 A
process--any process--is only as strong as its weakest link.
Clarity EQ is endeavoring to strengthen the process through which
audio is delivered to the listener by correcting frequency response
and time alignment errors in loudspeakers. This process, the
company's founders and engineers say, has been the "weakest link" in
the audio chain
Kim Ryrie, ClarityEQ Executive Director
(left) and Paul Glendenning, ClarityEQ Managing Director
(right) with the PDC-2.6 processing unit Clarity EQ was founded in 1997 by executive chairman Kim Ryrie--who
co-founded Fairlight Industries, a computer music production
technology development firm at which he is still a director--and
CEO Paul Glendenning, an industry veteran and self-admitted
RF bug. The pair set out to build upon the efforts of others
who had attempted to make loudspeakers sound better. "The company was founded on the idea
of using digital signal processing to modify the signal that
is sent to a loudspeaker so that the problems that the speaker
would normally cause are compensated for before the signal
gets to the speaker," Ryrie explained. The result is Clarity Calibrated, the company's signal-correction
technology. The technology is designed for implementation into
two different products: a semi-custom OEM design for loudspeaker
and equipment manufacturers, and a stand-alone product targeted
at the consumer marketplace (although Clarity suggests that
consumers enlist the assistance of a custom installer to integrate
the technology into their homes). Clarity Calibrated technology
was shown at CES in Las Vegas. Constructed as a chassis with
an optional 19-inch rack mount, Clarity's consumer unit features
two analog inputs and two sets of three outputs. During basic
operation, it is capable of performing a band of equalization
correction for each musical semitone (120 bands covering 20
Hz to 20 kHz). A microphone, used during installation or recalibration,
can be purchased separately. Ryrie explained how the product works: "This
initial model has four operation buttons to select one of
three room correction settings or bypass. The reason for
the three outputs per channel is to allow either direct correction
of the full bandwidth signal using just one output, or to
provide a two-way or three-way crossover configuration. Typically,
the third output will be used for the subwoofers, leaving
two for a bi-amped main speaker configuration." At first, Clarity's engineers considered offering a 6-in,
6-out unit designed for home theaters. "However,
the improvements that are possible using our digital crossovers
and phase-corrected drivers is very significant compared to
simple room correction, because it usually improves clarity--especially
in the mid- and high-end," Ryrie noted. "Our
120-band room correction tends to be most effective in the
bass and low-mids." The process involved in conducting two or three-way room correction
is quite intense, usually requiring the expertise of a custom
installer in order to be done properly. "You've got to work out what you want
to remedy and what things make the speaker different from
other speakers," Glendenning said. "We
developed three procedures and combined them into one: measurement,
analysis and playback. Each one of them is related, but we
treat them as three separate entities because there are different
factors involved in each one." Ryrie elaborated: "The method of correction
that's possible when using the unit for detailed two or three-way
correction is quite involved at the time of set up compared
with doing the broader-brush 120-band room correction. We
have to achieve an anechoic or pseudo-anechoic measurement
in order to correct the individual speaker's frequency and
phase response. If the measurement is really anechoic--meaning
that it has zero room reflection corruption--we can get the
phase accuracy between two speakers to be in the order of
a single degree from 20 Hz to 20 kHz." The challenge is dealing with the loudspeaker's frequency
response. According to Ryrie, most loudspeakers are within
only a 6-dB range across their intended design range. "When
placed in a typical room, this range can vary within a 20 dB
window, but surprisingly, our brain automatically takes a large
degree of room behavior into account subconsciously as we enter
a room and take in a few visual and aural cues," he
pointed out. "Flat" room correction, then, may not sound right to the average
listener. Clarity has compensated for this phenomenon by configuring
its room correction setup to start with a flat reference that
may require the installer to make manual adjustments to get
the audio to sound more natural. Ryrie believes that the results derived from this process,
once achieved only by the most affluent audiophiles, can now
be made available to the masses. "Our
measurement, analysis and correction processes are combined
in a way that addresses the weakest links in the hi-fi chain
which relate to the mechanical and acoustic realities that
have made the 'being there' experience so elusive to all but
the wealthiest enthusiasts," he stated. "Our
approach is to accept that speaker drivers, boxes and room
acoustics cause havoc to the original signal. Fortunately though,
the specific havoc they cause can be analyzed. This allows
Clarity's signal processing to modify the signal going to the
speakers to be suitably modified as a means of compensation.
The outcome is that the resulting sound at the listening position
will be as close to possible to what was ideally intended,
especially if the authoring studio was using a similarly calibrated
monitoring environment." The Clarity Calibrated system will sell for under $2,500 (US).
After CES 2002, the product will ship as a beta unit, as Clarity
anticipates the need for some software upgrades during the
first few weeks of shipping. Carolyn Heinze works from her media services firm in Toronto,
Canada |
