Yesterday we showed you the new AN-3 beast of a woofer. Today I wanted to share the new 6.5" midbass couplers. While not as big and beast-like, they're even more important to sound quality than the woofer itself.
Very few speaker systems are 4-way with midbass couplers. This 4th driver has been sparingly used on a few designs but it was super important to Arnie Nudell: a key element in his concept of a speaker that can match any room and any music with the turn of a knob. By making this critical band of frequencies, 70Hz to 400Hz, adjustable and separately produced by a dedicated, linearized, low distortion driver, the all-critical midbass of music is not only preserved but is glorified. This is a band of frequencies that are perhaps the most important to get right in classical music as well as any vocals and most acoustic music. Arnie found this area critical, and so too do we.
Here are a few pictures of Chris Brunhaver's masterpiece that will soon be gracing the new AN-3.
There will be two of these on the An-3, one atop and the other below the coaxial ribbon midrange and tweeters I have yet to share with you (patience, my friends).
The smooth cone is custom designed out of rigid 6.5” anodized aluminum and is moved by a wicked cool linear motor system with high power handling.
Like the woofer I shared in yesterday's post, the midbass coupler is FEA optimized.
To get the low distortion and extended excursion this frequency area demands, Chris design an XBL split gap magnet structure using a 2” diameter voice coil, 11mm Xmax (in each direction), a large 90 mm diameter machined neodymium magnet with a symmetrical neodymium bucking magnet.
Like the 12" woofer, he used triple Faraday rings to linearize the inductance throughout the entire travel area and then cooled this beauty with extensive venting through a 1” pole vent, open basket design.
Like adding the finishing touches on any masterpiece, the icing on the cake is found in the driver's linear suspension based around a custom reverse S-roll surround and custom progressive Nomex spider with a stitched lead wire.
Whew! Two of these bad boys ought to bring the most critical regions of music to perfection.
Can't wait to show and play it for you!
