501 Loudspeaker

Hanbridge Audio 501 features

The 501 is a 3 way floor standing design which offers class-leading performance. It has a number of features to ensure its sound quality exceeds the competition.

Bass & midrange drivers
Isobaric compound driver technique which comprises of an additional internally mounted bass driver that dramatically improves the low frequency cut off point. This improves the low frequency f -3dB down to 23Hz. This low frequency performance figure is unique for a speaker of its size and type. As a result the listener will experience bass which can be felt as well as heard.

Magnesium and Aluminium alloy cone coated with a specially developed damping material. This alloy material possesses superior rigidity for accurate reproduction of transients. The damping material eliminates resonances that affect normal metal cone drivers.

The coil drive system has been developed by using finite element analysis of the magnet structure including the pole piece. This achieves symmetrical flux distribution that reduces voice coil inductance modulation leading to lower distortion.

Finite element analysis of the aluminium frame reduces parasitic structural driver resonance.

Tweeter
Extremely high performance 29mm Sonomex soft dome tweeter with a HEXADYM magnet system. Class leading low distortion, even below 2kHz. No sibilance is created with this tweeter. Frequency response extends beyond 25kHz with no resonant break-up, ensuring correct presentation of SACD and DVD-Audio sources. Ultra-low resonant frequency of 500Hz ensuring no resonant problems within its operating range (2.5kHz to 25kHz)

Crossover
A computer designed and optimised crossover ensures compliance with our target frequency response curve specification. On and off axis measurements are taken, and the crossover is optimized for both. Each unit is tested to ensure that it complies with our target frequency response curve specification.

Hanbridge Audio employ a psycho-acoustic filter to compensate for the fact that human hearing is less sensitive to diffuse fields. This prevents our loudspeakers from sounding harsh or ‘bright’. Hanbridge Audio measure the distortion of all the drive units with respect to frequency, so that we can optimise the crossover frequencies.

A 2nd order bass to midrange crossover reduces mid-range inter-modulation distortion. It also eliminates the high frequency ‘break-up’ resonance of the bass driver.

Port
The 501 uses an oversized (70mm internal diameter) flared port. The flared port causes airflow to expand and lose speed in a controlled fashion, allowing higher speeds without audible turbulence. ‘Chuffing’ noises are eliminated. An oversized port ensures that the loudspeaker can be played at high sound pressure levels without compression. This ensures that the bass frequency response remains constant regardless of volume level.

Cabinet
Asymmetrically multiple braced cabinet of both 25 and 18mm MDF. This leads to a reduction in cabinet wall movement and improves clarity. The asymmetry ensures that each braced panel has a different resonant frequency.

The internal braced walls of the cabinet are additionally damped by a bitumen-based material. This further reduces cabinet wall vibration to inaudible levels.

Enclosure standing waves are reduced by using an optimal amount of internal acoustic damping material. This ensures a flatter frequency response that makes the speaker sound more natural than the competition.