Introduction
Although there are several scientific properties responsible for the PipeDreams sound, in essence we have taken the most successful speaker technology and amplified its characteristics while eliminating the drawbacks. When a designer imposes his personal recipe upon the limitations of nature, he must be consistent with his choices of which performance aspects to sacrifice and which to emphasize. The very laws of physics force us to concede one quality to favor another we prefer.A perfect example is a 1" driver. Regardless of quality or price, it can dependably deliver up to 90° of dispersion at 14,000 Hz. This is very good in reality, and an imperative for quality temporal reproduction (imaging). A 1" driver will also, by nature, have relatively low mass (weight) such that it will have superb transient response. Paradoxically, for a 1" driver to fill an average living room with a mere 100 decibels of sound pressure at all frequencies, it would require an impossible excursion of 21 feet. On the other end of the spectrum, an 18" driver would require only a ¼" excursion to produce similar sound pressure - but at great expense to other sonic characteristics. Such a driver could not produce an image above 760 Hz and its considerable mass (usually above of 150 grams) would virtually destroy transient response above 1000 Hz. One can easily extrapolate that a midrange driver suffers at both frequency extremes, yet can be superb in its particular arena.
PipeDreams systems address each of these (driver) limitations with some of the most advanced engineering ever applied to a loudspeaker. Not one aspect of PipeDreams linearity – dynamic, frequency, distortive, dispersive, transient and so on – was compromised for another. The engineering in PipeDreams systems is so extensive that no single aspect of the output exceeds another. Anything less is quickly obvious to the human ear in a system’s failure to reproduce the live experience.
The engineering is not all new, but in totality it is unprecedented. PipeDreams remains the only loudspeaker on the market that can produce actual concert sound levels with the transients, control, dynamics, and imaging of the smallest monitor. In a PipeDreams System, everything comes together just right.
The engineering is not all new, but in totality it is unprecedented. PipeDreams remains the only loudspeaker on the market that can produce actual concert sound levels with the transients, control, dynamics, and imaging of the smallest monitor. In a PipeDreams System, everything comes together just right.
To understand the revolutionary proprietary features at work in the PipeDreams System, click the next button for a guided tour.
Load Distribution
It is fundamental to understand that most drivers perform well when driven at very low volumes and within their operating range of frequencies. Upon increasing the volume a typical loudspeaker starts to show its colors. There are all types of anomalies that eventually translate to distortion and coloration; the voice coil heats up and reduces efficiency, the cone has to excurse to a point where there is cone flex and the voice coil bottoms out on the rebound. Naturally this is the extreme end of the volume spectrum, however there is a gradient scale and the problem exists throughout the volume range.PipeDreams overcomes this problem by having multiple drivers. Through the use of numerous drivers, the load is dispersed over a number of drive units effectively so that no single unit is ever pushed to the point of distortion. For example, the Series IV Mark II has ten times the drivers found in a typical three way system. Thus, PipeDreams play at very low levels, but exceed live levels all without the slightest bit of stress. The large number of drivers has many additional benefits, such as ultra high efficiency of 94dB (which means the amplifiers are also never stressed), a very stable impedance curve, and the ability to move air with authority of a 50” driver but with the transient response of a tweeter.
Speed and Integration
Speed = Distance / Time
There is no circumventing this formula. To reduce the time it takes for a cone to complete the start-stop cycle we can increase the speed, which has already been accomplished using the lightest of materials and the strongest magnets available. Therefore the only variable left is reducing the distance a cone has to travel, thereby proportionately reducing the time.The PipeDreams drivers travel a fraction of the distance of their counterpart, therefore they are several times faster. Figure 1 illustrates how three 4” drivers travel a fraction of the distance compared to an 8” driver moving the same amount of air. In this scenario the PipeDreams are several times faster, which has a myriad of advantages in addition to the obvious.
Less travel also means less amplifier demand, since a driver's resistance rises as it approaches the outer limits of its excursion range. More critically, there is severe compromise in detail resolution due to the lengthy excursion of larger speakers. The cone is often outside it's optimal position to resolve micro dynamics.
Soundstage Sonic Impact
Dispersion of greater than 90° at all frequencies of the musical spectrum is imperative to accurate imaging because room reflections must be linear for proper timing and soundspace. This is an often overlooked aspect of design. Dispersion, linearity, and dynamic linearity are inherent to temporal integrity.The Aural Nature of Time
Our ears are always at work analyzing the arrival time of various sounds we may encounter. Differences, or lack thereof, in those arrival times allow us to physically locate the source of a sound both accurately and quickly. At the most primal level, ears are a defensive tool. As we walk through a forest and hear the growl of a bear, our ears precisely locate the bear by temporal means, and we then run not toward the bear, but away from it. We are confident we are running away from the bear, even though the bear was never seen, because our ears gave us the bear’s position.In the more refined setting of listening to a recording in our home, our ears work to locate instruments and singers as well as their proximity to each other. The clarity of each instrument and the precision of its location is critical to recreation and enjoyment of the musical experience.
If it has temporal integrity, a loudspeaker can deliver musical signals with such perfect time arrival that the result is holographic. We can precisely identify and pinpoint each instrument and its relationship to others.
A speaker without temporal integrity results in a blurred sense of the music, like watching a performance through waxed paper. With PipeDreams systems, the timing is right. The nature, relationship, and minimal excursion of the drivers work together to deliver music with the greatest temporal accuracy.
A speaker without temporal integrity results in a blurred sense of the music, like watching a performance through waxed paper. With PipeDreams systems, the timing is right. The nature, relationship, and minimal excursion of the drivers work together to deliver music with the greatest temporal accuracy.
Frequency Response
A speaker’s ability to sound convincing is greatly dependent on matching the same harmonics present during a live performance. This is a fundamental characteristic overlooked by most loudspeaker manufacturers. In addition, when a loudspeaker can span the entire frequency spectrum at the same power levels, it translates to a speaker capable of accurately reproducing any type of music or instrument with lifelike impact.The adjacent graph shows the PipeDreams’ near flat frequency response throughout the useful range of frequencies. In the PipeDreams, the effective midrange cone area of over 250 square inches is roughly the same as that of an 18" woofer. This is accomplished with a patented electronic/acoustic unification system that allows up to eighteen 4" drivers to sing in concert. This produces the dynamic range of an 18" driver with the transient response of 0.048X (1/21) of a 4" driver or a transient response improvement of 630 times! In summary, the PipeDreams midrange configuration will produce the output and dynamics of an 18" woofer, but with the transient response of a 1" tweeter.
Similar results are revealed with the tweeter configuration. The 1" tweeter array delivers rising and settling times that far exceed any ribbon or electrostatic driver known to us, and the array behaves to the human ear as a single driver. This is accomplished simultaneously with a reduction of mass, so you end up with the effective output of a 5" tweeter, the dispersion of a 1" tweeter and the speed of a tweeter that’s only 1.5mm in diameter. The effective emanating area of the PipeDreams tweeter array is so enormous that we are able to enjoy crossover points well out of the vocal spectrum; in this case, 60Hz and 6000Hz. Crossing over at the 6K mark eliminates many of the phase anomalies inherent in a crossover, especially at the delicate range of 1-5KHz , where most vocals fall.
Build and Design
The cabinet that houses the PipeDreams is a critical element in providing quality sound in the chain, as it should not induce any sonic artifacts. In addition it must control the stray waves and be completely free of resonance and the cabinet flex that colors sound.The PipeDreams have an enclosure that is rock solid for incredible stability and resonance control. The enclosure's custom manufactured corian thermoformed single piece boxes are cross braced using steel, aluminum, and hardwoods for structural integrity. Aluminum and heavy Corian are used on the inside to eliminate standing waves.
Proprietary baffles diffuse the back wave without over-dampening and muffling the sound. The front baffle that houses the drivers is made of a composition of materials approaching the tensile strength of an inch of steel, while still maintaining sleek aesthetics. The bases of the towers are connected using massive steel angle irons designed to absorb kinetic energy that left alone would be converted into resonance.
For further reading about PipeDreams speakers, see our white paper.
