bhs@siemens.UUCP (05/22/85)
peoplethinkthatthislineiseatenbutitisnot,isit?youcanseeitafterall,canyounot? Yesterday, at lunch, two of us went over to one of the local audio dealers ( Absolute Sound , Princeton, NJ ). Among various other more or less good pieces of equipment that we were demonstrated, we heard a pair of speakers made by an outfit called ITC. What was amazing about these speakers was the top - quality sound ( no flames, please, if I say that the sound is good, it is as far as I am concerned ) emanating from such small speakers. The speakers did not seem to be much taller than 1.5 feet, by 1 by 1 foot. They were mounted on relatively tall pedestals ( ca. 2.5 feet ). Furthermore, they were also somehow connected or at least associated to a small black box called Bass Distortion Reducer, again by ITC. Since we heard an excellent recording, played on a CD player, the sound was, to quote a prominent Valley Girl, like totally awesome. As was the imaging. Can any of the more technically oriented readers of this net perhaps enlighten me as to how ITC can achieve such good sound from the small case describhed, and furthermore, what role does the Bass Distortion Reducer play, or how does it work? Bernard H. Schwab Siemens RTL, Princeton, NJ
ben@moncol.UUCP (Bennett Broder) (05/23/85)
>Can any of the more technically oriented readers of this net perhaps enlighten >me as to how ITC can achieve such good sound from the small case describhed, >and furthermore, what role does the Bass Distortion Reducer play, or how does >it work? Although I am not familiar with the ITC speaker, I strongly suspect that the 'Bass Distortion Reducer' is simply an active bass equalizer. It provides enough bass boost to provide flat response down to say 50hz (actual value depends on size of LF driver and cabinet design), then rolls response off sharply. Thus the speaker does not waste power and produce distortion trying to produce frequencies lower than the woofer can reasonably produce, but has excellent characteristics above that point. Ben Broder ihnp4!princeton!moncol!ben vax135!petsd!moncol!ben
herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong [DCS]) (05/23/85)
In article <30200012@siemens.UUCP> bhs@siemens.UUCP writes: >What was amazing about these speakers was the top - quality sound ( no flames, >please, if I say that the sound is good, it is as far as I am concerned ) >emanating from such small speakers. The speakers did not seem to be much taller >than 1.5 feet, by 1 by 1 foot. They were mounted on relatively tall pedestals ( >ca. 2.5 feet ). Furthermore, they were also somehow connected or at least >associated to a small black box called Bass Distortion Reducer, again by ITC. > >Since we heard an excellent recording, played on a CD player, the sound was, to >quote a prominent Valley Girl, like totally awesome. As was the imaging. > >Can any of the more technically oriented readers of this net perhaps enlighten >me as to how ITC can achieve such good sound from the small case describhed, >and furthermore, what role does the Bass Distortion Reducer play, or how does >it work? > >Bernard H. Schwab >Siemens RTL, Princeton, NJ this is pure conjecture, as i have never heard of ITC speakers, but have heard of speakers that are probably similar. the Bass Distortion Reducer (BDR) is probably a feedback amplifier with some form of position detection within the speaker's bass driver. this is not saying that the speaker is self-powered. it controls the signal reaching the speaker so that the motion of the driver matches that of the input signal to the unit. i would guess that the BDR unit fits in a tape monitor loop or between the pre-amp and power-amp. 3a (a french speaker company) uses this type of approach for two of their three top-of-the-line speaker models. they achieve 25-20k response within 3 dB from an 8"x11"x24" (approx) box with some sacrifice in efficiency. being so small, good imaging is easier to achieve and placement is less critical, although 3a has specific recommendations for each model. i like the sound of 3a speakers, but by the time i could afford the ones i liked, the dealers around here stopped carrying them, so i couldn't do any listening comparisons. of course, the people at ITC could have discovered an entirely new physical principle 8-). Herb Chong... I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble.... UUCP: {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!water!watdcsu!herbie CSNET: herbie%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet ARPA: herbie%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa NETNORTH, BITNET, EARN: herbie@watdcs, herbie@watdcsu