What about AER? (BD-Design)

by Bert , Tuesday, April 25, 2006, 15:17 (6578 days ago) @ Niels van der Linden

Hi Niels,

Can you talk a bit about the theory behind compression drivers, and what
are their strong and weak points and why?

The strong point of compression drivers is their speed, dynamics and very high sensitivity. How this works in theory can be explained better by others, I usually do not care how things work exactly as long as it does work as it should...

Weakness is already implemented in the name "Compression". About 80% of the radiating dome or ring is covered or closed giving more pressure back to the diaphragm resulting in higher efficiency but also less "freedom" in sound.

At a spec page of one of the compression drivers you mentioned, it looked
like it was a two-way driver. Is it flat-phase, like Fostex/AER/etc (dual
cone), or is the signal split with a filter, like TaNoy (dual
concentric).

The 4592ND drivers I am using are coaxial designs. A midrange and tweeter mounted in the same housing. This has a major advantage of being a point source like full-rangers and therefore possible to create a filter without the negative impact a "normal" multi-way system with all drivers on top of each other and radiating from different places... the wave front looks real weird and completely different on every angle.

If you're using passive filtering, how does that not hurt the sound; as
this is one of the strong points of the AER system/dual cone type systems.

Yep, I am using passive filtering and that hurts the sound but it gives freedom to tune the tonal balance towards perfection (if possible) or taste.

A full-range system like AER is basically also a 2-way system but then using an acoustical filter deviding the main cone (mid-range) and the whizzer (tweeter).

A compression driver is more dynamic and more detailed compared to even the best full-range drive units but it needs a filter. Compromises, compromises.... :wacko:

Ciao,

Bert

--
BD-Design - Only the Best!

Tags:
0