MESSE09: Genelec Previews New Speaker Technology

US 8260A 3-way DSP Active Monitor announced 07/04/09

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Here's all the details directly from Genelec...
Genelec is very proud to be able to introduce to the market a major advance in audio driver technology integrated to a sophisticated enclosure design. With the new MDCâ„¢ Minimum Diffraction Coaxial Mid/High driver technology Genelec takes a step further in its task of refining audio quality in active studio monitors.
The 8260A is a master piece in electro-acoustic design as mechanical, acoustical, and signal processing designs are intimately linked together. It uses a die-cast aluminum enclosure, which provides new possibilities to perfect the quality of a monitoring loudspeaker. For given external dimensions the internal effective volume can be increased, improving low frequency efficiency and providing extended LF cut-off which is at 26 Hz (-3 dB) in the 8260A. Also, enclosure vibrations can be eliminated by integrating stiffening ribs. The DSP processor in the 8260A contains all basic loudspeaker signal processing functions, such as the crossover filters, driver equalization, driver position alignment, as well as all the room alignment related filters, such as the room response equalizers and time-of-flight correction.
The Genelec Loudspeaker Manager (GLMâ„¢) software handles 8260A as any other 8200 series DSP loudspeakers in a system, allowing mix of different models within the same setup. Genelec AutoCalâ„¢, part of GLMâ„¢, is the unique automated room calibration and sound system alignment method providing consistent and accurate frequency response for a multichannel audio system in widely varying room environments.
The 8260A loudspeaker system represents Genelec's cutting-edge innovations in all technology domains: the corner stone of the enclosure design heritages the advantages of the 8000 series. In addition, the electronic domain (hardware and software) of the system benefits from the advanced 8200 Series design with advanced AutoCalâ„¢ auto-calibration system. The MDCâ„¢ coaxial MF/HF breakthrough solution makes the loudspeaker unique in the market.
MDCâ„¢ Minimum Diffraction Coaxial Technology New Genelec breakthrough in Mid/High frequency performance
As we know Coaxial drivers have existed for many years and are common in two way systems but not so much in three way systems reproducing only mid and high frequencies. Typical to all current coaxial design is somewhat ragged frequency response due to inherent diffraction problems. Though, crossover issues due to non-coincident location of sources are solved with a coaxial configuration. Here lay the seeds of Genelec's Minimum Diffraction Coaxial (MDCâ„¢) solution: while it benefits from typical coaxial design advantages, it now overcomes several shortages as well.
The technical dilemma lies in the directivity control behavior of the loudspeaker's midrange and high frequencies. With a compact enclosure, the constraint of having a too small DCWâ„¢ waveguide would particularly compromise the midrange radiation control. For this reason, the use of a coaxial driver was quickly outlined and the initial developments and prototype work on an advanced Genelec coaxial driver date from the late 90's.
The main structure of the MDCâ„¢ tweeter-midrange coaxial design consists of an integrated cone-surround-tweeter construction, where the cone suspension consists of a smooth and curved surface. The visible surface of the coaxial driver is formed only by the curved foam surface with the coaxial tweeter assembly in its center. The inner section joins the cone to the tweeter structure without any acoustical discontinuity, and the outer one does the same between the cone and the driver chassis. As there is no acoustically observable joint between the tweeter and the cone, there is no diffraction either. The cone profile is designed to form an integrated directivity control waveguide for the tweeter radiation. The cone outer edge is terminated by a DCWâ„¢ waveguide in order to control the dispersion of midrange radiation as well.
This breakthrough in coaxial design provides improved imaging and overall sound quality on- and off-axis, extremely smooth frequency response leading to outstanding clarity and definition of the inner details of the music. Besides providing considerably more sound pressure than Genelec's largest 2-way, the 8260A combines for the first time a coaxial driver (MDCâ„¢) within a modern waveguide (DCWâ„¢), ensuring drivers to couple coherently over their full operating bandwidth as well as being single MF/HF coincident point source.
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