Dominance & Definition Series Six
Friday 13th, March 2020
Defintion Series Six
The foundation for Definition is richly ideologic, a set of broad and far reaching objectives balanced on both form and function; pragmatically weighted and scaled within an aesthetic of quiet confidence. A foundation sketched on size limits on the one hand and a wideband sound pressure potentials on the other. Boiled down:
Fit as much performance as possible into roughly one square foot [0.1 m2] of floor space—handsomely.
This is a deceptively simple pitch for Zu Definition loudspeakers, dymaxion even, very Bucky Fuller. What kind of performance and what is handsome? Big questions. Let’s say we start with the foundation of performance. For those of us that like massive works the foundation is the capacity to cleanly reach real sound levels without frequency discrimination. Limit me to easy music playback and watch me loose my mind. I think this is true of the majority of us that love music and sound and the art of playback. Let us have Mauler, Strauss, Primitive Man… complete presence and immersion of Zimpel, Rush, Reza Golroo…. Driving, dynamic, complex music played at less than immersive sound levels is distortion, and a kind of censorship—your system is forcing you to listen to small simple music which is limiting your ideas and restricting your own expression.
I think too few of us audiophiles get what Gene Czerwinski (Cerwin-Vega) was about. Playing loud should not be painful; if it is your system is broken, or your ears are. The threshold of pain for hearing for the majority of us is around 120dB-SPL average throughout the bulk of the audible spectrum, with the deep bass end being ten to a hundred times greater. So when your loud music sounds loud at a pedestrian SPL level of say 85dB (Z-slow) at your seat it’s almost certainly due to distortion.
Definition is designed to give real levels of sound for big and complex programs cleanly, and considerably—the considerably bit leading into the regions of tone and the interplay of waves and wave mechanics.
Zu created Druid, Druid informed Definition and Definition cried for Dominance.
Superposition and the Politics of Dancing
February 27, 2020
Marc Czerwinski[1] asks how this new full-range plus super-tweeter coax line array effects comb filtering, an important question to anyone considering either of the coming Dominance or Definition loudspeakers.
Dominance and Definition, those coming before Series Six anyway, were specifically designed as sit-down to enjoy products. Both used comb filtering constructively to improve some aspects of performance and increase the stereophonic experience within the target spot. The difference in sound quality between sitting and standing however was significant. While they were never intended to sound their best at parties, not that they lacked confidence or couldn’t do club level playback, they just both had very large personal space issues. If you listened to them closer than say about fifteen feet [4.6 m] and got up out of your chair to move to the music the magic fell flat, a real problem for those that occasionally turn their living room into a dance club, even if just for one.
The new Series Six coax array causes a unified cylindricalish wavefront quite near the front plane of both speaker models, the transition from near-field to unified is just a bit over three feet [1.0 m] and reaching a six feet [1.8 m] vertically measured window in about the same six feet [1.8 m] from speaker-face distance. The new Definition and Dominance create a wider, taller and much more stable sound-field, one wherein the magic remains compelling. Walking the line… the usable distance from loudspeaker is appreciably better—you are able to sit and enjoy as close as four feet [1.2 m] to the front plane of either Definition or Dominance, and there’s no longer a “no further than” limit like there was with the original Dominance.
[1] Son of the famous Gene? If yes, I have some questions about the discotheque days and in-house live-body sound experiments.
Dominance and Definition—Reasons for Being
Or in your best Bowie memory, chased with a nice dose of prog: Changes and The Pain of Salvation
February, 21, 2020
Dominance is an unapologetic large home/large studio loudspeaker platform, able to perform concert level playback with self-possessed confidence regardless of the selected content. And when I say regardless that is specifically what I mean—it must be able to playback the biggest and most dynamic music and sounds with realism and grace. The assumed in that statement is that it also possess the capacity to playback with delicacy and nuance even the most soft and fragile patterns and tones.
Definition’s reason for being, particularly in light of the coming Dominance Series Six is to give listeners all the possible performance of Dominance yet fit in roughly one square foot [30 cm2] of floor space—handsomely. More on Definition Series Six in the next installment.
The original Dominance made its debut at CES, January 2011. The main performance feature was a focused line array of three full-range drivers with two end-positioned mirrored tweeters—all mounted on a machined five inch [125 mm] billet aluminum baffle. The resulting wavefront was quite complex, performing like a cylindrical wavefront in some regions and an approximate point source in others. The intent of this design was one of optimization at the listening seat with a butter-zone listening distance from speaker-plane of ten to twenty feet [3 - 6 m], with a vertical listening window confined and centered to the seated heads in the room. Yes, this was a compromise. The result of being in love with the matchup of our full-range driver and the massively large Radian 850 tweeter driver—placing that nearly nine inch [21 cm] wide tweeter anywhere but top and bottom within the focused array was not going to work for home audio playback.
Seated resolution of the original Dominance was immersive, vivid and organic. Bass below about about 50 Hz was handled by Eminence’s then new LAB15 fifteen inch [38 cm] woofer, down firing and also mounted in a big chunk of billet aluminum. Stupidly, the resulting weight was 400 pounds per loudspeaker. I guess that’s how you design when you’re surrounded by strong people and machining is easier than super-structuring and composite epoxy based fabrication.
While the original sounded great at the listening position, and for several seats flanking center, Dominance was a sit-down-to-enjoy loudspeaker—stand up and a lot of the magic vanished. Not so great for those times when you are cooking, fussing about, entertaining or When there’s nothing to lose and nothing to prove, And I’m just dancin’ with myself.… As mentioned, the compromise was necessary. Besides, with an acoustic crossover seam of 12 kHz between the Radian 850’s, our full-range drivers, along with the sit down nature of the design, we really didn’t see a need to rethink the choice. Until now.
The limited-to-sitting vertical listening zone was something to address. As was the slight incongruity in bandwidth and wave interaction ranging from lower tom hits and double bass to where you enter the realm of deep subterranean bass. These fixes, and others yet to be mentioned hit your inbox next week.Ten years is a long time for a product in hi-fi to run without makeover. But in the case of both Dominance and Definition there was little technical need to give them an update or refresh—they’re well engineered and built right from the start. Those that don’t know us might think we have been taking time to explore other interests like classical guitar and finishing our musicology degrees…. Those that do know us have been patient. Thank you.
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation. Series Six Dominance and Definition are both finalized and their release is imminent.
February 13, 2020
Preproduction testing of the Dominance wrapped up with a bit of out-of-house help form original Dominance owners Linda and Jerry Powell. We are very grateful for their help and hospitality. For your curious viewing pleasure I’m including a few photos of a beta set of Dominance Series Six. [P.C. John Miller]
We’re excited to finally be building on the concepts and principles of what is Series Six. Next week we’ll release expanded detail on the new Dominance and Definition Series Six.
