About The Technology

[Chane M&C]

This thread will address each element of Chane technology in a separate posting.

The first in this series is on the Chane tweeter. (A similar comment appears in another thread in the Chane forum.)

The Chane tweeter is our evolution of this proven format. It is measured and regarded to be of the more effective tweeters in it's price and output class.

The Chane tweeter uses a high temperature thermoplastic leaf with a diaphragm backing material with a metallic voice coil. The Chane tweeter has a push-pull motor. Strips of Neodymium are aligned under great force in front and behind the diaphragm. This alignment reorients the arc of their force fields parallel to the lines of force set up in the tweeter's voice coil by the amplifier.

The Chane tweeter's push-pull motor and field arrangement eliminates force applied to the diaphragm in any vector other than directly fore and aft, which eliminates the distortion of simpler single-ended planar magnetic designs. The diaphragm is almost all driven and operates more pistonically then a dome driven at its periphery by a glued-on voice coil and former.

The Chane tweeter also has an advantage in area and air cooling. The former gives this tweeter the proportionally lower intermodulation distortion that shows up in measurements - with about four times the radiation area of a dome the planar device has about four times less of this distortion. The balanced push-pull gap motor - like all solid state and many tube amplifier designs - also cuts second order harmonic distortion. Pairing large surface area and the "double" motor simply lowers distortion a number of times.

The doubled, push-pull motor also adds efficiency: The Chane tweeter is used in the speaker with substantial electrical attenuation which translates into added in-product thermal headroom.

The Chane tweeter is a proven design, one that's been on the international market at brand and OEM level for years. Units are reliable and acoustically well matched.

Similar variants of the Chane tweeter are found in "reference" high end loudspeaker models costing thousands of dollars.

[Chane M&C]

Chane woofers

The Chane midwoofer uses a special licensed XBL2 motor to lower distortion to under half that of a conventional woofer at the same time as it nearly doubles maximum linear excursion. This technology is a genuine advance with measurable effects. It is not a marketing slogan or a trade name unbacked by real benefits.

In a conventional woofer motor a magnetic "gap" houses a moving voice coil. The voice coil is electrically connected to an amplifier which sends a dynamic electrical current through it - this current is the electrical analog of the acoustical signal the speaker is to produce as sound. The voice coil mechanically attaches to the cone, whose motion it provides and that produces sound.

The gap is a small circular space across which a static magnetic field is applied by the midwoofer's permanent magnet. A second dynamic magnetic field is established around the voice coil by the amplifier. The two fields alternately push and pull the voice coil and cone, moving air and making sound.

The Chane XBL2 "Splitgap" motor uses two such gaps, one stacked axially atop the other and separated by an air space. The voice coil traverses the assembly, moving first through both gaps and at the extreme ends of its travel, leaving one gap at a time. The effect of this arrangement of magnetic gaps and voice coil is a more linear force applied to the voice coil over greater stroke and a resultant lowering of distortion and increase in that stroke.

The Chane midwoofer is therefore substantially different than anything we're aware of in the price class. Exotic midwoofers such as this can sell for over one hundred dollars in the DIY audio market.

The Chane midwoofer has other features and benefits.

• An over-sized magnet to drive the extended stroke Arx voice coil and cone. This allows more work to be done without losing overall acoustical efficiency.
• A durable, heavy cast-aluminum midwoofer frame. This keeps parts in close alignment over greater range of forces encountered in high output SplitGap operation.
• A high-temperature voice coil set inside the massive metal heat sink that comprises the SplitGap motor. Extra heat-sinking ability allows the Chane midwoofer higher output and lower dynamic compression.
• A completely ventilated motor and voice coil. Open windows behind the Chane midwoofer's rear suspension allow air movement around the voice coil, cooling it.
• A vented pole piece. The motor is open through the back plate into the dustcap chamber and voice coil interior, decompressing the voice coil, linearizing aerodynamic flow, and improving cooling.
• A critically-damped treated cellulose cone and dustcap. The special slurry used in the Chane midwoofer grants both good internal damping and wide bandwidth, which ensures good sound fidelity and simplifies crossover design, also improving fidelity.
• A shorting ring between the two voice coil gaps. A copper ring inside the Arx motor shorts magnetic eddy currents that modulate the motor, thereby reducing distortion and raising bandwidth and sonic transparency.

None of these features and benefits appear in conventional midwoofers. Chane has them all in one device. The net end result is bass with more power and clarity than expected from either the size or price class Chane occupies.

[Chane M&C]

Everything else.

Using high performance driver components, the Chane loudspeaker should also use high-performance enclosures and design techniques in order to hit performance expectations. Each Chane product design therefore includes components, materials, and techniques appropriate for a true high performance loudspeaker.

Every Chane loudspeaker starts with a design standard aimed at neutral acoustical response and well-damped output at high level. Chane tuned port bass reflex alignments are expected to allow good bass extension with a minimum of bass "lift" or overhang. (In the case of the Chane A5 model, bass output is damped slightly more than the other models so as to offer easier matching to an amplified subwoofer and to the room at high output levels.)

Chane enclosures are all 18mm braced MDF, a standard appearing elsewhere up to a number of thousands of dollars a pair. To strengthen and acoustically deaden the cabinet, the Chane A1rx-c, A2rx-c, A3rx-c, and A5rx-c include complete circumferential braces inside the cabinet between drivers. The A2rx-c also has a cloverleaf tweeter cutout to allow the tweeter to be field-rotated with just a screwdriver, allowing the speaker to be used horizontally or vertically.

The A3 also has a solid floor below the lowermost driver under which lies a user-filled mass-loading chamber. The Chane A5rx-c uses internal circumferential braces between each of the five drivers, with the top two in the cabinet forming the top and bottom walls of the acoustically-isolated midrange chamber. Both the A3rx-c and A5rx-c come with solid 1" thick milled and painted removable bases. Both models also come with spike feet that thread into machine bosses in each speaker base.

The Chane finish is an economy surface of simulated black Ash. This PVC finish is durable in normal use and is another industry standard. It's been selected because the brand is intended for performance-oriented users and markets with little demand for premium furniture finishes. The economy is passed along to customers in low prices.

Grilles are standard removable types, and frames are heavy milled composite covered by acoustically transparent black knit cloth.

The Chane crossover network is designed for simplicity and good on-axis and good acoustical power (off-axis) response. The A1rx-c simulates a classic 4th order constant power transfer function between midwoofer and tweeter, and the A2rx-c modifies this response for improved off-axis response across the long-axis, MTM array. The A3rx-c is a "shaded" 2.5 way design, where the crossover resembles the A1rx-c between tweeter and the A3rx-c's top woofer, but where a second woofer has been added to fill in the speaker's acoustical diffraction step below the middle hundreds of cycles. This gives the A3rx-c more maximum loudness, more efficiency and sensitivity, and higher power handling than the A1rx-c.

The A5rx-c's crossover consists of three identical paralleled 5.25" sixteen ohm SplitGap midwoofers wired in parallel. A dedicated and unique 5.25" midrange driver is merged with them with a low order constant power transfer function, and a high order constant power transfer function merges the midrange and treble drivers in standard A1rx-c fashion. The entire Chane lineup thereby has similar response characteristics once above the bass region.

As expected, Chane crossovers are overbuilt for the price class too. Inductors are heavy gauge, tight tolerance, level wound units. They have been specified for and tested at the high currents multiple Chane midwoofers can tolerate. High frequency capacitors are metalized polypropylene units of a high standard for speakers in the Chane price class. They are the second best premium polypropylene film capacitors our vendor makes and they have been tested in-design for best sonic neutrality and transparency, meaning they have excellent dielectric absorption and dissipation factor figures, plus low internal reactance. Chane resistors are not the usual cement boat types but are select high power sealed non-inductive types, which grant the reactance-neutral, wide bandwidth response the Chane planar magnetic tweeter needs in order to reach its ability.

With a quiet, well-damped mechanical and electrical personality, the Chane design philosophy seeks a high degree of sonic transparency without allowing excess energy into the design at any point, whether electrical, mechanical, or acoustical. This is an important feature and runs somewhat opposed to the usual loudspeaker specifications numbers race, where maximum output (sensitivity) is a stated priority. While Chane has both good sensitivity and very good drivability for the amplifier, prototypes are extensively hand-tuned to remove overhang, blur, resonance, noise, or any artifact in any of the three domains that we can identify and isolate.

This design philosophy is responsible for the "quiet" sensation listeners feel when listening to Chane models, including at higher volume levels. This characteristic allows for excellent clarity and musical pace because so much of what otherwise clouds these sensations in cheaper loudspeakers - many of them in or above Chane price class - has been removed.

Combined, Chane's very high performance drivers, minimalist and well-damped electroacoustical design style, and high quality components create a dynamic freedom that naturally provides good musicality and simple, rhythmic listenability. Chane is also renown for room-filling soundstages and excellent specific imaging, both attributes we expect from all models as the result of these design choices.

Chane is an unusual brand of unusual sound: Bona fide high end thinking, experience, and smart sourcing translated through to an affordable, performance-centric loudspeaker class via Internet-direct sales.

[jnordi]

Thank you Jon...........BRAVO.

[Chane M&C]

The 5.25" Chane Arx midwoofer in high-res.

The 5.25" Chane midwoofer.

[Chane M&C]

Under the hood: Chane 5.25" midwoofer

Showing the ventilated rear suspension, vented voice coil former, alloy basket, and SplitGap top motor plate.

[BufordTJustice]

Jon, thank you for sharing all this with the forum here.

I'm glad that everybody now gets a glimpse of the excellence that you put into every product you sell. NOTHING about Arx or Dana is an accident. Nothing.

I guess folks now know what you and I obsess about over the phone. ;)


******************************************

To the community, I encourage you to inquire just as deeply to ANY speaker maker, regardless of whether they make claims and submit "proof" of said claims via measurements. Speakers are amazingly complex devices.....don't let anybody tell you different.

Hopefully this puts to bed the notion that Jon is some fly-by-night designer. He is a world class mind in audio...though he'll never admit that. He never stops learning and seeking out new knowledge. He's inherently curious (as am I).

One thing he is NOT: a snake oil salesman.

[jnordi]

Hey Collin, I would probably buy his snake oil if he was selling it :D

[Chane M&C]

Glad you liked it, guys, I decided to throw this all out there early this morning. There are some grammatical errors and you can see writing isn't my profession or expertise, but this stuff seems to be important.

Like I said elsewhere, there will always be seeds of doubt planted. Maybe this material will prevent a few of them from rooting.

Speakers are amazingly complex devices.....don't let anybody tell you different.

So true and in the world of digital everything so forgotten. Complicated analog electroacoustical transduction is an art that's informed by science. The trick is getting the art right before completing the science. My advice would be to ask yourself if you think a mega-brand is serving the music or the shareholder...

[newspeakers]

Jon, thanks for all the great info. At one point, in the online store, I found a link to a pdf on the XBL2 split-gap. Now I can't find it anywhere. Also, excuse the vanity, but my A5 review, the first review of the production model, is gone. D'oh! It was here: http://www.theaudioinsider.com/produ...eviews_id=249&

[ryansboston]

To echo everyone else's comments, Thanks Jon. These speakers are really phenomenal!

[Chane M&C]

Jon, thanks for all the great info. At one point, in the online store, I found a link to a pdf on the XBL2 split-gap. Now I can't find it anywhere. Also, excuse the vanity, but my A5 review, the first review of the production model, is gone. D'oh! It was here: http://www.theaudioinsider.com/produ...eviews_id=249&

We're working on this now, newspeakers. Thanks for all you do.

[jnordi]

Thanks Jon for sharing my review of the A5's, especially second under Bufords, I hope it was satisfactory.

[BufordTJustice]

Thanks Jon for sharing my review of the A5's, especially second under Bufords, I hope it was satisfactory.

Jeff, as long as you told the truth as you see it, it's perfectly satisfactory. :)

[D'Argo]

Thanks Jon for sharing my review of the A5's, especially second under Bufords, I hope it was satisfactory.

I read your review and thought it was well written. I enjoyed reading it along with the other reviews.