A typical three-way design operates with three different types of drivers dividing the audio spectrum into three bands. Normally it features one or more woofers, one midrange driver and one tweeter. It is common to set the crossover from the woofer to the midrange driver between 150Hz and 300Hz whereas the crossover frequency from midrange to tweeter is normally set between 2000Hz and 3000Hz.
Active Cone Damping was first developed and implemented by Audio Physic in order to avoid resonances associated with metal cones. A silicone/rubber ring is mounted on the outer ring of the cone where it directly applies pressure on the cone. This is a highly effective means to eliminating the otherwise unavoidable ringing and therefore removes the metallic sound.
Audio Physic's three-way and three-and-a-half way loudspeakers are equipped with side firing woofers. Even when applying large-diameter cones, our loudspeakers keep a narrow baffle design which allows for the superb spatial imaging Audio Physic loudspeakers absolutely excel at. Compared to the configuration often used nowadays where the woofers are mounted only on one side, Audio Physic prefers to arrange them on both sides of the cabinet. The drivers are operating in phase (all woofer cones move simultaneously in the same direction, either inwards or outwards). Forces acting on the cabinet are nearly cancelled out with this effective – so called push-push configuration – and precise, low-resonance sound reproduction is achieved. However, the push-push configuration must not be confused with the push-pull principle commonly used for power amplifiers.
A negative impact from unwanted resonances on the transmission of signals can be detected at each point of the reproduction chain. The use of high-quality and stable rack systems as well as special stands, feet or bases may often yield astonishing results.
However, no attention was paid to another important path of mechanical mischief-makers. Cables – necessary to transmit the signal – not only carry electrical signals, unfortunately they also carry mechanical energy which moves at its strongest in the opposite direction to the signal. Therefore, vibrations picked up and measured on a loudspeaker cabinet can be followed back to the source of the signal. Audio Physic has developed the Vibration Control Terminal in order to eliminate such unwanted vibrations. The massive aluminium construction is additionally damped and fitted with a neoprene gasket for elastic suspension ensuring that the binding posts are effectively decoupled from the cabinet.
Most Audio Physic loudspeakers now come with a pair of high-quality (WBT) binding posts for single wiring. Experience has shown that only a few of our customers have actually decided on bi-wiring or bi-amping their loudspeakers, however they were not entirely prepared to accept the adverse effects on sound quality associated with the mandatory cable bridges or metallic bridges.
Most of our speakers are designed to be fitted with bi-wiring or bi-amping terminals on request. In the case of first orders we are able to comply with your special requirements with regard to bi-wire / bi-amp configurations. Please note that it is not possible to convert from one configuration to the other thereafter.
Brand new loudspeakers require a burn-in period to achieve their best possible sound where the length of time for burn-in depends on the loudspeaker model and may take between 20 -50 hours. Even after this it is still possible to detect changes – in some cases they may even occur after many years. As far as particularly critical components are concerned, Audio Physic takes extra care to break them in before the loudspeaker is assembled in order to shorten the burn-in period.
Like in the case of the necessary burn-in period, there are many different opinions on how to do it the right way. Good results can be obtained by using special burn-in CDs, playing music or using a FM tuner to create static noise by tuning in between two radio stations.