CEDIA Expo
Indianapolis – GoldenEar
Technology will unleash its second wave of high-end speakers at the CEDIA Expo,
where it will show its first bookshelf and architectural speakers and additions
to its powered subwoofer line.
All are projected
to ship late this year.
The company’s
first speakers, introduced at last year’s Expo, consisted of five in-room
speakers and two subwoofers.
The company was
founded by Sandy Gross, co-founder of Polk Audio and Definitive Technology, and
Don Givogue, another Definitive co-founder.
Golden Ear’s first
two bookshelf monitors are the Aon 2 and 3 at $399 and $499 each, respectively.
Both are projected to ship late this year.
The two-way Aon 2
features 6-inch bass/midrange driver in a 12-inch by 8-inch by 10-inch
enclosure that delivers frequency response of 42Hz to 35kHz. The Aon 3 with
7-inch bass/midrange driver is 14 inches by 9 inches by 11 inches and delivers
38Hz to 35kHz.
The shelf- and
stand-mountable speakers were designed to deliver accurate high-definition
sound with imaging comparable to that achieved by GoldenEar’s larger Triton Two
Towers, said co-founder Sandy Gross. Both Aon models incorporate cast-basket
bass/midrange drivers using technology derived from the midrange drivers in the
Tritons. Both also feature the Tritons’ accordion-like High Velocity Folded
Ribbon (HVFR) ribbon tweeters, said to deliver the dynamic range and smooth
extended response of a bigger flat ribbon tweeter, thanks to their ability to
push air at higher velocities than a traditional ribbon tweeter, Gross said.
They also deliver wider dispersion than traditional ribbon tweeters.
Each Aon also
features two side-mounted planar low-frequency passive radiators that properly
load the bass/midrange drivers and extend bass response. The radiators are 6.5
inches in size in the Aon 2 and 8 inches in the Aon 3.
The Aon speakers’ truncated
pyramidal cabinet is designed to enhance sonic performance, the company said. The
non-parallel cabinet walls minimize internal standing waves while also reducing
the width of the baffle around the tweeters, thus minimizing distortion from
diffraction.
Unlike the smaller
SuperSat3 satellite and SuperSat 3C center-channel version already available,
the Aon speakers do not require a separate powered subwoofer to deliver deep
bass, the company said. The SuperSat models are 12 inches by 4.75 inches by 2.7
inches.
Three models in
the Invisa in-wall/in-ceiling custom series are the Invisa 650, Invisa 525 and
the Invisa Home Theater Reference 6500, all with magnetically attached grille
that hides the flange to make them virtually invisible, the company said.
Prices haven’t been set.
All three models
incorporate HVFR high-frequency radiators like those on the Triton Two Tower.
The Invisa 525 and Invisa 650 feature one-piece driver/frame/flange
construction to minimize their footprint. The structure is made from a
marble-infused polymer.
The 650 and 525
are designed for in-ceiling and in-wall use, thanks to their round, paintable,
magnetically fastened micro-perf grille. Optional square grilles are available.
Grilles of either shape fully cover the mounting flange for a stealth
appearance. Wide dispersion is achieved in part through pivoting tweeters. A
high-frequency equalization switch allows for tailoring the sound to a room’s
acoustics.
The Invisa Home
Theater Reference 6500 is designed as a ceiling-mount left, right, or center
speaker for a home theater or music system as well as a side or rear surround
speaker. It features 9.5-inch round, flat grille with drivers angled at 28
degrees toward the listening position to deliver what the company called “freestanding-speaker-quality
performance.” The company also said it took steps to optimize the speaker to
deliver “open, boxless, three-dimensional imaging” that appears to emanate from
the front wall rather than the ceiling.
The 6500
incorporates cast-basket 6.5-inch bass/midrange driver angled under the grille.
Subwoofer: At a
projected $999, the ForceField 5 is a step up from the current ForceField 3 and
4 subwoofers, offering more power and
deeper bass response to the infrasonic range for both movie and music
listening. Response extends down to 12Hz.
It features
long-throw 12-inch driver with large high gauss magnet structure powered by a
DSP-controlled 1,500-watt digital amplifier. The driver is pressure coupled to
a downward-firing 13-inch by 13.9-inch quadratic planar infrasonic radiator.
Overall dimensions are 14.5 inches by 15 inches by 18 inches.
Other features
include a direct-coupled sub/LFE input, left and right speaker-level inputs,
100Hz high-passed left-right speaker-level output, adjustable low-pass filter
for the speaker-level input, and level control.
