Phase Technology PC-3.1, PC-Sub, PC 3.1 Series II Brochure & Specs

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RE VIEW S

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Re view of Phase Techn ology PC Loudspe ake r S e ries Inside

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$5.99 US $7.99 Canada
Volume 12, Number 10, Issue77

October 2003

www.WidescreenReview.com

EQUIPMENT REVIEW

Phase Technology PC
Series

Ph ase-Optimized Louds pea ker Sy stem

P

ERRY S UN

An Extensive Legacy In
Loudspeaker
Manufacturing

Phase Technology Corporation founder
Bill Hecht is a nearly 50-year veteran in the
manufacturing of loudspeakers and loud­speaker components, having founded
United Speaker Systems in 1955. Over the
past five decades, the company had estab­lished itself as an original equipment manu­facturer for several known companies
including Fisher, McIntosh, and Electro­Voice. Hecht started the Phase Technology
brand in 1978. Since then, the company has
been known for offering loudspeaker prod­ucts to the consumer of exemplary perform­ance and at an attractive value. Today, Bill
Hecht, the Chairman, and his son, Ken
Hecht, the President, are at the helm.

Phase Technology, and its United
Speaker Systems parent, are known for their
capabilities and techniques developed to
design and manufacture all aspects of a
loudspeaker. All of the essential compo­nents—drivers, crossovers, cabinets—are
crafted in-house. The company is also
known for a number of loudspeaker design
innovations, including the soft-dome tweeter
and the solid flat-piston driver.

The loudspeaker system Phase Technology
provided for this review comprises five PC 3.1
Series II ($600) satellite loudspeakers and two
PC Subs ($1,000), which are part of the
Premier Collection series, the company’s
flagship line. Other lines of products include
the Teatro Series, the Custom Install Series,
the Power Series (subwoofers), and the All­Terrain Series (indoor/outdoor loudspeakers).
New to the company is the Velocity Series.

Essential Components
And Design

The loudspeakers in the Premier
Collection (PC) Series are distinguished by
their grilles, which feature tapered contour­ing on the sides. The company offers a
choice of furniture-grade real-wood veneers,
including Natural Cherry, Honey Oak, and

Black Ash. The cabinets feature
rounded edges. The build quality
of the cabinets is abundantly
solid and of considerable mass.
The material used is 3/4-inch
MDF (medium-density fiber­board) and extensive internal
bracing is employed. Phase
Technology manufactures their
own cabinetry.

Loudspeaker Engineering

Phase Technology is one of
the few loudspeaker companies
that distinguish themselves by
building loudspeakers from the
ground up, including the drivers,
crossovers, and cabinets. It is generally
much more common for a loudspeaker
company to outsource the production of
drivers and enclosures, but Phase
Technology completely fabricates their
products in-house, allowing them to have
total control over the products they develop
and offer to the consumer.

The company’s meticulous crafting of
loudspeaker drivers begins with the voice coils.
A high-temperature adhesive is applied to
the voice coil copper conductor, which is
then hand-wound on the voice coil former.
In a baking process known as “thermoset­ting,” the adhesive is set and hardened on
the voice coil. Phase Technology claims that
this approach results in higher temperature
tolerances for their voice coils than those of
other manufacturers, and therefore, higher
sustained power handling capability.

The soft-dome tweeters used in the com­pany’s products are also the result of exten­sive research and development. The tweeters
are available in fixed and pivoting versions.
The latter, known as the Variable Axis Tweeter,
features a Neodymium Iron Boron magnet,
said to be the strongest magnet available. A
specially tooled housing for the tweeter
allows for pivoting of up to ±15 degrees.
Ferrofluid is used for cooling. The tweeters
used in the PC Series allow for tweeter piv­oting, horizontally or vertically. The

diaphragm is said to be highly damped and
of very low mass. The tweeter is surrounded
by a special Unicell®acoustic treatment to
minimize reflections off the baffle and grille
surfaces. The Unicell features a specific
porosity, which can be adjusted to meet a
desired frequency range for absorption.

The woofer drivers in the PC Series are
also the result of a special Phase Technology
design. Instead of a conical-shaped
diaphragm, a flat-surfaced, solid material is
used, known as Rigid Polymer Foam®(RPF®).
The foam is molded in shape, such that the
back surface is cone-shaped, but the front
surface is flat. Therefore, the driver essen­tially acts as a solid piston. The RPF is said
to be non-resonant throughout the driver’s
acoustically relevant operating range. The
company claims that the solid piston driver
helps to optimize phase coherence by hav­ing all frequencies emanate from the same
planar surface. Additionally, the RPF materi­al is said to dampen back reflections that
may occur inside the cabinet.

Absolute Phase Crossovers

Phase Technology is one of a handful of
companies that approaches crossover
design and driver integration with the goal
of optimizing phase coherence throughout
the audio frequency spectrum, particularly in

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WIDESCREEN REVIEW • ISSUE 77

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EQUIPMENT REVIEW

the range where the transition between drivers
occurs. To this end, they design and build
their own Absolute Phase™crossovers, specif­ically to the particular drivers and loudspeaker
design. The phase characteristics of one
driver and its crossover filter are designed
to match that of the other driver and its filter,
such that when combined, the net result is
phase coherence or zero net phase shifts.

Ensuring that relative phase relationships
are preserved with no extraneous temporal
delays, helps to maintain the intrinsic timing
relationships between frequencies, which con­vey the sonic cues relevant to spatial placement
and imaging. Another benefit to phase coher­ence is the ability to optimize dispersion in the
longitudinal axis of the speaker (axis in which
the drivers are collinear), which in and of
itself contributes to soundstaging. The inte­gration of frequencies from two drivers that
are of different phases can lead to a “lobing”
effect, thereby resulting in limited and incon­sistent speaker dispersion characteristics.

PC Series Review
System

PC 3.1 Series II

This a three-way satellite loudspeaker,
typically suited for home theatre left/center/
right channel applications, but can be also
used for the surrounds, as was the case for
this review. For a loudspeaker of its size, the
40-pound weight is rather considerable.
Two 6.5-inch RPF solid flat-piston woofer/
midranges flank a 1.5-inch soft-dome
midrange and a 1-inch soft-dome Variable
Axis Tweeter, both of which are surrounded
by Unicell acoustical treatment. The compa­ny says that with a lightweight diaphragm
and large magnet, the soft-dome midrange
was designed to achieve particularly fast
response and therefore, more accurate ren­dering of transients. The tweeter and
midrange are mounted on an anodized,
powder-coated aluminum frame, which can
be separated from the baffle and reoriented

to allow for horizontal or vertical loudspeak­er positioning. The crossover between the
woofer and midrange is set at 700 Hz, and
for the midrange and tweeter it is set at 3.5
kHz. The low-pass and high-pass slopes for
both crossovers is 24 dB per octave (meas­ured acoustically). Phase Technology claims
that this loudspeaker is capable of repro­ducing low frequencies down to 38 Hz, ±3
dB. The cabinet is a ported design, with the
opening on the rear panel. The PC 3.1
Series II has a single set of gold-plated,
five-way binding posts.

PC Sub

The PC-Sub is the subwoofer in the PC
series, featuring a 10-inch driver with a
mica/graphite/polymer cone and a large
rubber surround for large excursions. The
driver is mounted onto a ported cabinet,
with the opening on the front surface. The
low-end response limit for this driver is
claimed to be 20 Hz, ±3 dB. Controls
include continuously variable crossover set­ting (between 40 and 110 Hz, adjusts the
corner frequency of the low-pass filter) and
a phase switch. The low-pass filter rolls off
at 24 dB per octave. The PC-Sub accepts
line- and speaker-level inputs and outputs,
and allows for bypassing the internal filter
via a switch, when the line-level input is
used. Like most other subwoofer models on
the market these days, there’s an auto-sens­ing turn-on circuit and automatic standby.

System Setup

The Phase Technology PC Series loud­speaker system was installed in my refer­ence home theatre setup. The PC 3.1 Series
IIs were placed at positions conforming to a
“clock” configuration, with the front left and
right at angles of 30 degrees from the axis
defined by the central listening position and
the center channel loudspeaker. They were
also situated 8 feet from the “sweet spot.”
The surrounds were placed 7 feet from the
central seat, and positioned at angles of
120 degrees. All loudspeakers, with the
exception of the center channel, were
placed on stands such that the tweeter and
midrange were at about ear level. The cen­ter channel, at 9 feet from the listening seat,
was placed horizontally atop a Sony direct­view CRT monitor, with the tweeter and
midrange appropriately oriented. The sub­woofers were placed at the two strategic
locations previously found to yield the best
combination of output and tonal smoothness.

The components used for this review
included the Classé Audio SSP60 surround
processor, TAG McLaren DVD32FLR DVD­Video player, and the Proceed HPA3 and

Parasound A 51 power amplifiers. A sepa­rate set of components for high-resolution
multichannel audio playback included the
Sony SCD-C555ES SACD player, Integra
DPS-8.3 DVD-Audio/Video & SACD player,
Outlaw Audio ICBM-1 for bass manage­ment, and the McCormack Audio MAP-1
analog multichannel preamplifier. All cabling
used was from Kimber Kable; see page 8
for more details.

Bass management was applied to the
loudspeakers at 50 or 60 Hz. The “LFE”
input of the PC Subs was used, which
bypassed the internal low-pass filter. A sin­gle output from the surround processor or
analog preamplifier was split to the two sub­woofers.

Listening Tests And
Performance

Right off the bat, I have to say that the
aspect of the PC 3.1 Series IIs’ performance
that really stood out for me was their imag­ing capability. Whether with two-channel or
multichannel music sources, the result was
the ability to enjoy engaging, almost seam­less soundstaging between the loudspeak­ers, along with some detection of depth-of­field sounds. I’ve heard a few fine loud­speakers exhibit these attributes as well,
but generally these have cost considerably
more than the PC 3.1 Series IIs. The fact
that compelling spatial soundstaging is pos­sible in a loudspeaker that is affordably
priced is very impressive to me, and also is
simply the result of some very sound loud­speaker engineering.

With several of the PentaTone SACD reis­sues of vintage four-channel quadraphonic
recordings, I was readily able to notice the
sonic depiction of the expanses of a sym­phony orchestra in a grand concert hall. You
could pinpoint different instruments, or
groups of them, at almost discrete locations
along the frontal soundstage (in the absence
of any true center channel activity). You also
could notice the considerable width of the
sonic image, extending beyond the physical
locations of the left and right front loud­speakers. Additionally, listening carefully
enough, you should be able to discern sub­tle differences in distances of the various
instruments.

The PC 3.1 Series IIs also delivered very
respectable tonal quality, with the midrange
sounding articulate and abundantly natural.
Diana Krall’s voice came through with
delightful clarity and smoothness via Verve’s
impressive SACDs of The Look Of Love and
When I Look In Your Eyes. I thought that the
natural tonal quality of these loudspeakers
fared about as well as some models I have
listened to extensively, yet cost considerably

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WIDESCREEN REVIEW • ISSUE 77

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EQUIPMENT REVIEW

fidelity and spatial character, and as result,
making for a very enjoyable, entertaining lis­tening experience. The murder sequence
also demonstrated that the PC 3.1 Series IIs
were no slouch when it came to dynamic
range prowess. The sudden gunshot was
loud and very distinctive, transiently lifting
me off my seat! Another sudden gunshot in

Adaptation. imparted an even more dramatic
more. However, I have to say that the
exception would be the JMlab Electra loud­speakers I am currently using as a refer­ence, which offered a sound that seemed a
little warmer, a bit more open, overall lead­ing to a somewhat more natural sound.

Still, the Phase Technology loudspeakers
seemed to have a characteristic sound that
was neither top-heavy nor recessed in
nature, but rather nicely balanced and neu­tral. They also exhibited rather considerable
content in the low-end (below 100 Hz), in
fact somewhat more so than would have
been expected for a satellite loudspeaker.
True musical bass definition was notable,
though not quite to the extent I have experi­enced from certain “higher-end,” full-range
floor-standing models. There were some
hints of slight loosening in tonal control with
bass guitars and strings. Still, in terms of
overall tonality, I have to say that the PC 3.1
Series IIs offer substantial performance
capability for what they cost, in comparison
to speakers I have listened to that cost con­siderably more. And they usually don’t pos­sess similar imaging capabilities.

The characteristically neutral and bal­anced sound of the PC 3.1s lent itself won­derfully to the reproduction of movie sound­tracks. I spent considerable time with these
speakers experiencing some of the latest
movies on DVD, and overall I was very
delighted with the balanced tonality, articu­lation in sonic detail, and dimensionality. For
example, the musical numbers in Chicago
were delivered with almost impeccable clar­ity, amply revealing the recording’s very fine

effect.

The power handling capability of the
entire Phase Technology system was readily
noticed, especially with the very dynamic
and intense battle sequences on Geonosis
in Star Wars: Episode II—Attack Of The
Clones. There was simply nary a hint of dis­tress or distortion when played at or near
film reference level. Another aspect of the
PC 3.1 Series II loudspeaker that was very
impressive was the rendition of dialogue
through the center channel, which was con­sistently natural-sounding and neutral.

For those who really appreciate deep
bass, the PC Sub should not disappoint. For
a subwoofer with a 10-inch driver, sheer
low-end output was downright prodigious at
times, with lots of sub-35 Hz energy that
really shook the room, sometimes making its
presence known with fluctuations in air
pressure. With the test tones provided via
The 5.1 Audio Toolkit DVD, low-frequency
content was readily detectable, as low as
25 Hz. Somewhat surprisingly, the region
between about 60 and 75 Hz sounded
somewhat recessed, at least in my setup.
This is likely to affect the rendering of a kick
drum, for example, or a bass guitar.

For movie soundtracks, the PC Sub
should simply deliver with lots of satisfac­tion. It delivered with aplomb during the
intense subsonic sequences in Star Wars:
Episode II, as well as the heavy bass lines
on the Linkin Park Reanimation DVD-Audio
title. For the former, I detected virtually no
hint of distress, even when played at very
high sound pressure levels (near film refer-

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ence level). Musically, the PC Sub should
offer very good definition at the lowest fre­quencies, such as for an organ, and should
satisfy most, with perhaps the exception of
those who have become accustomed to the
most sophisticated and highest performing
of subwoofer designs.

Conclusion

The Phase Technology PC 3.1 Series II
satellite loudspeakers and PC Subs repre­sent a wonderful value, given their delightful
performance for both movie soundtracks
and music. The apparent phase accuracy
offered by these loudspeakers is something
not common to their many competitors. This
is a standout speaker system for the money
that should dutifully serve the needs of a
multi-purpose home theatre of considerable
performance capability. ■■

Phase Technology PC 3.1
Series II Loudspeaker

Frequency Response: 38 Hz-22 kHz, ±3 dB
Crossover Frequencies: 700 Hz (24 dB/Octave

High-Pass & Low-Pass), 3.5 kHz (24 dB/Octave

High-Pass & Low-Pass)
Nominal Impedance: 6 Ohms
Power Handling: 250 Watts Maximum
Efficiency: 92 dB
Drivers: Two 6.5-Inch Rigid Polymer Foam Solid

Flat-Piston Woofer/Midranges, One 1.5-Inch

Soft Dome Midrange, One 1-Inch Soft Dome

Variable Axis Tweeter
Cabinet Design: Bass Reflex
Finishes: Natural Cherry, Honey Oak, Black Ash

Furniture-Grade Real-Wood Veneers
Dimensions (WHD Inches): 8-1/4 x 22 x 11-3/4
Weight (In Pounds): 40
Price: $600

Phase Technology PC Sub
Subwoofer

Frequency Response: 20-180 Hz, ±3 dB
Crossover Frequency: Continuously Variable

Between 40 & 110 Hz (24 dB/Octave)
Phase Control: Switchable Between 0 And 180

Degrees
Amplifier Power: 300 Watts
Driver: 10-Inch Mica/Graphite/Polymer Cone

Woofer With Large Roll Rubber Surround
Cabinet Design: Bass Reflex
Finishes: Natural Cherry, Honey Oak, Black Ash

Furniture-Grade Real-Wood Veneers
Dimensions (WHD In Inches): 15-1/2 x 16 x 19
Weight (In Pounds): 65
Price: $1,000

Manufactured In The U.S.A. By:

Phase Technology Corporation

6400 Youngerman Circle

Jacksonville, Florida 32244

Tel: 888 PHASE TK

www.phasetech.com

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