Question

Bob, could you tell us please… what sets SP Technology speakers apart from those of so many other loudspeaker manufacturers? Basically, why should we buy your stuff?

Answer

I'd be glad to! It is our firm belief that the educated consumer is our best customer. To answer your question, in a word - engineering…real, solid quantifiable science and engineering are the driving principles behind every product we make. I guess I'd have to say there are other reasons too. Our commitment to others (whether they be customers or not) and society, our commitment to a high level of ethical business conduct and to offering true value as well as developing excellence, are all potentially pretty good reasons to give us your business… I suppose.

Question

Well, most others would say the same things to some degree.  Could you be more specific?  To be exact, how is your engineering any different?

Answer

OK, lets talk about priorities.  All manufacturers set priorities for their designs based on the things they feel they can control or have some effect upon, some area they believe they can improve.  The difference is that we have chosen to go far deeper than most into the fundamentals of sound reproduction and basic science in setting our priorities.

Question

How so? What special lengths do you go to that are really any different?

Answer

Most manufacturers are limited by the types and quality of raw materials and sub-component devices that are available to them. On some level, this is true for all of us as the situation is nothing more than the byproduct of our world's present level of materials science and technology. But in our case, we have chosen to address the weaknesses in these resources and find ways to improve their performance. Others simply accept those limitations and do the best they can within the limits of such constraints. Either that or they choose to expend large sums of money in procuring the most exotic materials, methods and/or components, in misguided belief that such an approach is the only other way to improve performance. Well, that and they get to spin the whole effort in their marketing hype.

Question

So what's wrong with that, other than the hype? Answer product is no better than the sum of the parts it's made from - right? If you want to build a quality product, it only makes sense to use the best materials and such that you can. Add to that the attention to fine details and quality craftsmanship, and I don't see what else a manufacturer can do. After all, they all have to work with the same basic laws of physics as they are, and nobody can change them. On a certain level, what's really left to be done that hasn't already been done? Or am I missing something here?

Answer

Well, it is obvious to a large degree that you are correct about all of the above, but the "devil is always in the details." The whole problem the others have is simply a lack of insight and real innovation. First, if one chooses to use "only the best," then there will always be a price associated with that. For those consumers that are of great financial means, I guess then that it doesn't really matter how much the final cost is. But we at SP Technology do not believe that only the rich should have access to true fidelity reproduction. We may even design very expensive products ourselves in the not too distant future, but you can bet that if we do, even then exceptional value will be the underlying principle - as it is in all of our designs.

Question

So you're saying that you only design products of high value. Well, that doesn't change the premise of my original question. You still have to use quality parts right? They don't just give those away. And what about the rest? You still have to follow the same basic laws and provide quality craftsmanship. I still don't see how you can offer products of substantially higher performance and quality without putting in the work and all the other "good stuff," and then having to charge accordingly. Also, everybody says their products offer "high value." In the end, isn't that (value) more a matter of personal taste anyway?

Answer

Yes, of course we still have to use quality parts, materials and craftsmanship. In that though, there is a point of diminishing returns - especially in the parts and materials costs. If cost is no object, it would seem one would not be forced to make many compromises - at least not upon a cursory assessment of the situation. On the other hand, the concept of value implies that cost is important in one's decision making. Consequently, it also implies then that compromise will be a part of the equation. Therefore, we make compromises. Good engineering always dictates some compromise in even the best of situations. One of my mentors, Gerald Stanley (a brilliant man by the way), was known to say, "Any man can make a dollar product out of a dollar's worth of parts. It takes a real engineer to make that same dollar product out of a nickel's worth of parts." In order to do this though, a lot of ingenuity and a bit of compromise is usually required.

Oh, and that bit about the final perceived value being a matter of taste? Don't bet on it. Even a half-deaf person with no experience in high fidelity whatsoever can hear the improvements in performance offered by our products. Many seasoned audiophiles as well as professionals have commented that they've never heard anything like our stuff in their lives! You don't achieve such things just by "tinkering around," let me tell you. Neither do you do it using extremely expensive parts and materials - that's just not the solution - not if you want to offer true value anyway.

Question

So what about the compromises? I don't even like the sound of that word. It implies that you're essentially forced to use inferior things in your products - right?

Answer

Not at all. To start, we always select materials and components that have been proven to offer excellent performance …and value. Although they may not be the "very best" available, they are always well above average. Then we get to work.

Question

What does "get to work" mean? What do you do with these "above "average" materials and such that makes so much difference?

Answer

We optimize them. We find ways to combine materials and/or methods and/or processes and/or technologies that have the effect of canceling or minimizing the weaknesses of each other while emphasizing their strengths. In the end, almost every product we design is a form of "half-breed" or hybrid design - a combination of technologies, materials and methods not often used in combination elsewhere.

Question

Could you give us an example?

Answer

Sure. Take our waveguide technology for starters. First, we're addressing a fundamental law of physics in a very specialized way that most others almost completely ignore. The knowledge of this stuff has been around for over 100 years - ever since Thomas Edison put a little "horn" on his Edison Cylinder machine. Yet, engineers go right on ignoring those basic principles and building what are essentially inferior products because of their neglect of the physics involved.

Yeah, we're all forced to play by the same rules, but most seem to think they can get away with cheating. Heck, if you follow the rules, the speaker almost designs itself! It's all a matter of Natural Law. It seems like most of the world is willfully ignorant of the basic principles of nature and is determined to create some form of "unnatural state" of existence. To further their ends, they seem to have created an entire world of technology intended to reinforce the condition - and most of it only works at a level of mediocrity. Either that or we at SP Tech are just real smart. Duh.

Anyway…the waveguide thing has to do with impedance matching of a driver to the air load, controlling directivity and reducing driver distortion. Most others just use off the shelf tweeters (albeit maybe very expensive ones), mount them to an enclosure and then try to adjust them to match up well with the woofer through fiddling with the crossover network. There's only so much you can do using that approach.

Everybody has pretty much the same access to the same drivers being manufactured - and it shows. How many… "Tweeter with a woofer and maybe a midrange"… type speakers have you seen? There must be millions! In the end, they're all (the manufacturers) doing pretty much the same thing. Where's the innovation these days? Well, I guess it's out there to various degrees, but for anything resembling what I'd call real innovation you're most likely going to be paying an arm and a leg for it!

For instance, do you have any idea how hard it is and how much it costs to manufacture a tweeter with a diaphragm made of synthetic diamond material? C'mon…is this what it's come to… just to get high performance? And that's pretty mild compared to a lot of stuff out there. To our way of thinking, something's seriously wrong with this picture!

But I digress. Back to the subject at hand. Answer waveguide is nothing more than a compromise and modification of horn theory. By reducing the air loading on the driver diaphragm, we avoid the "honky" or "edgy" sound that horns are known for, while gaining many of the other benefits of horn theory. That's a good thing - very good in fact.

The drawback is that our waveguides are not as efficient as a horn so they won't play as loud as a horn will for the same amount of power put into them. Is that a major compromise? Well, considering that relatively high-powered amplifiers are almost commonplace these days, I don't hardly thinks so. Back when horns had their heyday, amplifiers of more than ten watts were rare indeed. Now hundreds of watts are available at very reasonable cost. The compromise is there, but it's essentially negligible.

The other compromise is that they are considerably harder to make, especially compared to just flush mounting a tweeter on a box. That definitely is reflected in higher production costs and ultimately higher cost to the consumer. I guess that's the price one pays for superior performance.

At least the consumer can take comfort in the fact that his money is going towards an innovation that really does something and offers an entire world of other performance improvements that just can't be had without it. Compare that to some outrageously priced, tweak-o, exotic enclosure material or driver technology and see which one offers the most value. I guess you can call that a compromise because of the added cost of manufacturing the waveguide, but after hearing it you're likely to agree that it's worth every penny - and quite a few more!

Question

WOW! All-righty then. Quite the dissertation there but I have to admit, I think I'm beginning to see what you mean. That hardly sounds like a compromise at all when you think about it from a practical standpoint and all the advantages waveguides offer. And after all, I've checked out your prices and the added cost isn't really much, if any more, than a lot of other stuff that's out there. Especially if you're not pulling my leg about all the benefits a waveguide offers. If they do what you say then your speakers are probably a pretty super deal. OK, I think this is working.

Answer

I knew you'd begin to understand - and I'm not pulling your leg. The physics is all there for anyone to see. It should be as obvious as the nose on your face that real innovation and solid engineering makes perfect sense and is the way to go - at least more sense than just throwing money at a problem, only to get marginal improvements (at best) in return.

If we were to do that (like so many others), in the end it would be your money that we were throwing around. To do what we do only requires a little more work (well, a lot) and "thinking outside the box." On the other hand, should we take the easy path and just spend your money in order to save ourselves some work? Even at that, doing so doesn't really produce significant results anyway. There are plenty of other manufacturers out there already doing that kind of stuff, so we thought we'd try and be a little different.

Question

OK smart guy, give us another example of how you apply ingenuity and superior engineering to your products in order for them to offer greater value. Or are you guys a "one trick pony"?

Answer

Not quite. We believe in "system engineering." Looking at the speaker as an entire system rather than just focusing on one or two "pet" areas (as you're implying in the above "pony" statement), we endeavor to optimize every area of performance whenever possible. Another example is our utilization of the "constrained-layer damping" technique in controlling enclosure born vibrations.

Question

What's "constrained-layer damping" and how does that work? The bigger question is though: Does it save the consumer any money and what are the compromises?

Answer

The enclosures of our Millennial Reference Series all use this construction method. Basically, to save on end costs, we use a quality brand of ¾ inch thick Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) for the entire enclosure construction - unless the customer has selected the solid hardwood front panel option, that is. MDF is known to offer excellent properties for loudspeaker construction and is used by the majority of high-end manufacturers because of this. Even still, it's not the "best" material one could select by a long shot. It's not solid granite or machined billets of aluminum - but it is a heck of a lot cheaper!

Not being content with the fact it is pretty good stuff and just leaving it at that, we take it a couple of steps further. That's where the constrained-layer damping comes in. We apply another layer of MDF to the inside of the constructed shell that has a compliant membrane sandwiched in between. That membrane utilizes a process of converting shear forces (energy from vibrations) that occur between the two layers of MDF into waste heat, thereby damping much of the undesirable enclosure vibrations. We're not the innovators on that one either. The technique was developed for the aerospace industry by a few real smart guys. We've just adapted it to speaker design. It's not as cool sounding as machined billets of solid aluminum - but it works!

Going a step further, those internal layers of MDF are then reinforced with added cross bracing, and corner blocks are used at the panel joints. The combination of all these things is quite effective at minimizing any vibration and is reasonably inexpensive, especially when compared to other exotic materials and methods. Is the technique perfect? No, but it takes the whole issue of enclosure vibration to the point of diminishing returns - and saves the consumer a ton of money compared to the exotic material alternative. Aside from its lack of absolute perfection, the only other drawback that I can see is that it denies the consumer any opportunity to exercise bragging rights. They won't be able to boast to their friends about the expensive materials used to construct their speakers! Is that a bad thing?

Question

Well, for some I suppose it might be, but not for me or any of my friends. All we care about is the sound and trying to get the most "bang for the buck"! I guess you've made your point pretty well here. Going from what you've just told us, I would suppose there are other areas that you've applied the same level of attention to. Could you tell us more?

Answer

You're correct as there are many other areas of focus in our designs and I could go on and on, but it would take just too much time. Besides, you get the idea now. If you want to know more you can always go to the THEORY page of our website and read up about it all. Maybe when you're done you'll know why we claim to be the new Reference…for the new Millennium!

Question

Sounds like a good idea. Looks like a little more education on all this stuff might just be what the doctor ordered. Bob… thanks for the info and your time!

Answer

You're welcome - that's why we're here! If possible, take the time to learn as much as you can and remember: The more you know, the better we sound!

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