Hybrid Audio Technologies Clarus-Series, Installation Manual

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Clarus User’s Manual ©Hybrid Audio Technologies Page 5 of 26
tinsel leads, often not found in speakers in this price range, are an asset to the Clarus line because
the leads are protected from physical damage and accidental short circuit. The tinsel leads are
connected to real epoxy PCB, not flimsy cardboard.
Voice Coil and Motor System: 1” (25mm) (C5) and 1.4” (35mm) (C6): complimentary design. The
voice coil used in the Clarus midbass is a 2-layer aluminized copper wire coils on a round former. An
“overhung” voice coil was selected to improve sensitivity while still keeping distortion to a minimum.
The motor system utilizes a ferrite magnet with rubber protective boot (which can be removed to
improve mounting depth), complimented by design with a back plate and rear venting chamber to
improve the speaker's thermal power handling and improved ability of the midbass to play at high
amplitudes.
Tweeter Speakers (Clarus C1)
Dome:
Small diameter impregnated silk textile dome with high-loss rubber suspension. The C1 is a
shared technology with the high-end Unity U1 tweeter, boasting has an impregnated fine cloth silk
dome diaphragm for a linear, smooth sound, with a high-loss rubber suspension to damp edge modes
and resonances. The dome is of extremely low mass and is much less susceptible to mechanical
deformation than other designs, and yet yields a smooth response over the extent of its range. At
Hybrid Audio Technologies, we feel larger diaphragm tweeters sound heavy and unremarkable, lack
detail in the upper treble frequencies, have undesirable polar response, and are difficult to install.
Additionally, we find metal dome tweeters to be harsh, brittle, and sound unrealistic. As a small
diameter, soft-dome tweeter, the C1 is the antithesis of large diaphragm and metal-dome tweeters,
for the effective and convincing reproduction of treble frequencies.
Voice Coil and Motor System: 20mm complimentary design. The motor assembly is “conventional
dynamic”, with a compact neodymium magnet structure to ensure a small footprint size and shallow
depth. A perforated grille protects the dome. The voice coil is ferrofluid cooled and damped, and the
tweeter housing consists of extruded plastic with three different mounting options in component set
mode, giving the end-user flexibility in not only placement of the C1 but also in physical installation.
Passive Crossover Network (Clarus C2x)
Alignment
: Second order L/R (12 dB/octave) filters for low pass (C5 or C6) and high pass (C1). The
C51-2 2-way passive crossover network includes a Clarus low pass and high pass crossover
frequency of 5,700 Hz at 12 dB/octave. The C61-2 2-way passive crossover network includes a
Clarus low pass and high pass crossover frequency of 5,200 Hz at 12 dB/octave. The use of 12
dB/octave filters on both low pass and high pass, often not found in speakers in this price range,
minimizes phase-related distortion typical of crossovers with mismatched orders, and ensures phase-
coherent imaging and staging. The alignment topology is a shared technology to the high-end Unity
U2x crossover design and features asymmetrically-aligned network components.
Network Components : Audiophile grade. The C51-2 and C61-2 passive crossover networks
incorporate super high quality and low tolerance metalized polypropylene film capacitors for both
highpass and low pass, in concert with air-core inductors, and low tolerance non-inductive resistors.
No output level switches were used in the passive crossover design because switches add a resistive
effect and are typically of extremely low quality. Additionally, “jumper pins” add an unnecessary pair
of splices in the signal path to the tweeter, and were not included in our design either. Rather, all
tweeter level adjustments are done on the board level with dedicated non-inductive resistors; tweeter
attenuation is accomplished by selecting the appropriate output (-3 dB, 0 dB, or +3 dB) on the passive