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Designer's Notes
AURA
Crossover
08
In conjunction with the low resonance of the bass units, the SLPP system provides
bass extension to well down into and below the 30Hz region for AURA 2, 3 and 4,
revealing the fundamentals of most musical instruments with excellent
articulation, clarity and power. You can feel as well as hear the true acoustic power
of the musical performance.
In many ways the crossover is the 'heart' of every loudspeaker. Wharfedale were one
of the first domestic speaker manufacturers to utilise a crossover to divide the
frequency band between drive units that were optimised for bass, midrange and
treble.
But today's crossovers have to do more than just divide up the musical input to the
loudspeaker and distribute it to the relevant drive units. The crossover also has to be
matched accurately to the acoustic performance of each drive unit to achieve a blend
between the drivers that is acoustically seamless. Although this process is aided by
the sophisticated computer analysis available from measurements made by
Wharfedale's engineers, the fine-tuning has to be done by ear using a variety of
musical sources and styles.
In addition each crossover component has to be tested and evaluated for its acoustic
transparency. Bass and midrange/treble crossovers are laid out on separate PCBs
in order to reduce electromagnetic interference and coupled to their respective
terminals to allow bi-wiring if required.
In fact this crossover fine-tuning can take
hundreds of hours of listening and testing in
order not only to provide a seamless blend but
also to balance the fundamental and
harmonic overtones of voices and instruments
so that they sound stunningly realistic when
replayed in the home. The result is that, when
you close your eyes, the AURA speakers seem
to disappear and you are simply enfolded in
the musical experience.
ce and coupled to their respective
ce and coupled to their respective
ce and coupled to their respective
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