Wisdom Ls3, Owner'S Manual

Page: 5 / 26

5
Description
Your Wisdom Series loudspeakers take
advantage of several critical technologies
to deliver a level of performance that has
never been available in a loudspeaker that
intruded so modestly on your living space.
In fact, this level of performance has rarely
been attained, regardless of the space and
budget at one’s disposal.
Since most of these technologies cannot
readily be found elsewhere, we will take
the time to describe them in more detail
than would be necessary for more conven-
tional designs.
Planar magnetic panels
Our planar magnetic drivers use an ad-
vanced, thin film membrane to move the air. This film can respond instantly to
the smallest detail in the signal. It has vastly less inertia than traditional “cone &
dome” drivers, so the signal is never blurred
in any way.
The motive force is provided by a “voice
coil” that is printed on the film, which is
suspended in a strong magnetic field pro
-
vided by powerful magnets behind and in
front of the film. The ratio of available force
to the moving mass is huge, which means that the diaphragm does exactly what
it is told; nothing more, nothing less.
Free from compression
One of the most remarkable things about the sound of well-designed planar
magnetic speakers is their lack of thermal or dynamic compression. There are
several reasons for this:
• The lightweight diaphragm responds quickly to even the smallest
signals, yet is robust enough to handle enormous ones.
• The fact that heat does not build up in the voice coil (as it does
in conventional dynamic drivers) means that the load seen by the
amplifier does not change at high power levels.
When you become accustomed to the sound of your new Wisdom Series LS4
speakers, conventional speakers sound a bit bland and lifeless.
More reliable
The “voice coil” in the planar magnetic driver is spread out over a large, flat area
that is exposed to the open air. As such, when a huge transient comes along,
any heat that is generated is immediately dissipated. This compares quite favor-
ably to other designs in which the voice coil is buried inside a massive piece of
metal, where the heat has effectively no place to go.