Introduction - Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus User Manual

Introduction

B&W monitors are widely considered to be He used a ring magnet outside the coil with
the benchmark in music reproduction by a thin-walled cylindrical pole piece to allow
professional musicians and audiophiles alike. a smooth transition from dome to enclosure.
The Matrix #80 has become the industry Only one type of enclosure will provide
standard monitor in recording studios around absolute freedom from aberration – the infinite
the world, and it would be easy to rest on our pipe or waveguide.
development laurels. Excitingly, it became possible to imagine
However, the team of audio scientists at that an entirely waveguide-based system
B&W's Research Laboratories at Steyning could actually work. Research showed
are perfectionists. For them, there are that the exponentially tapered pipe was an
always areas which could be improved even better absorber than the cylinder. So
upon or refined. complete was its absorbing action that the
Company founder, John Bowers, was pipe could be left open or closed.
an exemplar of the type. For him, the most This was the breakthrough. Thereafter, the
glaring compromise in loudspeaker design usual disciplines of the acoustic engineer's art
lay in the cabinet. The standard rectangular came into play. Juggling the variables of driver
enclosure only partially achieves its goal diameter, dispersion, break-up, excursion,
of absorbing the rear radiation from the practicality, and of course, economics.
drive unit. It was decided that the system should
Worse, it contributes resonances and be four-way with 00mm (in), 00mm
reflections from the inside, and diffraction (in), 50mm (in) and 5mm (in) units – all
and reflection from the outside. mounted in tapered lines within a diffraction
The B&W breakthrough of Matrix cabinet limiting enclosure.
construction offered a significant improvement The enclosure evolved from the original
to the panel stiffness of the rectangular box, cylinder into the sleek rolling vent design
but ultimately, the solution, John felt, was to you have purchased. The massive rolling
remove the cabinet completely and create vent disposes of rear bass driver radiation,
a dipole source. Sadly, time and ill-health whilst the exponential transmission pipes
intervened to prevent John Bowers from loading the other drive units effectively deal
exploring this avenue of research further. with internal reflection and external diffraction
Custody of this work was passed to Matrix at mid and high frequencies.
inventor and top acoustic designer, Laurence The drive for sonic purity is reinforced by
Dickie, with an enviable record of transducer using an active crossover design allowing
and cabinet problem solving. Laurence had separate amplification of each drive unit,
been experimenting with drivers mounted cutting out component crosstalk and driver
in the curved surface of a cylinder and inter-reaction. Overall, the elimination
encountered results not dissimilar to those of straight lines defeats diffraction and
of the dipole. helps achieve virtually transparent music
Namely, that external cabinet effects could reproduction.
be virtually eliminated and the intrinsic sound What results is arguably the most musical
of the unit heard. loudspeaker ever made.
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