6
Line Source Speakers
Almost all loudspeakers radiate sound into the room as imperfect “point sources”.
This means that most of the energy they put into the room expands as an ever-
enlarging sphere, as though emerging from a single point in space. This results in a
multitude of reflections from the ceiling and floor that can degrade sound quality.
By contrast, the Wisdom Series LS4 speakers radiate sound as a “line source”. The
sound moves into the room as an expanding cylinder, rather than as an expanding
sphere — as though from a vertical line suspended in space.
Line source speakers provide two significant advantages:
•
Ceiling and floor reflections are minimized, resulting in greatly reduced
interference, letting you hear more of the speaker and less of the room;
•
The sound pressure level (SPL) throughout the room is much more evenly
distributed, making it much easier to set the “right” volume, no matter
where the audience is seated.
To achieve this highly desirable line source behavior, it is essential to have a tall
and slim driver. (Simply stacking multiple “cone & dome” high frequency drivers
does not create a proper line source. Instead, it creates a
series
of point sources,
which end up interfering with each other.) With Wisdom Audio’s planar magnetic
technology, it becomes possible to have drivers that are
extremely
tall and slim.
