Toa BS-1030 User Manual page 9

TOA Electronics Speaker Guide
Welcome to the TOA Speaker Guide
TOA has long been recognized as a manufacturer of high-quality, flexible, and reliable amplifiers.
For over 75 years, we have also been an innovator in the design of high-performance speaker
systems for a wide range of applications. TOA has been at the forefront in the development of
specialized loudspeaker technologies for public spaces. TOA produced some of the first pro-
fessional speaker systems that utilized dedicated electronic processing to optimize the speak-
er's performance. TOA engineers presented the first AES papers on adaptive filter equalization
and the use of all-pass filters for flat-phase speaker tuning. Our test facilities include one of the
world's largest anechoic chambers and state-of-the-art facilities for acoustics and reverberation
simulation. TOA was among the first to adopt the RASTI speaker intelligibility rating method
and we rigorously test our speakers using TEF 20 analyzers. TOA also assisted with the Japanese
translation of the classic text by Don and Carolyn Davis, Sound System Engineering, and has long
been a sponsor of Syn-Aud-Con sound system design seminars.
The purpose of this design guide is to provide sound contractors and systems integrators with
a convenient, easy-to-use reference to design small- and medium-sized TOA distributed speak-
er systems. The guide discusses the main parameters and trade-offs involved in designing dis-
tributed speaker systems and provides rules-of-thumb to help specify and implement them.
Disclaimer: This design guide does not cover all of the general concepts underlying sound
system design and installation, which would require several hundred pages. This guide is not
meant to replace the participation of an experienced consultant or engineer.
References: For more detailed information about sound system design principles, we recommend
the following two excellent books:
Sound System Engineering, Second Edition, Don and Carolyn Davis, 1975, 1987 by Howard Sams &
Co. ISBN: 0-672-21857-7
Handbook for Sound Engineers: Third Edition, Glen Ballou, Editor, 2001, Butterworth and Heinemann.
ISBN: 0-240-80454-6
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Steve Mate and John Murray in the TOA Product Support Group for their invaluable
support and contributions to this project. Thanks also to Don and Carolyn Davis for being guiding
lights to so many of us who work with sound and who always want the world to sound a little
(sometimes a lot) better.
David Menasco
Product Application Specialist
TOA Electronics, Inc.
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