The Hub: Advanced Transduction - another new speaker brand?

It's a truism of the audio business that ANYONE can build speakers. In the most basic sense, it's true: any knucklehead can pound together some boxes out of of medium-density fibreboard, and screw in drivers. The odds of them being GOOD speakers, however, are up there with the odds of a roomful of typewriting chimps cranking out Shakespeare.

So why, amidst the most dire audio marketplace since Edison first recited "Mary Had a Litlle Lamb", would someone choose to come out with yet another speaker-brand? Either the builder is crazy... or they have something that's really different, and really good. Bill Roberts may be a little goofy, but he's not crazy. So he says.

Roberts debuted his Advanced Transduction "Directorate" speakers at Axpona, powered by electronics from high-end veteran Dave Belles (about whom, more another day) . Bill has been involved in music and audio most of his life, as a musician, live-sound engineer, recordist and mastering engineer. For over 20 years he's been refining his speaker designs, with the goal of creating the "ultimate monitor", a speaker that would reproduce all elements of a recording without injecting any coloration or personality, and without any compression of dynamics.

Historically, monitors emphasized efficiency and indestructibility over lack of coloration; the JBLs and Altecs that were the staples of American recording studios were capable of startling dynamics, but were often honky or shrill. The B&W 801s introduced thirty years ago were in many ways more neutral than the old guard, but were a little constrained, dynamically.

Roberts' speakers look ordinary, with a utility finish one might expect to find in a control room; their most noticeable feature is a separate enclosure for each woofer. Those nondescript-looking boxes belie incredibly elaborate construction utilizing dozens of CNC-cut pieces. Even the not-quite-finished-looking Sandstone surface-treatment was chosen for its damping characteristics, although an almost unlimited range of Corian and veneer finishes are available as desired.

All three drivers are line-loaded, utilizing proprietary venting techniques. Extensive analysis using MATLAB has resulted in a system of extraordinary linearity (+/- 1 dB, 18 Hz-24 kHz, -3 dB at 14 Hz), efficiency (96 dB/1W/1M), and dynamic range (peaks of 123 dB, requiring power-handling of over 500 watts). Constrained-layer damping is utilized to create seriously-massive enclosures (over 700 pounds for the system) with very low coloration or intrinsic noise. In addition, the cabinets and driver placements are carefully configured to help cancel out room modes. They may LOOK like plain ol' boxes, but they're not.

The drivers are also über-tweak, despite their mundane appearance. Roberts begins with off-the-shelf cones and baskets, but essentially every other element is custom-fabricated, and even the "standard" pieces are treated and modified. The woofer exhibits a free-air resonance of 14 Hz and maximum excursion of 1/2", and its magnet-assembly weighs nearly 40 pounds. The woofer crosses over to the mid at 90 Hz at an effective rate of 18 dB/octave, due to the combination of a mechanical crossover and a very simple electrical network. The crossover to the tweeter is at a surprisingly low 900 Hz, and it runs out flat beyond 24 kHz.

The "Directorates" are a sophisticated and mature design (not surprising, given the years of work Roberts has put into them), addressing physical and electrical considerations overlooked by most designs. In many ways they embody the best elements of the high-end: years of work by a dedicated, as-yet-unknown designer, qualities that become more evident with longer acquaintance, and huge value for money. Their price range of $25-30K is not a small amount of money any way you view it, but given the performance and hardware cost, it could well be a best-buy in the high-end.

In days to come, The Hub will examine more Made in the USA exhibitors from Axpona. See our complete Axpona coverage here.