distinct surround that is
as realistic as it is impressive.
For gunshots, it’s The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen and the sequence in which Dorian
Gray’s library is shot to pieces by machine guns.
Again, the echoes of the bullets are much more
realistic and well defined with the DSP enacted,
without it they sound teeny and hard. But U571’s
scene in which the men in the submarine wait
as depth charges go off all around them really
drives the value of the system home. Here, it’s
big explosions that literally rattle your teeth.
But the realism now attained is quite astounding: one hears the rippling of the water as the
shock waves dissipate from the explosions, and
the creaking of the sub’s metal has an immediate intimacy that is nearly painful. Of course
this was in there all along, having been put in
place by the sound editor and heard in the theaters. But it’s taken dARTS to unlock it from the
DVD so that it can now be revealed.
Perhaps the most telling example comes
from a more than 25-year-old Telarc CD,
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Digitally remastered, it sounds quite good, but the ending –
where digital cannons mix with church bells
and the orchestra crescendos – becomes truly
muddy and even mushy. Toggling the DSP
back on, the replay displays none of these negative characteristics: the bells are distinct and
their “tink” sharp and clear, the cannon shots
are properly weighted in their bass and solid
response, and the orchestration swells as a
merger of joyous sound in which all are participating without timidity.
Nice as this is, an in-room version is also in
the works. The in-rooms will consist of the
same drivers as the custom box version except
for the front left and right speakers, which have
only one woofer each. The cabinets are made
of a molded polymer and wood blend that
makes them very rigid and acoustically inert.
They are also highly stylized.
Now probably the hardest thing is to sum
up describing the results: after all, this is all about
listening, not reading about listening. So
imagine first covering your ears and listening
to music for an hour or so. Your brain will become accustomed and will attempt to compensate. Upon taking your hands away,
suddenly everything sounds brighter, clearer
and with greater clarity and more definition. Or
how about this – imagine a spinning wheel with
jagged edges: the sound as it spins is harsh
and biting and grrrr.... Now replace that with a
smooth wheel to find a gentler, even swooshing sound that is not just more pleasant, but
more even and considerate to the ear. This is
what dARTS is doing by building perfectlymatched speakers and removing the room from
the equation so the sound you hear in your
home is now as near to what the creators had
intended as is humanly possible. Did I momentarily envision backing up a truck to load
it all on and drive off into the Floridian sunset?
You bet I did!
•
– By Marshal M. Rosenthal
54 HDTV ETC•December/January 2006 www.hdtvetc.com
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