jad5 Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 I've noticed your C7 center employs a 2 1/2 way crossover but am somewhat dissapointed to find the RF5 and RF7 towers are only 2 ways. Was this ever an option in the design and is this something we might see in the future? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BobG Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 The 2 1/2 way design in the RC-3 II and RC-7 eliminate a problem not found in speakers such as the floorstanding RF-5 and RF-7. There is a rule of thumb in speaker design - don't use multiple drivers to reproduce a single band of information unless those drivers are closer together than 1/2 wavelength of the highest frequency produced. In the case of the center channel speakers, the two LF drivers are futher apart than that rule suggests. What happens? The two drivers interfere with each other like dropping two rocks into a pond at the same time, but not in the same exact spot. The waves produced by one rock (LF driver) interfere with those produced by the other and a pattern of addition/cancellation results. This causes shift in tonality and means that moving your head slightly side to side causes that tonality to change. Also, the person sitting next to you does not get the same sound you do. How to remedy? Well you could use just one LF driver, but that would minimize bass performance where it's already not great due to small box and driver size. The other solution is to use both drivers to make the deepest notes (where they ARE within 1/2 wavelength) but shut one off at the upper end of the driver's range. It's called "Tapered Array" in the pro world and it's called 2 1/2 way in home audio products. Nicely eliminates the problem. Now, in speakers with the woofers mounted one above the other, there is still interference that must be accounted for but the big difference is that as you move your head laterally, or as you listen from the seat on the right or left, you do NOT come closer to one of the two LF drivers, that distance remains constant. Thus, our research shows little benefit to using 2 1/2 way design in the floorstanding models. There is a negative though. Total power output is reduced as only one of the drivers is working above about 300 Hz or so. It's all about trade-offs and we've carefully considered them in the design of the different models. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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