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"For the Oslo sub I ended up with three prototypes for final testing. Two weeks before the show I was looking at a 15-liter volume loading a 20cm driver with 50mm voice coil driven from a 150-watt class AB amp. I experimented with a few drivers. The most promising units were from Italy's Hertz and the American firm JBL. I leaned toward the latter which did require a custom cone. 20 years ago I made a few motion-feedback subs. This compared input signal to diaphragm response in real time using my own motion sensors. The results were impressive. This technique made it possible to use small enclosures for very low very clean bass.
"One of these subs with a single 30cm driver did 15Hz with just a few percent of distortion at full power. The drawback was that very long-throw drive units were required and that the system had very low efficiency to require a very powerful amp. 20 years later the situation is very different. Due to powerful class D amps and plenty of long-throw drivers in car audio, it's possible to have a small 6-liter box and play clean 20Hz bass with sufficient acoustic power. This approach sounds sweet but requires time to design properly."
01 November 2012 03:35: "I just took the first shots of the Studio Oslo's dedicated stands and subwoofer. The stands are 45cm in height and may be loaded with sand or lead shot to then weigh over 10kg each and be very stable and well-damped. The first subwoofer was tested in my studio but the real 'crash' test will be the show. It's possible that some details in the production version will still be adjusted but the basic concept is fully locked in. That's because the sound of the Studio Oslo monitors with subwoofer is simply excellent already.
01 November 2012 03:35: "I just took the first shots of the Studio Oslo's dedicated stands and subwoofer. The stands are 45cm in height and may be loaded with sand or lead shot to then weigh over 10kg each and be very stable and well-damped. The first subwoofer was tested in my studio but the real 'crash' test will be the show. It's possible that some details in the production version will still be adjusted but the basic concept is fully locked in. That's because the sound of the Studio Oslo monitors with subwoofer is simply excellent already.
"The subwoofer controls are very simple, just volume and power. All filters, phase delay etc. are perfectly matched to the Studio Oslo and fixed internally. Connected to the right speaker, adding the subwoofer cuts the bass from the monitors with the monitor bass control. This remains active during playback and allows for fine adjustments on the monitors without making any changes to the woofer settings. It is possible to run one pair of Studio Oslo with one subwoofer for a traditional 3-piece stereo setup; or multiple monitor pairs for a café, office or other bigger commercial area.
"It's also possible to daisy-chain multiple subwoofers and a future dual-mono version of the Oslo will accept a mono sub and two or more subs for stereo."
After the Warsaw show, Jarek sent this terse email: "The presentation of the Oslo (Studio + sub) was very sucessful. A lot of visitors complained that they were unable to enter our room due to the big crowds blocking them. I received many positive opinions and orders to where I am now working at 120% capacity just to catch up."
