Planar Technology
Audiopulse is proud to bring planar acoustic technology from the elite high end home and professional audio domains down into the smaller mobile audio environment. Planars are inherently a line source derived transducer and evoke some substantial acoustic advantages over convention voice coil driven high frequency transducers being dome or compression tweeters for example. The advantage of the planar lies within simplicity. Direct transfer of energy from the input voltage to the moving diaphragm without non-linear mechanical aberrations eliminates one more component of distortion, weight, energy loss, and resonance behavior. As you may have guessed, with very little mass or resonance system, the planar has a very linear impedance plot even at resonance. As far as the amplifier can tell, it sees almost a pure resistive load and therefore the current does not fluctuate as a function of frequency. The Planar is driven by high power double sided neodymium motor system coupled with an etched aluminum conductor fixed to a high temperature Kapton film. Compared to a 1” dome tweeter, the Audiopulse True planar has over 9 times the radiating area which means at the same SPL, the tweeter has to displace over 9 times the amount of air to produce the same SPL at the same frequency. Needless today, the planar hardly even moves and linearity is virtually absolute while distortion is inconsequential. There is nothing that can cause mechanical distortion, and because the surface is so large, the planar can truly be held accountable for ear bleeding SPL.
The 8” tall planar also acts as a mini line source for the near field listening. And because the intent of this transducer is indeed near field, more so than not you’ll experience true line source behavior within the front soundstage of the car. As a mini-line source, you’ll have closer to a 3dB drop every time the distance between you and the speaker doubles. With a typical tweeter, this is no less than 6dB! So not only is our planar ultra efficient, its acoustic output does not hardly diminish by the time it reaches your ears which mean higher SPL without higher distortion simply as a result of the waveform. Typically tweeters will sound incredibly loud at point blank but the planar hardly changes its SPL as a function of distance which produces a more even soundstage throughout the vehicle.
So why are planars nonexistent in car audio if they are so wonderful?
The difficult conversion was to get planars inside a car. Audiopulse first developed an improved double sided planar that had higher sensitivity than before. We then changed the film from the traditional Mylar, to a higher temperature Kapton to allow for more power handling without stretching. We also took a bold step and developed the entire enclosure as complete high frequency + midrange system rather than a separate component to be installed inside an enclosure. This literality takes out the hard part of the install and ensures that the planar sounds perfect right out of the box! Ideally this system can be mounted up on sides of the dashboard or in the void corners by the front doors floating over less critical automotive controls such as the ventilation adjustments.
The real goal was to provide a system that vastly improves the front soundstage of the vehicle and provide better coupling with the lower frequency midbass driver in the door. Often times tweeters have to be crossed over at 2500Hz or higher and the distance between the midbass and tweeter is longer than half that wavelength which invokes very poor off axis response thought the entire car and even the driver if the system is not EQ’ed with a microphone at the driver seat. Unfortunately most, if not over 99% of car audio systems, don’t see the likes of a microphone or professional acoustic engineer to fix comb filtering at the listening positions. Our planars are able to extend down to 500Hz and provide much more midrange than a tweeter does and bring that midrange up higher where the soundstage is, rather than down by your feet where it is less impressive.