Welcome to the SuBsonic Technical Section where we give a more in depth explanation of the technology, specifications and hopefully answer a few questions about the whole Home theatre and Audio thing in general. This area will be updated periodically so pop in every now and then to read the latest.

Polymorphic Technology Explained

What is Polymorphic Technology?

The designers at Subsonic wanted to develop a range of loudspeakers that removed all the usual problems and limitations of conventional loudspeakers.

After extensive research and questioning both hi-fi dealers and customers we found the majority of customers had one or more of the following criticisms with current loudspeakers:

• 1. Loudspeakers sound very different in different sized rooms. What can sound balanced and natural in one room can sound thin and lacking bass in a larger room, and boomy and sluggish in another, smaller room.
  
  
• 2. Room absorption can cause havoc with loudspeakers. The same loudspeaker can sound tonally correct in one room, have no treble in a room with lots of absorbent materials, and sound too bright and harsh in a very reflective room.
  
  
• 3. Many amplifiers specify that the loudspeakers connected be a minimum impedance of 8 ohms. Some amplifiers find it difficult to handle the 5 loudspeakers in a home theatre set-up if the overall impedance of the system is too low.
  
  
• 4. People want to have the speaker fit in with their room. Very few people want to build the room around their speakers.

Graham Dinning, (Designer of Award winning Products including the Richter Evokator Electronics, Lochhead BP 1000, and ML1&2 Subwoofers) said: "When looking at these problems, we realised they weren't an issue in our personal audio life. The reason for this is because we are loudspeaker designers both by profession and passion - and whenever our listening environment or need in a loudspeaker change we simply went back to the laboratory and re-designed the loudspeaker crossovers to suit our needs and tastes at the time."

"It was then that we realised the solution to all these problems - develop several speaker designs within the one loudspeaker, each one designed for a specific purpose, to suit different listening environments, tastes, amplifier requirements, and audio modes. Then the listener can decide what sounds the best for their needs."

By analysing many different rooms, and identifying the frequencies that cause the major problems, Subsonic now has an outstanding range of loudspeakers which excel across a wide range of applications and operating environments. You can change the characteristics of these loudspeakers to suit your differing circumstances and individual taste.

Now while the tonal aspects of a loudspeaker are important, the phase and coherency of the original signal must be preserved if possible. The brain spends a lot of it's time sorting relevant and non relevant data from the signal to give you a sense of position in your environment. This is an evolutionary aspect of the auditory system that allows us to locate and distinguish between friend and foe. If the signals that arrive don't make complete sense then the fallback position for your brain is to elevate your flight responses just in case it turns out to be dangerous. To put it in plain English,. The harder the brain is working at making sense of a signal the more stressed you become!

The whole point of the acoustic room correction would be lost if the original signal was corrupted in the process. This is why it important to zero in on just what is going on and to "correct it" as accurately as possible. The advantage of the Poly Morphic system is that while correcting these acoustic issues NO ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS are inserted into the signal path thus preserving as much as possible the original signals coherency. We call this MET. Minimal Element Topology.

While there has been much progress in DSP technology over the years, the price of systems that can correct for room response and phase irregularities with any accuracy have not come down to anywhere near the levels that is affordable for the average buyer. Most DSP systems you would be exposed to over the years are mainly involved in "Enhancing" the sound from a system. We found that, while this sounds great for one or two days eventually the whole experience becomes tiring and eventually many people just switch it all off. The reason? As explained above if the signal doesn't make sense to your brain you get stressed, and we have enough of that already!

How Polymorphic Technology works

Through talking to consumers, and measuring the acoustics in countless rooms, studios, and theatres Subsonic designers have become an authority on building the bridge between a recorded performance and the ultimate aural sensation within your living room.

By condensing the essential elements of this research we have developed a loudspeaker that offers several exceptional speaker designs in the one product. Polymorphic Technology provides loudspeaker owners with the most versatile, user friendly loudspeakers available, that can be tailored to suit the specific needs and tastes of the owner, as well as match the diverse requirements placed on loudspeakers in today's music/home theatre environment.

The three Polymorphic Technology Variables

• 1. Room Acoustics - This switch varies the amount of presence in a loudspeaker. More presence makes the loudspeaker sound more forward and confronting, which is what in needed in an acoustically 'dull' room where the sound is often lost and lacking dynamics. Conversely, the acoustically bright room will need the presence of the loudspeaker toned down, as reflective surfaces over emphasise a loudspeakers midrange and treble. Simply choose the setting which gives the most balanced presence in your room.
  
  
• 2. Loudspeaker Impedance Switch - If you are just running one pair of loudspeakers from your amplifier, switch the loudspeaker to 4 ohms, which will make the loudspeakers run more efficiently, and provide a bigger sound from your amplifier. If you are running more than 1 pair of speakers from the one amplifier, or are running a home theatre set-up, quite often the main speakers need to be 8 ohms, so as not to draw too much current from the amplifier. If this is the case (check your amplifier instruction manual), switch to 8 ohms on your Polymorphic Loudspeakers. This will provide a much easier load for your amplifier to drive, and helps avoid low impedance problems with your amplifier.
  
  
• 3. Room Size Switch - Many people have their loudspeakers in less than ideally sized rooms. If your room is very small, or you need to put the speakers close to rear walls, then you may find the bass too boomy and 'overblown'. By switching to small room mode, you will tighten up the bass, and make it sound more balanced in such an environment.
  
  
• 4. Direct/Diffuse - One of the hardest speakers to accommodate, the least understood, and the most underrated is the "Effects Speaker". While back in the days of PROLOGIC you were unlikely to get too much serious stuff being sent to what were really effects speakers, today things have changed. AC3 & DTS now treat the "Effects speaker" in exactly the same way as the main set. (with the ability to remove some bass frequencies). The importance of the rear speakers is now greater than ever. Unfortunately the physical problems of where to put these speakers has not gone away. You may only have side wall space or the back wall near the corners. Both these satiations require slightly different response shapes in order to sound natural. The Direct/Diffuse switch allows you more flexibility in this regard by being able to run the rear speakers with a direct sound pattern (like conventional speakers) or a diffuse sound pattern (when not near adjoining walls) depending on their position in the room.

With most of the above-mentioned problems, some loudspeaker owners try and fix them with the tone controls on their amplifiers. Tone controls cause an imbalance to the sound spectrum. They just crudely bias or tilt the sound spectrum one way or another. In addition to this the signal now has to be routed through even more electronics which just adds a raft of distortions that can cloud finer details. Quite often "HI-END" equipment does not even include these controls. You just don't know what it's doing to the signal. Tone Controls can also cause damage to loudspeakers at higher volumes. With Polymorphic Technology, you can put all these problems behind you. Polymorphic Technology transforms the output signal through one of the highly accurate crossover networks, using only the finest components, so you know that the sound will always be clean, pure, and reproduced the way the recorder intended it.