The Most Powerful Subwoofer in the World!

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The Most Powerful Subwoofer in the World!

Postby hanns76 » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:17 pm

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Eminent Tech TRW 17 - The Most Powerful Subwoofer in the World!

Hyperbole galore, the Eminent Technology TRW 17 is, as you shall see, the most powerful subwoofer in the world, achieving FLAT response down to 1Hz. 1Hz! Human hearing is rated from 20Hz to 20kHz but you can actually feel sound way below that -- and so can your neighbors and your neighbors' neighbors.

Before you ask, yes, the picture above is correct -- what appears to be industrial bathroom fan is actually an "infrasonic" driver. The trick is instead of a paper cone pulsating back and forth, the TRW 17 creates a gigantic cone of air with the fins swiveling to modulate frequency. And whereas traditional subwoofers compress the air inside of a box to create the deep bass, the TRW 17 compresses a different box...your entire freakin room.

A smooth $12,900 is what the patented Eminent TRW 17 will sell for (they're not on sale yet). Also, you don't want to actually have the TRW 17 in your main listening room (otherwise your head will explode like the guy in the Simpsons THX trailer). A professional installer has to wire the TRW 17 into your attic or basement, thus creating The World's Largest Subwoofer.

And lest you think this is another audio gimmick, comments from the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest have already placed this as one potentially wicked sub. Remember, response is FLAT to 1Hz, meaning there is virtually no distortion. Proper setup is required, of course, but done right, Eminent's TRW 17 is set to take the high-end by storm. Additionally, different versions are rumored: a car version and a smaller one for use in traditional subwoofer enclosures.

Alright, so here's how Ultimate AV describes the TRW 17 experience:

"The big fan—er, sub—with a blade diameter I'd estimate at 17-inches was operational, and clearly produced audible, high level output to at least 17Hz. Below that its action was more obvious in the way it shook everything in the rooms and, below 10Hz, caused the rooms' walls to literally flutter back and forth like a sheet in the wind. Scary, but impressive."

And the chaps over at Stereo Times had this to say:

"The photo right shows the demo unit was in an adjacent room with a enclosure built around it leading to the room where I, along with maybe a half-dozen others, sat and listened in total amazement. The room's walls, pictures and window literally shook for as long as test tones played. I'm not talking of the type tones that sounded boomy, distorted or even fake..."

And here is the photo Stereo Times is talking about:

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Want to hear what 5Hz sounds like? A new woofer technology unlike any other and a new product category for home audio. This is the first home audio woofer delivering true response to DC. The Thigpen rotary woofer is the worlds first true infrasonic home audio or home theater woofer. Conventional subwoofers roll off rapidly below 20Hz. With no cone the rotary woofer achieves high efficiency at very low frequencies.

Most subwoofers have a difficult time producing acoustic output below 20Hz at audible levels. They generally require large amounts of equalization, distortion rises rapidly, and even the most expensive available cannot produce significant output below 10Hz. Subwoofer electronics usually contain a cutoff filter which sharply rolls off content to the subwoofer below 20Hz to protect the speaker. On the other hand, the rotary woofer has enough acoustic output to move a open door back and forth .5” between 1 and 5Hz! It has enough output to find resonance frequencies of walls and ceilings in a room. It requires no equalization to achieve flat response to below 1Hz.

Microphones have low frequency capability that far exceeds the low frequency output of current subwoofers. In many cases infrasonic information is in a recording, it is not being reproduced by the sound system.

A missing link in sound reproduction. Experience special effects like never before. If you want to hear and feel the 4-5 hertz fundamental frequency from a helicopter rotor, the low frequency rumble of wind, the space of a concert hall or infrasonic information contained in an explosion, this is the only woofer technology available.

Over the years the generally accepted low frequency limit of hearing has been 20Hz, some suggesting 16Hz. However nothing existed to produce significant enough output to change this belief. This development will spawn new special effects and we will begin to understand human hearings true low frequency limit.

Specifications:

Amplifier Requirement 200 watts @ 8 ohms

impedance 8 ohms 0Hz - 40Hz

Frequency response 1Hz – 30Hz +/- 4dB

suggested crossover 30Hz @ 18dB/octave

Sensitivity 90dB 1 watt 1 meter @10Hz

Maximum acoustic output >110dB between 1 and 30Hz.

Distortion typically 3% or less between 1 and 30Hz @90dB

Warranty – 3 years parts and labor

Price $12,900 each, not including amplifier or crossover

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How the Eminent Technology Thigpen Rotary Woofer works.

A new type of Loudspeaker

A motor controller and electric motor rotate a set of blades at a constant speed. The rotary woofer pitch mechanism uses a conventional voice coil and magnet assembly. This is connected to your amplifier to pitch blades in proportion to the applied audio signal. As the blades pitch while rotating a pressure wave is generated, the degree of pitch controls the amplitude of the pressure wave. Air is allowed to transition through the blades. Thus oscillating the pitch of the blades creates sound while they are rotating .

The advantage of the Thigpen rotary woofer (patent pending) and the conceptual jump occurs in understanding the impedance match with the air in this approach to sound reproduction versus the impedance mismatch with the air in a cone woofer.

The air density is much too low to be a good impedance match with a cone loudspeaker. Take your hand and try and grab some air or flatten your hand and try and push some air as fast as you can. This illustrates the futility of trying to move air to create a small amount of pressure at low frequencies with a cone speaker. You can barely feel the resistance of the air to the motion of your hand, the air molecules simply slip around.

Now take your hand while driving down the road and stick it outside the window of a car. The faster you go the thicker the air feels. Also a simple twisting of your hand enables you to deflect a large number of air molecules. This illustrates the way the rotary woofer works and how effectively it couples moving blade surfaces to the air to create sound pressure.

A conventional speaker cones displacement must increase four times for each halving of frequency to maintain the same output. This is why conventional cone woofer companies are trying to develop “long throw” woofers. Although inefficient, cone woofers work fine above 40Hz. Below 40Hz however cone woofers quickly run out of travel and the output diminishes rapidly.

The rotary woofer represents a much more efficient way to move air at low frequencies. Because of aerodynamic affects and swept area versus frequency, the displacement of the rotary woofer pitch mechanism barely has to increase at all as the frequency goes down. We can now listen to never heard before very low frequencie sounds.

This my dream subwoofer, if this will be available in the Phils. (localy) kahit ciguro yung mga high subwoofer walang binatbat dito. kahit M&K pa yan. but the price is way beyond the stars, ciguro kung meron mag replicate nito (again localy) mawawalang ng benta ang mga branded speakers dito hehehe! "just me"...

Ano kaya masasabi ni Mr. Casas dito? VOCA FAN? baka gamitin niya ito sa kwarto parang electric fan hehehe!
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