Let’s take a look at some technical facts on the 3 musical instruments that we listen most:
Piano: A standard keyboard has 88 keys which goes from A0 (28Hz) to C8 (4186Hz)
Fundamental frequency : 2107Hz. 2nd order to 6th order harmonics range from 4214Hz to 12642Hz
Violin: G3 (196Hz) to C8 (4186Hz)
Fundamental frequency: 2191Hz. 2nd order to 6th order harmonics range from 4382Hz to 13146Hz
Cello: C2E (65Hz) to B5 (988Hz)
Fundamental frequency: 526Hz. 2nd order to 6th order harmonics range from 1053Hz to 3159Hz
If i use a concave lenses as an analogy with the dispersion of high frequency from a traditional 1 to 2 inches tweeter driver, be it silver membrane, leather, ceramic, such dispersion is like viewing thru a concave lenses where one can see a wider scope but everything is squeezed and compressed. All on-axis directional high frequency propagation requires meticulous speaker positioning relative to the ‘king position’ in order to allow such compressed scenery to be directed properly. Depending on the design, one could yield different scale of compressed view. If one is sitting off axis, the scenic view will be out of focus.
The Airblade has a revolutionary 180 degree dispersion angle alongside a dispersion surface area in multi-folds scale compared to any tweeter in the industry. The music landscape does NOT need concave lenses to condense the detail. Most importantly, any details extending from 3,500Hz onward (that includes the core details and essentially all the harmonics details) are augmented off-axis 180 degree dispersed into the audience area (not a single position!). It makes musical playback resemble much closer to the actual performance where the pianist, violinist and cellist are communicating with the audience without going literally thru a concave lenses.
PT said Airblade is an augmentation for off-axis dispersion. I would say it is indeed a missing piece in the entire music landscape that we have ALL been deprived of in the history of Hi Fi. It takes us essentially to a new era of embracing high frequency domain in 180 degree mode. The question now is not ‘why’ anymore. It is about ‘how’ we integrate Airblade into our speaker system in order to reclaim what we have lost for the longest time!
I was one of the lucky fellows invited to a party, named "Magic" in Sheung Wan showroom last Saturday. And I wondered how magic can the new Cessaro Wagner be?
I was late and missed the intro part of the party. I joined in half way, and Chris was playing Jeff Beck record on Vinyl. "Waoo this speaker is really something" in my mind. I sat down next to Master Chik and asked "Did you set up this system? It is very lively." Master Chik said no. I just noticed something was very "Magical" in the music replay. I couldn’t really tell what was it. Then Chris asked me to sit at the emperor seat before playing Mutter’s Schindler’s List theme song. Thank you for all the good gentleman to let me listen at the best location.
Waoo! The violin was really astonishing. Why was the image so 3-D? I could see the shape of it. The XYZ axis of the all the instruments and performer was so transparent. I have to declare that I am not a fan of horn speaker no matter how hard Chris had been trying hard to poison me over the years. So I had no bias when auditioning this setup. The usual strength of micro-dynamics, transient responses and energy abundance were within expectation from a horn speaker. But this time, the 3 dimensional realism surpassed all my prior experiences.
Chris proceeded briefing us the ground breaking technology of Air Blade. Then, I realised this “Magic" session refer to Wagner + Air Blade. He demo us the effect of this Air Blade by turning it on and off a few times on different music. I have to say it was Day and Night difference.
Chris explained the importance of off axis responses of tweeter. That concurred my ear-experiences on the perception of the XYZ axis. It augmented the tweeter behind the golden horn by beefing up off axis responses of the TAD tweeter, which is restricted to a very narrow dispersion angle. Energy just filled up the whole room. The speaker was bigger than it was, and the music was more alive in the room. I felt like attending a mini concert. It was quite magical. I started researching why this air blade could render such magical experience.
I called Chris to discuss further about why Air Blade is a tweeter instead of a super tweeter. I did some researches on the second harmonic and third harmonic on instruments and vocal. Finally, I understand the logic of it. It is because most instruments will only go up to the region of 3k-4khz, so the second harmonic and third harmonic still fall into tweeter range. With air blade’s 180 degree off axis dispersion restoring those missing harmonics. It does make "magic”!
Chris demo even moved the Air Blade a few mm backward. It made a huge difference, indeed. We thus need to work hard on finding the magic spot. Once it is located, magic raves!
I experienced this once in the same room with Gobel Epoque Reference speaker. I bet no one listened to this setup in Sheung Wan showroom before, cause it stayed only a few days before going to the hifi show. Finally they ended up in Chris' home now. This explained why I loved this speaker so much, because the ipad-like bending wave driver covers a wide dispersion angle.
With the air blade augmenting the Wagner, it makes me like this horn speaker more. I bet it will give the same result with non-horn speaker as well.
The air blade is extraordinary. I want to drive the maximum potential of them. First I changed the jumper from Cessaro to Argento Flow Master Reference jumper.
Comments
另外就是調較音量。能否融合完美便要很清楚自己喇叭高音driver的靈敏度及聲音特性。但若喜歡以氣刄增加少少空氣感卻又想保留多些原本喇叭單原的特性，便可能要降低氣刄音量。便也是以trial and error來試到自己理想的設定。
另外，我覺得氣刄是會抵消了部分低頻，可能在subwoofer的調節也要微調。
但是也不用太擔心，因為不用十分挑剔的擺位，空氣感和現場感也會強化不少。可以在了解其特性之後慢慢再調，可算玩味十足。
氣刃180度擴散的音域由1k至20khz，現今高音冇一隻能做得到。連缐圈也沒有，就等於冇電感行為，極度突破。似乎氣刃是一對可以補助任何擴散範圍不足的高音，但進步卻是全頻！
以上各位已經表達很多現場的所見所聞，在此只想再總結幾點：
1. Off axis 高音補償， 最初PT提出Airblade在3.5k — 20khz 會同Wagner tweeter 重疊，但是只限 on Axis position。未聽demo前不太明白，但聽了第一首Jeff Beck 後便明白到為什麼Airblade 是這麼突破。由於它的特殊結構，可作180度大範圍高頻擴散，所以剛好填補了horn speaker tweeter off axis高音的空白空間，使得整個音樂畫面非常充實，全頻密度提升到現場演奏的境界！真的令我覺得在聽Jeff beck live concert，off axis 高音補償基本上可應用在所有speaker 上，估計都能產生非常顯著作用，因這擴散功能即使是黑鑽石高音都不能達到的效果。
3. 如Michael 所講，現在賺錢艱難，買hifi product 當然希望能小兵建大功，不用分身家價而達到立竿見影效果「 氣刃」是也。
Piano: A standard keyboard has 88 keys which goes from A0 (28Hz) to C8 (4186Hz)
Fundamental frequency : 2107Hz. 2nd order to 6th order harmonics range from 4214Hz to 12642Hz
Violin: G3 (196Hz) to C8 (4186Hz)
Fundamental frequency: 2191Hz. 2nd order to 6th order harmonics range from 4382Hz to 13146Hz
Cello: C2E (65Hz) to B5 (988Hz)
Fundamental frequency: 526Hz. 2nd order to 6th order harmonics range from 1053Hz to 3159Hz
If i use a concave lenses as an analogy with the dispersion of high frequency from a traditional 1 to 2 inches tweeter driver, be it silver membrane, leather, ceramic, such dispersion is like viewing thru a concave lenses where one can see a wider scope but everything is squeezed and compressed. All on-axis directional high frequency propagation requires meticulous speaker positioning relative to the ‘king position’ in order to allow such compressed scenery to be directed properly. Depending on the design, one could yield different scale of compressed view. If one is sitting off axis, the scenic view will be out of focus.
The Airblade has a revolutionary 180 degree dispersion angle alongside a dispersion surface area in multi-folds scale compared to any tweeter in the industry. The music landscape does NOT need concave lenses to condense the detail. Most importantly, any details extending from 3,500Hz onward (that includes the core details and essentially all the harmonics details) are augmented off-axis 180 degree dispersed into the audience area (not a single position!). It makes musical playback resemble much closer to the actual performance where the pianist, violinist and cellist are communicating with the audience without going literally thru a concave lenses.
PT said Airblade is an augmentation for off-axis dispersion. I would say it is indeed a missing piece in the entire music landscape that we have ALL been deprived of in the history of Hi Fi. It takes us essentially to a new era of embracing high frequency domain in 180 degree mode. The question now is not ‘why’ anymore. It is about ‘how’ we integrate Airblade into our speaker system in order to reclaim what we have lost for the longest time!
Marvel
精彩的分享，我也覺得Air blade 顛覆了高音單元發聲的原理，非常有好感，尤其在表演場地還原的能力，當天我們聽了好多現場錄音嘅唱片，北山修、Mutter、盧冠廷、Hugh Masekela 等等，其中「國皇與我」一段對唱，空間像真度令我大開眼界，房間彷似大了一倍，感覺就好似坐在劇院𥚃欣賞一樣，從這次嘅感受，未知「劍合釵圓」會播到什麼境界呢？有機會一定要聽聽！
I was late and missed the intro part of the party. I joined in half way, and Chris was playing Jeff Beck record on Vinyl. "Waoo this speaker is really something" in my mind. I sat down next to Master Chik and asked "Did you set up this system? It is very lively." Master Chik said no. I just noticed something was very "Magical" in the music replay. I couldn’t really tell what was it. Then Chris asked me to sit at the emperor seat before playing Mutter’s Schindler’s List theme song. Thank you for all the good gentleman to let me listen at the best location.
Waoo! The violin was really astonishing. Why was the image so 3-D? I could see the shape of it. The XYZ axis of the all the instruments and performer was so transparent. I have to declare that I am not a fan of horn speaker no matter how hard Chris had been trying hard to poison me over the years. So I had no bias when auditioning this setup. The usual strength of micro-dynamics, transient responses and energy abundance were within expectation from a horn speaker. But this time, the 3 dimensional realism surpassed all my prior experiences.
Chris proceeded briefing us the ground breaking technology of Air Blade. Then, I realised this “Magic" session refer to Wagner + Air Blade. He demo us the effect of this Air Blade by turning it on and off a few times on different music. I have to say it was Day and Night difference.
Chris explained the importance of off axis responses of tweeter. That concurred my ear-experiences on the perception of the XYZ axis. It augmented the tweeter behind the golden horn by beefing up off axis responses of the TAD tweeter, which is restricted to a very narrow dispersion angle. Energy just filled up the whole room. The speaker was bigger than it was, and the music was more alive in the room. I felt like attending a mini concert. It was quite magical. I started researching why this air blade could render such magical experience.