WESTLAKE AUDIO, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
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MULTI-FUNCTION led INDICATOR
The LED shows three colours for various functions.
Low-brightness green is illuminated all the time the
system is powered to indicate normal function. A
high-brightness red illuminates for two seconds
during start-up, or continuously to indicate a fault
condition such as thermal trip or amplifier failure.
Flashing red gives instantaneous indication of voltage
or current clipping in the LF amplifier. The unique
feature of the indicator is the VLF (very low frequency)
warning. When there is a significant level of subsonic
content in the mix (typically between 1Hz-15Hz) the
built-in LF hi-pass filtering prevents it from causing
excessive cone movement and draining amplifier
power, as would happen in a conventional passive
monitoring set-up. To represent cone-flap, and warn
of VLF content, the LED will flash yellow with every
positive and negative half cycle of the offending
signal. Recording, mixing and mastering engineers
are therefore given the opportunity to take remedial
action if required.
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TRIM CONTROLS
Setting the top three controls to the mid position
gives a flat response. However, rooms differ, as do
personal preferences. The frequency trims allow for
compensation and correction of all these variables.
The mid trim gives +/-2dB centred at 1.4kHz and
has a Q of 0.45. Hi-trim and Lo-Trim are gentle
shelving filters /-3dB at 20kHz and 40Hz
respectively. The fourth control is for input sensitivity
and is continuously variable from -10dBu unbalanced
to +4dBu balanced for maximum output.
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DUAL CONCENTRIC (LF Unit) – 40Hz-1.7kHz
Polypropylene cone, long throw driver with cast alloy
chassis where the cone profile continues the exponential
horn of the HF unit. Using complex filtering, it is
accurately time-aligned with the HF unit, so they are
not only on the same axis, but also in the same plane.
All frequencies therefore effectively radiate from a point
source, making percussion and transients more realistic,
and giving the system excellent imaging properties.
The LF unit is driven by a 150W power amp (200W
peak) on the Ellipse 8 and 200W (270 peak) on the
10, giving a more powerful
and controlled low end
delivery than is usual for
a system of this size.
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DUAL CONCENTRIC (HF Unit) – 1.7kHz-14kHz
Aluminium alloy dome, horn loaded HF unit with
waveguide, mounted inside the voicecoil/magnet
assembly of the LF unit. Time-aligned to the Dual
Concentric™ LF unit and SuperTweeter™ using
asymmetric high order bandpass filtering. The HF
unit has a high sensitivity of up to 105 dB for 2.83
volts, so that its dedicated power amp, 150W on
the Ellipse 8 and 200W on the 10, normally runs
with over 20dB headroom to ensure uncompressed
dynamics. It’s high sensitivity also means it’s average
power consumption on normal programme material
is only one or two watts, so there’s minimal thermal
compression compared to low-sensitivity dome
HF units.
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