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It's 1973. Bill Roberts begins
building loudspeakers. He becomes a consultant
to major speaker companies. Three years later,
his recording studio Bill Roberts Balanced Mastering
launches. It remains active until today. In
1988, he performs research at Eglin Air Force
Base in their large chamber. He earns enough
free time to use the facility and build a benchmark
quality four-piece loudspeaker system. F3 is
11Hz, sensitivity 96dB and the size remains
manageable. This project takes about 1000 man
hours and 8 months. The result is +/- 0.5dB
linear bandwidth at 3 meters. Serial # 1 went
to a $17 Million home on Destin Beach, Florida.
The curtains closed.
Fast forward to 2006. Bill
Roberts teams up with James 'Jimmy' Carnes of
OnTrack Audio to turn the dream commercial reality.
Serial numbers 2 and 3 have been produced. CES
2007 will tell the tale.
Consider what it takes
to build them:
-
600 hours of labor on
the enclosures alone
-
135 hrs on the dual mono analogue outboard
crossovers
-
25 hrs on the analog phase compensators
-
Exotic composite Eastern block materials
-
Machining of key parts by a specialty shop
that makes compressor faces for Rolls Royce
Turbofan engines
The
Directorate™ six-piece Stereo
Reference Loudspeaker System
-
Compound system
-
Two low frequency stereo projectors
-
Two full range stereo propagators
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Dual outboard system controllers
The Directorate™
systems
frequency response is 14Hz to 27kHz. The lowest
frequencies from 14Hz-90Hz are covered by a pair of
hybrid compound transmission-line
projectors. 90Hz to inaudibility is
handled by the two full range stereo
propagators. The dual outboard controllers marry all components into a system
directorate device. The System can be used
with: One stereo amplifier, Two monaural
amplifiers, Four monaural amplifiers
or
Six monaural amplifiers. Unique user
calibration points are provided for in room correction.
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