There are 3 essential components to a speaker, the cabinet, the drive units and the crossover. If any one of the 3 is not up to the task, then the results will be poor, after all a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link.
Our crossovers are built in-house to exacting standards. Rather than use off-the-shelf components of unknown origin, which often leads to compromises in design, all the components in our crossovers are either hand-built or custom manufactured here in Britain.
Our capacitors were chosen after extensive listening tests and are custom built to the specific values required by the design. Some manufacturers will combine multiple standard components to get “close” to the design value, we find that while it costs a little more to have specially made components, the extra cost is worth it, both in terms of sound quality and reliability. When you combine two components instead of using one, if either one fails, the system fails, effectively doubling the failure rate. By using a single component, custom made to the exact value required by the design, we maintain the reliability at it’s highest possible level.
Our inductors are wound in-house on our own coil-winder, each one made from premium copper, with a high temperature varnish capable of withstanding at least 180 degrees. We have years of experience winding inductors for the pro-audio market and have produced thousands of coils to exacting standards. Each inductor is inspected and it’s value checked and adjusted to meet the design values.
The components are mounted by hand on a custom made circuit board. All our circuit boards are gold plated. Not only does gold plating minimise any losses due to skin effect, it also significantly eases the soldering process, where lead-free solder is used throughout. Wire terminations are added and finally the finished unit is computer-tested to ensure that the overall result falls within our tight specifications. Only then is the crossover ready to be mated with the drivers and the cabinet.
The aim of the process is to ensure that every finished unit that leaves the production facility is an exact copy of our reference unit.
All results are stored, should you ever need to return a loudspeaker for service, we can go back to the original test data and discover what (if anything) has changed.
This painstaking approach allows us to take complete control of every aspect of the process, delivering a quality product that will provide many years of satisfyingly consistent performance. We feel it is worth the extra effort and you will not only hear the difference, but you can be proud to own a piece of quality equipment, built to the highest standards.