P13P12
When we design,
we experiment.
We talk. We play.
We listen. We don’t
simply do what we
did before, and we
denitely don’t try
to make it easier
for ourselves.
diaphragm, because it means the whole
cone is optimised for the frequencies it’s
been built to reproduce. And it works.
Michael insisted on keeping the metal
bafe. It’s part of the Contour’s design
heritage, after all, and there are some
incredibly good acoustic reasons for
keeping it. It’s rigid, solid and extremely
well-damped (which lets those fancy
new MSP drivers do their thing as
exactly they should).
But now it’s made from aluminium
instead of iron.
We decided on aluminium because we
can shape it. You can see that from the
drawings. It chamfer ts with the gently
curved cabinet edge, and its milled shape
gives a modern feel to the Contour’s
classic performance.
But it also meant we could bring other
details to the party: the driver baskets
themselves are chamfered, too. We love
how they look, but they also help to
reduce diffractions. Good job all round,
then (we even went so far as to have more
than one argument about whether the
screws should be visible. The “yes” side
won, and even our minimalist contingent
had to agree that it was the right choice).
In developing the new drivers and
crossover, we turned to Daniel Emonts
and Mark Thorup. (Mark started here
as an R&D engineer in 1983 and rose
to the lofty heights of strategic product
manager.) Between them they’re the
gurus of our design department. They
know everything. We took their ndings to
our R&D team and psychoacoustics guys,
said “aim this way”, and they got to work.
When we design, we experiment. We
talk. We play. We listen. We don’t simply
do what we did before, and we denitely
don’t try to make it easier for ourselves.
We got to where we are on the new
Contour because we (and you) love
the original. It’s still there inside.
But now, the legend can begin again ...
How We Got There
To Next Page
Loading...
Need help?
General
