Martin-logan exclusives, Full range operation – MartinLogan Monolith III User Manual

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Monolith III User's Manual

1. Full Range Operation

The most significant advantage of
Martin-Logan's exclusive transducer
technology reveals itself when you look
at examples of other loudspeaker
products on the market today.

The

MONOLITH III uses no crossover

networks above 125 Hz because they are
not needed. The

MONOLITH III consists

of a single, seamless electrostatic
membrane reproducing all frequencies

full range of frequencies. Instead, these
drivers must be designed to operate
within narrow, fixed bandwidths of the
frequency range and then combined
electrically so that the sum of the parts
equals the total signal. While nice in
theory, we must deal with real-world
conditions.

In order to use multiple drivers, a
crossover network is enlisted to attempt

a division of the complex musical signal
into the separate pieces (usually highs,
mids, and lows) that each specific
driver was designed to handle. Unfortu-
nately, due to the phase relationships
that occur within all crossover networks
and during the acoustical recombina-
tion process, nonlinearities and severe
degradation of the music signal takes
place in the ear's most "critical zone".
See

Figure 10.

The

MONOLITH III's electro-

static transducer can single-
handedly reproduce all
frequencies above 100 Hz
simultaneously. So, you
have, in one transducer, the
ability to handle, in elegant
simplicity, the critical
frequencies above 100 Hz.

The crossover phase
discontinuities that are
associated with traditional
tweeter, midrange, and
woofer systems are elimi-
nated. This results in a
dramatic improvement in
imaging and staging
performance due to the
minutely accurate phase
relationship of the full-range
panel wave launch.

Critical Zone

250 - 20kHz

Tweeter

Midrange

Woofer

Critical Zone

250 - 20kHz

MONOLITH III

Electrostatic

Transducer

Martin-Logan

MONOLITH III

Conventional Loudspeaker

Figure 10.

Figure 10. Illustrates how a conventional speaker system

must use a crossover network that has negative affects

on the musical performance unlike the

MONOLITH III

MONOLITH III which

needs no crossover networks in the "critical zone".

Woofer

Martin-Logan Exclusives

above 125 Hz simultane-
ously. How is this possible?

First we must understand that
music is not composed of
separate high, mid and low
frequency pieces. In fact, music
is comprised of a single complex
waveform with all frequencies
interacting simultaneously.

The electrostatic transducer
of the Monolith essentially
acts as an exact opposite of
the microphones used to
record the original event. A
microphone, which is a
single working element,
transforms acoustic energy
into an electrical signal that
can be amplified or pre-
served by some type of
storage media. The

MONO-

LITH III's electrostatic trans-
ducer transforms electrical
energy from your amplifier
into acoustical energy.
Due to the limitations of
electromagnetic drivers, no
single unit can reproduce the