AN OASIS OF ARTISTRY IN A MARKETPLACE OF MASS-PRODUCTION AND PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE
SUMIKO SPEAKERS
Vienna is famous the world over for its unique musical heritage. No other city can lay claim to being the birthplace of western classical music. Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schonberg, the list goes on. Virtually every composer of significance has been drawn to Vienna for its rich musical backdrop.
It is from this rigorous background Vienna Acoustics loudspeakers are created and manufactured with a Viennese heritage of musical excellence that blends technology to the service of music.
While music serves as inspiration, the sonic results present in all Vienna Acoustics loudspeakers is the result of painstaking technical research. No area of improvement has gone unexamined, no refinements have gone unexplored. Ongoing research results in improved cone materials, damping techniques, cabinet bracing and crossover design results in the finest sound possible and products that reach the market both fully mature and highly refined. Additionally, each speaker is individually performance matched against a reference ensuring unprecedented consistency of quality from unit to unit.
More than any other element in a stereo music or film sound system, the loudspeaker becomes a part of your lifestyle. All Vienna Acoustics speakers are purposefully designed to add to the quality of your domestic landscape by employing true furniture grade materials and assembly techniques. All cabinets are finished to perfection in a wide variety of real wood veneers, one sure to best compliment your listening or living room.
REL SUBWOOFERS
From its inception over 10 years ago, REL has been committed to the pursuit of one thing, the reproduction of perfect deep bass. It is an obsession unique in the world of sound reproduction and it has brought awards and accolades from around the world.
Understanding REL’s success comes from a deeper understanding of how a subwoofer should perform. Restoring foundational sub-bass underneath an existing speaker is a difficult thing indeed. REL’s approach, using their patented ABC crossovers, provides for perfect integration, allowing the audio professional to tune in tiny increments where the subwoofer mates to the main speakers.
Any system’s ‘voice’ that is, the sonic summation of all the disparate components leading up to the final sound – is unique and reflects the signature of each preamp/processor, the interconnecting cables, and the power amplifier’s sound. Unique among subwoofer designers, Richard E. Lord (the R.E.L. of REL) understands this and his input circuitry requires the use of a unique high-level cable that allows for the full system’s voice to be built forward into the final sound, joining with a REL for perfect system integration.
Any design, no matter how brilliant, is only as good as the components used to realize it. Richard Lord’s obsession extends to using components that go beyond industry standards and indeed finds its origins in his prior experience in the British Royal Navy. This ‘mil spec’ approach to subwoofer construction results in designs that are easily understood – just try picking one up! However, the REL approach employs far more than simply brute force. Each component is hand selected for maximum sound quality and durability. REL uses specially commissioned toroidal power transformers and over-specified resistors and capacitors. The power output devices are massively overrated units, each one capable of flowing 250 watts of power, most of it in the form of high current. The Strata III, rated at a mere 100 watts, uses two of these devices in parallel. REL uses only power MOSFETS because of their inherent ability to thermally stabilize (unlike a bipolar transistor that can thermally ‘run away’ with itself). The built-in power protection devices are designed to withstand up to 3000 volts of energy. In a word, REL’s are overbuilt.
Testing, as you may surmise from the above, is simply incredible. While each individual part is tested prior to construction, final testing represents some of the most brutal power ‘soak testing’ ever devised. Each unit is run at part throttle for hours in order to obtain test behavior relevant to the real world. Then it is subjected to a ‘crowbar’ test. Each unit has the incoming line voltage run up to the equivalent of 150 volts (110 volts is common). At this point, most amplifiers would simply self-destruct on the spot. However, Richard is not through yet! At that voltage, the units are brought up to maximum rated output, where they are then subjected to a direct short circuit. That’s right, at 150 volts in and max power, the amplifiers must play into a dead short. Only after they pass this final test are they allowed to be inserted into a cabinet and obtain final certification.
The resulting products speak for themselves. Perhaps it is one reason REL’s have always received rave reviews. It is certainly the reason that REL has come into such fast growing acceptance and success in the highly competitive U.S. market.
For more information on Vienna Acoustics or our HOME AUTOMATION SERVICES from Illuminations Lighting Design, please contact us at 713.863.1133 X 131 or toll free at 800.863.1184 or visit us online at illuminationslighting.com.
Illuminations Lighting Design is a full service design build firm specializing in residential and commercial indoor lighting and outdoor lighting installation, service and maintenance as well as home automation, home theaters and lighting control systems.
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