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Each speaker system incorporates the patented Acousta-Reed Technology. Our cabinets are crafted from acoustical grade MDF composite which provides superior strength, damping and acoustical properties. The smallest models are manufactured with 5/8" MDF and the larger models with 1" MDF. Each cabinet is engineered with extensive internal bracing to reduce any residual cabinet resonance. For example, our AP-4 has eleven 1" thick hard-wood cross braces running from front to back, side to side and top to bottom. This amount of bracing may be considered extensive and overkill by other manufacturers, but is in keeping with the quality and design philosophy at Digital Phase. Standard finishes for our AP Series cabinets are Honey Oak or Black Lacquered Oak finishes. Custom woods and finishes are available on a special order basis. Please contact us for pricing of custom finishes!
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(1) The overall dome & voice coil assembly is much more rigid than that of conventional drivers and therefore helps reduce any residual aberrations. With this stiffer dome residual resonances are pushed up in frequency and above the range of human hearing. We then add another coating of special diaelectric that helps to eliminate any remaining resonances.
(2) Our one piece unit can disperse heat much more efficiently because of the one-piece dome assembly. In conventional designs, the voice coil is glued to a dome. This glue acts as an insulator between the voice coil and dome which results in heat build-up and a side effect called dynamic compression. Dynamic compression occurs when the voice coil of a speaker gets so hot that the impedance rises to a higher level. This in turn causes more heat, which again raises the impedance. The end result is a very compressed sound and almost complete loss of dynamics. Once the dynamics are stripped from the music it looses the live quality and if used in this condition for extended periods will lead to driver failure.
(3) Our unit, working at much lower temperature, reduces this dynamic compression effect and therefore provides a more accurate reproduction of the music.
(4) Our driver uses a butyl rubber surround which allows it to reproduce sound in a much more natural manner. This butyl rubber surround also acts as damping which helps to produce the transparency our customers rave about. Conventional metal domes use a metal surround which adds resonance (distortion) and changes the tonal purity.
(5) The Digital Phase tweeter utilizes a (rare earth) neodymium magnet structure which is 10 times stronger than conventional magnets, giving this unit a high density magnetic field, providing superior definition. The above features used by Digital Phase, allows for the first time, the use of metal dome tweeters with their extended range, but with the sweetness and smoothness of a silk dome driver!
(6) With our high dispersion screen and phase ring our driver also provides one of the most even and highest dispersion patterns in the industry. This in turn provides a large very deep 3D sound stage. There is no hint of sound coming from the speakers!! This must be experienced to be believed!
Our line offers two different size woofers, see (Why We Use Small Drivers below) that are manufactured to the same strict specifications and both contain the same materials. The AP-1, AP-2 and AP-4 all use the 6.5" version of this driver while the AP-.7CC (Center Channel) and AP-.7 book shelf utilize the 3" version. Both have been designed with the latest materials and technology and are unmatched in quality. The cones of each are manufactured from Aluminum/Titanium mix. This is the same new space-age material used in the B1 bomber, which can accelerate to 3 times the speed of sound, and is extremely rigid and lightweight. These units also include polystyrene butyl rubber surround for an airtight seal and incredible damping. No other material yields better results. The voice coils are made from lightweight aluminum with an excellent strength to weight ratio and can withstand and disperse extreme amounts of heat and energy.
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We use only top quality premium grade capacitors, inductors and resistors. All inductors are aircore and are manufactured from oxygen free pure copper wire and wound to less than a 2% tolerance. Use of such precision aircore inductors means that saturation levels will be held to a minimum, allowing your electronics optimum damping. The capacitors are premium grade 400 volt metalfilm polypropylene (the best in the industry), not the general electrolytic type used almost exclusively by the industry. Our capacitors are also manufactured to less than a 5% tolerance and are far superior to the 20% tolerance electrolytic capacitors. All resistors used are 1% premium grade, noninductive type resistors. This allows us to include L-Pad attenuation circuits in our smallest models with proper balance to the crossover, which provides a linear response. All models include a 4th order (24db per octave) Linkwitz-Riley crossover. This allows the drivers to be wired in phase providing a linear phase response, which yields precise imaging and a full 3 dimensional soundstage. This extensive crossover network is fed on each model by a gold plated 5-way binding post. The larger models (AP-2 and AP-4) come standard with gold plated Bi-wire terminals. Each model is internally wired with a heavy gauge pure electrolytic grade copper wire (14 awg) manufactured by Esoteric Audio (USA).
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Knowing that your product will perform properly is most important. To insure the
performance and accuracy of each Digital Phase speaker, we hand-match and measure
every component and then subject the finished product to a rigid battery of tests. The
range of tests includes amplitude response, phase angle, dynamic compression, rub buzz and
dispersion-the most extensive testing in the industry. This assures that your new Digital
Phase system will perform parallel to our reference system. For more than 5 years,
every Digital Phase speaker has passed this same exhaustive set of tests. With our
superiorly designed components, our revolutionary Acousta-Reed technology, and our
comprehensive test procedures we hold to the claim:
"Within its size and price range, you simply can't buy a better loudspeaker."
(1) The dispersion of the small 6 1/2" Digital Phase driver is far superior, yielding a more uniform power response than that of a larger driver. The large drivers dispersion radius narrows (producing a beaming effect) with rising frequency and produces a poor power response. This trait of the larger driver causes severe image degradation and produces unnatural and unpleasant tonal quality.
(2) The reduced moving mass (only 11 grams) of our small driver improves the response time (transient response)and cone flexure is held to a minimum. The moving mass of a larger driver is considerable and has many drawbacks, such as, slow response time, cone flexure and drum head effect. This, in itself, is not completely the fault of the large driver, but it is the fault of the manufacturer's design. If you were to take our small driver and scale it up proportionately, the afore mentioned problem of time response would be less severe. This, in turn, would increase the manufacturers cost substantially, and would do nothing to improve imaging. It remains true; however, that a large mass (i.e., an 18 wheeler) cannot respond as quickly as a small mass (i.e., Porsche 911). In the above scenario (all other things being equal), it is easy to see how the response time of the small driver is substantially quicker than that of the large driver.
What is the real question? We all know that small drivers do not produce deep bass,
right? For the most part this is true, but, after all, if small woofers can't produce deep
bass then small planes can't fly, right? It is very obvious that small planes do fly, and
as far as maneuverability they are more superior, at this feat, than the large aircraft.
The same in a general sense holds true with loudspeakers: the smaller, the faster the
response time. To produce the deepest bass notes requires moving a lot of air, and in 1992
we patented the Acousta-Reed which does just that! Now, for the first time, it is
possible to tune a small driver to the Acousta-Reed for bass performance that is
truly amazing!
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The Acousta-Reed is a way to acoustically couple mass to the energy radiated by a
driver. We have seen examples of the Acousta-Reed concept all around us for
many years. It is simply an extension to moving mass such as the relation of the
acoustical chamber of a guitar to its strings, or the saxophone body to its mouthpiece
reed. The Acousta- Reed also provides time shift to the low frequency energy
produced by the back of the bass driver and extends the useful range of the system. The Acousta-Reed's
memory (suspension) is 1000 times more linear than that of a high compliance
speaker; therefore the low frequency transients are far superior to conventional design.
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With the inception of the Acousta-Reed and our small drivers, the Digital Phase
AP series loudspeakers are unmatched in their ability to reproduce natural, uncolored,
smooth sound and full three- dimensional imaging. In addition the system provides superior
power response, transient response and linearity. A testament to the advancement and
quality of Digital Phase Loudspeakers is their high acclaim and recognition in the
industry.
