In the beginning, we were sourcing our amplifiers from outside. They were extremely good in terms of sound, but lacked the features we wanted. So we reached out to various ODM companies to develop an amplifier to our specifications. After discussing the project with them, we realized most of these companies had their own core technologies that then they tried to mold to our specifications. This meant their solutions were not quite as elegant as we hoped for, or didn’t meet our requirements. So we made a decision to develop our own amplifier. This would allow us to tailor the design to a perfect fit for our speakers; pushing their performance to the next level. A very exciting time!

Development

On our wish list for the new amplifier were things like ample power headroom, digital equalization, subwoofer output, headphone output, and very low distortion of course. We started by carefully evaluating and selecting the parts, designing the electronic schematic and PCB layout with extreme care to minimize noise and jitter. After months of research, development, and many prototypes, we developed the new amplifier with all the items in our wish list, and a powerful and versatile 24-bit DSP chip at its center.

Benefits

Our amplifier allows us:

1. To tune the enclosure, driver, and amplifier to work together seamlessly to deliver a deeper real bass, and a smoother frequency response.

2. To add a smart subwoofer output that automatically detects when a subwoofer is plugged in, and offloads the bass duty from the speakers by activating an internal high-pass filter, hence giving them more headroom.

3. Subwoofer output has a crossover internally to make sure the speakers easily integrate with any subwoofer, if one decides to add one.

4. Drivers are now directly coupled to the amplifier with no crossover components in between (as is the case with normal speakers). Meaning their movement is strictly controlled by the amplifier hence a tight sound.

5. There is ample headroom in the amplifier, meaning it can deliver the power that the drivers demand from it while maintaining a very low distortion.

Note to audio purists

If you are a purist reading this, the word DSP might give you shivers! After all, DSP is a device that manipulates the signal and the purist in you argues any manipulation of the signal is evil! To be honest, that's how we felt about DSP technology. The reason being, it has been used in many products to cover up the low quality of other components in the system. Or it has been used to add nasty 3D effects , bad bass and/or treble boost, and other so-called "enhancements" to the sound.

However, DSP is a tool (a very powerful one) and like any tool, if utilized properly, it can do wonders. Our methodology in utilizing DSP has been different from many consumer audio manufacturers. We have carefully used DSP only to help the speakers stay true to the original mix, and not to try to "improve" or "enhance" it.

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