Technical Description
Jamo D 4 Concept
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General description
With the Jamo D 4 Concept the goal was to create “the link” between high-end hifi and -
surround sound and at the same time focussing on versatility – or flexibility – in system
configuration and placement.
So, what are the “problem areas” in doing that?
Well, it could be extended treble response “demanded “ by the new multi-channel sound
formats, it could be the extended bass response “demanded” more and more by the
extreme movie soundtracks – and at the same time maintaining musical fidelity, absolute
coherence, perfect imaging etc. And last but not least, products that you can actually live
with in your home . . .
This of course was a huge challenge for the development team; acoustics- electronics- and
mechanical engineers as well as our design team from Carl Bro.
The code word in the whole process was: Form follows function
The result of this can e.g. be seen in the slim line cabinets without any edges
to cause diffraction, the double curved front baffle which is not only a very
rigid and resonance dead construction but also improves time alignment of
the tweeter.
Of course the task also demanded choice of very high quality materials and
development of completely new and very powerful driver units.
The sound reproduction of the D 4 is very detailed, clear and open in the
entire spectra, with a large listening window making it easy to locate instruments, vocals
and subtle details when listening to music or experiencing a movie.
The Products
D 400
D 400 is a closed 2 way system featuring a 5¼” woofer and a
1” DCD tweeter (see more details about the driver units later
in this document).
This is probably the most compact high-end hifi speaker ever
made - just 11 cm/41/3” deep.
And not only is this a true high end performer it is also a very
versatile speaker that can be used for 2 ch. hifi, as front,
centre and surround speaker in a surround set-up with
identical main speakers and as surround speaker in a set-up
with the D 430 and D 450.
The D 400 is optimised for wall mounting –which gives several advantages.
When wall mounted more parameters are “controlled” than with a free standing position:
As there is no distance from the speaker to the rear wall, we know that low frequencies are
acoustically amplified and how much. We recommend placing the speaker 1 metre above
the floor. The most common listening distance is 2 – 4 m / 6 – 12 ft., so we can quite
accurately predict the contribution from floor reflections too.
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Wall mount:
The rear wall “amplifies” low frequencies and the floor
actually gives a dip in approximately the same range due
to the first floor reflection reaching the ear in opposite
phase with the direct sound from the speaker.
The speaker can be used as full range. In this case the
subwoofer should be adjusted to blend in seamlessly in
order to suit the room and personal preferences. However,
D 400 is intended for crossover at 80 or 100 Hz – again
depending on the room.
The resonance frequency of the tweeter is as low as 600 Hz. The x-over to the mid-woofer
is set at 1.7kHz but due to the excellent low frequency extension we use a low Q 2nd order
filter to roll it off downwards. So, actually it plays down to 1 kHz. Thereby, we secured a
seamless integration between the drivers, and avoided potential phase errors caused by
high order filtering.
D 430
D 430 is a 2 way bass reflex system featuring a 6½” woofer and a 1” DCD
tweeter.
This compact bookshelf speaker can be placed on a bookshelf – or on the
designated D 4FS stand – providing a very stable placing at the correct
listening height.
The D 4FS can be placed either by using the adjustable
spikes securing a good mechanical coupling to the floor
independent of floor materials or, if you prefer to
decouple it from the floor, by using the enclosed rubber
absorbers. The design and choice of material for the
rubber absorbers (PUR 80 Shore A) was made to match
exactly the D 4 speakers.
The D 430/D 450/D 4CEN all feature Jamos Convex Tapered Vent. This high
flow bass reflex port design ensures less turbulence and allows 5 dB higher SPL before port
noise occurs – which means that in practical life, port noise is eliminated!
The D 430 features gold plated bi-wiring/amping terminals – giving you all possibilities of
“fine-tuning” the sound by using cables that suit exactly your equipment, your room and
personal preferences.
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D 450
D 450 is a 2½ way dual bass reflex system featuring a 6½”
woofer, a 6½” mid-woofer and a 1” DCD tweeter.
The 2½ way configuration has sort of become a hallmark of
Jamo. We are using this configuration in a number of products
starting with our highly acclaimed D 870 speaker.
The reason for choosing this configuration is that it grants you
the best of two worlds: The tweeter and mid-woofer reproduce
the full frequency range, so, this 2 way system is “securing” the
coherent, harmonious and smooth sound well-known from
traditional 2-way systems. Then the additional woofer blends in
below 150Hz to add the extra cone area and power handling
needed to give full fidelity in the low bass.
The dual bass reflex configuration means
that the cabinet of D 450 is divided into two
chambers – one for the tweeter/mid-woofer
and one for the designated woofer.
This gives several advantages: First of all the
sound pressure inside the cabinet from the
woofer does not influence the mid-woofer
and vice versa. This of course eliminates
colouration and thus results in cleaner
sound reproduction.
Furthermore, each chamber is optimized for drivers intended to work
in it. The internal partition is angled so that the mid-woofer is given all
possibilities of “breathing” freely whereas the fact that the woofer
couples acoustically to the cabinet adds “acoustic” weight to the
moving mass of the woofer and thus attenuates the woofer around
100Hz.
Finally, the partition wall also works as an internal bracing of the
cabinet and thus reduces cabinet vibrations – to ensure that what you
hear is the sound from the drivers – not from the cabinet vibrations!
D 450 features gold plated bi-wiring/amping terminals. With the upper terminals you
connect to the tweeter whereas the lower terminals connect to the mid-woofer and
woofer. This split was chosen in order to separate the heavy current flow in the midrange
and bass from the more delicate signal to the tweeter. The bi-wiring/amping facility gives
you all the possibilities of “tweaking” the sound balance.
The D 450 can be placed either by using the adjustable spikes securing a good mechanical
coupling to the floor independent of floor materials or, if you prefer to decouple it from
the floor, by using the enclosed rubber absorbers.
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D 4CEN
D 4CEN is a 2 way bass reflex system featuring two 4½”
woofers and a 1” DCD tweeter.
The design of D 4CEN is kept as compact as possible in
order to make it easier to place the speaker close to the
TV set. So, the height of just 16-cm/6.3 inch is just
enough to house the two powerful 4½” drivers.
Actually, you would probably expect that in order to
obtain optimum timbre matching between centre and
front speaker you need to use the same size of driver.
What happens when placing too much cone area in a
relatively compact cabinet is an overshoot before the
woofers starts to roll off. This overshoot is often heard
on centre channel speakers as if the sound was
recorded with the microphone placed directly on the chest of the actor – not exactly
contributing to voice intelligibility!
The cone area of the two 4½” woofers equals less than that of one 6½” woofer, but due to
the fact that the two woofers are placed closely together and that they are working in the
same frequency range they load each other at the lower midrange frequencies. This means
that in this range the cone area equals a 6½” woofer. So, actually by reducing the cone area
we achieved exactly what we wanted; acoustically identical drivers and thus a seamless
transition between the front speakers.
The D 4CEN is of course magnetically shielded, for placing in the vicinity of a normal CRT
type TV.
D 4SUB
The D 4SUB is equipped with two very powerful 8”
woofers in a closed cabinet.
The advantage of using two 8“ woofers instead of one
large is higher power handling capability - as the heat
is disposed of in two voice coils/magnet systems - and
a more compact design – making it a lot easier to find
a suitable placing of the subwoofer.
The cone area of the two 8” woofers equals the size of
an 11” woofer.
The class D amplifier delivers solid 400 watt
(continuous output) – more than enough to secure
sufficient headroom – even for a subwoofer reaching down to 22Hz (- 6 dB).
The stand by power consumption is <1 watt – so unless you are not using the subwoofer
for a longer period of time, there is no need to disconnect it from the mains. Just let the
automatic on/off circuitry do the daily job for you.
Thanks to the heavy MDF board cabinet, the powerful amplifier, and the specially
developed woofers, the D 4SUB delivers a deep, precise and detailed reproduction of the
low register - perfectly matching the sound from the D 4 front speakers.
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As mentioned the D 4SUB goes very low in order to reproduce the extreme bass contents
of movie soundtracks with full authority.
However, under certain circumstances this can create a problem, which is why some
decoders feature a Boundary Gain Compensation filter.
This filter compensates for the room influence at low
frequencies, as any room amplifies the lowest frequencies.
The magnitude of the room’s amplification depends on the
actual room and where you are positioned – normally it
increases the closer you get to a wall.
This can result in too high bass level from approx. 60 Hz and
increasing downwards.
In the range between 20-30Hz it peaks up to 5-10dB in an
average room.
At first impression this could sound really impressive, but especially when listening to
music the sound can be “boomy” and rather annoying. And certainly terms like coherent
and harmonious become impossible to use . . .
Therefore, the D 4SUB has a quite unique feature:
Boundary Gain Compensation is built into the D 4SUB on a separate input, thus always
granting you optimum benefit from the D 4SUB.
The level control is placed on top of the D 4SUB, elegantly integrated in the design it
grants easy access when you want to adjust the level depending on software type and
format (music, movie, DD/DTS etc.).
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Drivers
Tweeter
The tweeter in the D 4 range, has already been well acclaimed
in Jamo products, as it is used in the Jamo D 7 THX Ultra2
system, winner of the EISA award as “High-end Home Theatre
2002/2003”.
However, to suit the exact purpose in D 4, we developed a
new, asymmetric front baffle.
D 4 asymmetrical tweeter design
The tweeter was chosen for 3 main reasons:
1. Extremely low distortion
2. Totally freedom of accentuation of “s” sounds.
3. The low range extension
The 1" tweeter features a completely new design of the diaphragm/dome called Dual
Concentric Diaphragm.
The coated textile diaphragm looks like two rings, one on the “inner” and one on the
“outer” side of the voice coil – hence the name “Dual Concentric”.
The quite eye-catching centre plug has two
purposes: It is a wave-guide and it clamps the
diaphragm.
The purpose of clamping the middle of the dome is
to eliminate out phasing of the treble at high
frequencies. At high frequencies only the cone area
just around the voice coil is able to follow the voice
coil whereas the middle of the dome typically
breaks up and actually is in opposite phase –
resulting in zero, or very limited output from the tweeter. By clamping the
middle of the dome and only using a ring of the cone area on each side of the voice coil,
the tweeter is able to reproduce frequencies up to 40kHz.
The magnet features a vented pole piece leading into a chamber at the backside. The
chamber and the “ventilation hole” in the pole piece are tuned in for achieving the very
low resonance frequency at 600Hz (normal resonance frequency for a tweeter is around
1.5k Hz).
Furthermore the pole piece is copper plated in the
magnet gap in order to reduce eddy currents. The
purpose of this is to obtain linear impedance throughout
the full frequency range and thus a linear treble
reproduction.
The voice coil former is made of aluminium for optimum
heat disposal. The voice coil is made of cupper plated
aluminium wire, because aluminium weighs less than
cupper, but the copper plating is needed because of its conducting qualities.
The “wire” from the driver’s terminal to the voice coil is a thin litz wire. Usually, the voice
coil wire continues to the terminals. However, litz wire features much higher compliance
and therefore it has less influence of the movements of the voice coil.
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In fact, the choice of “motor” materials makes use of magnetic oil for cooling and
resonance damping unnecessary!
All these features in combination allow the diaphragm to move effortless and the result is a
very natural, detailed, dynamic and open sound reproduction.
Mid-woofer/woofer
The woofer of the D 4 speakers features a brand new wood fibre cone.
This unique cone is made from wood fibre material, characterized by
very uneven fibres with different resonance properties. And thus, when
these fibres are pressed into shape to form a loudspeaker cone, the
different fibres will prevent each other from vibrating.
Furthermore the cone is coated twice in order to fine-tune rigidity and
internal damping.
First it is lacquered on both sides for increased stiffness – and as a side
benefit UV resistance is obtained - and secondly it is coated on the
backside with a tough hardening resin to maximise internal damping.
The result is a cone with very well controlled break up modes resulting in
extremely low distortion all over and a very open and detailed midrange
for optimum voice reproduction.
The basket is made of magnesium giving several benefits:
First of all it makes it possible to create a very open basket
– even behind the spider – thus ensuring high airflow at
low frequencies, avoiding reflections at high frequencies
and preventing under-/overpressure causing mechanical
losses.
Secondly, as magnesium is a non-magnetically material,
the magnetic force from the magnet does not spread out
in the basket, but stay concentrated where it is needed;
around the voice coil.
Finally, the very rigid material ensures that the heavy
magnets and the voice coil always are perfectly aligned
with the voice coil in the exact center of the magnet gap.
To ensure that the units are firmly attached – and airtight – it is mounted using 6 screws,
and the backside of the basket features two thin silicon stripes. Besides from ensuring air
tightness, the silicon stripes also prevent any potential vibrations that could arise between
the cabinet and the unit.
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However, the anodised aluminium centre plug is probably the most
conspicuous feature of the D 4 woofers.
It replaces the traditional dust cap in the centre of the loudspeaker
cone at the place where the dust cap would normally be mounted -
thereby making the cone lighter and thus faster.
Also this prevents potential break-up points where the dust cap
would have been glued to the cone.
In addition, it prevents over- and under pressure behind the dust cap
when the cone moves back
and forth. The advantage is
more dynamic and precise
sound reproduction.
The aluminium centre plug also has a cooling
effect on the voice coil providing greater power
handling capability and very important, a stable
sound reproduction when playing loud.
The mid-woofers all feature lightweight 2-layer voice coils in order to achieve maximum
“attack” (the ability to start and stop precisely) and minimum distortion – these acoustic
properties are of utmost importance for optimum voice reproduction.
In the designated woofer for the D 450 there is a small but significant difference.
It is supposed to work only at the lowest frequencies. By using a heavy 4 layer voice coil,
we can reduce sensitivity at high and mid frequencies while gaining efficiency at low
frequencies.
This works in 2 ways: A high B*L product** will increase port output and reduce bandwidth
around port resonance. The increased weight will counteract the increased B*L at higher
frequencies. The result is a gain of about 3 dB at low frequencies compared to the 2 layer
type in the same cabinet.
**The combination of magnet size/force and length of the voice coil wire results in the so-called B*L Product. In popular
you could call this the size of the “engine” in a loudspeaker.
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(Sub)Woofer
The 8” woofer features a vented magnet system and a Ø 38 mm / 1½” aluminium voice coil
former. The 4-layer voice coil is 28 mm / 1.1” long allowing linear excursions up to +/- 10
mm / 0.4” – and still with >70% of the B*L product available!
The magnet system features a vented pole piece in
order to avoid over/under pressure behind the dust
cap (mechanical damping) when the cone is moving.
The cone is made from air-dried paper. Normally
when making paper cones, the water is pressed out of
the cone simply because letting it air-dry is way too
time consuming.
However, there is a quite significant advantage from
spending the extra time. When letting the paper air-
dry, the cone is approximately double thickness
compared to a pressed cone. Still the low weight is
maintained, but due to the increased cone thickness,
it is simply more rigid – an extremely important
feature for a long throw woofer that is going to be fed
by a 400 W amplifier . . .
The foam surround allows fast movement at its low frequency working range.
Electronics (D 4SUB)
Amplifier
The D 4SUB features a 400 Watt Class D amplifier that
operates at a highly efficient 85%. This means that 85% of
the power consumption is dedicated to the speaker, and
only 15% is dissipated as heat.
It is manufactured from SMD components. The
advantages are that signal paths are kept very short and
that the electronics is much more resistant to the shocks
and vibrations that arise inside a subwoofer. The results
are better sound and a prolonged lifetime for the
subwoofer.
Auto On/Off
Forget all about the subwoofer once it is connected as this feature automatically sets the
subwoofer in stand-by after approximately 20 minutes without input signal.
The “start up” sensitivity is 3mV and it stays on as long as the signal is above 1mV.
Phase and Cut-off controls
Place the subwoofer where it is most convenient - the controls ensure that the sound from
the subwoofer can be adjusted to blend seamlessly with the sound from the rest of the
speakers.
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Cabinets
All D 4 cabinets are made of heavy MDF board, a solid and resonance dead base for the
drivers to work in.
However, the most remarkable cabinet feature is probably the
Double Curved front baffle.
It is common knowledge that one of the most rigid constructions
at all is a round shape; a ball, an egg etc.
Therefore the front baffle of D 4 has been “cut out” from a giant
ball and thus the name “Double Curved” front baffle. It consists
of a shell, moulded from foamed ABS plastic, mounted on an
MDF board – with resonance damping foam in between. All
materials are characterized by excellent acoustic properties i.e.
high internal damping. This prevents vibrations from “travelling”
from one driver to another.
Also, the planar design gives optimum working conditions, i.e. a
minimum of diffractions, for the asymmetrical placed tweeter. By choosing the
asymmetrical design, no distances from cabinet top and sides to the tweeter are identical
and thus edge reflections do not accumulate. The result is a crystal clear treble
reproduction – which is essential in order to benefit from the extended treble contents of
the new multi channel sound formats.
The finish of the D 4 is a light anthracite lacquered front baffle combined with black ash,
light – or dark apple wood finished cabinet sides.
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