LAT Subwoofers by Tymphany / Alpine
We spent Friday morning at the CES car audio show floor,
but first we met with speaker design company Tymphany in
their Las Vegas Hilton suite. Tymphany’s new Linear Array
Transducer (LAT) subwoofer utilizes a dual opposed woofer
design with stacked passive cones to create monster bass
in a much smaller space. Their LAT woofers are featured in
a new line of Alpine aftermarket powered subwoofer boxes.
The LAT 500 speakers, consisting of 4 passive cones
sandwiched in between dual 5" sub speakers, produce bass
equivalent to that of two 10" traditional woofers but
require only .8 cubic feet of volume. The larger 700
series use 7" cones and produces bass equal to that of two
12" standard subs.
   
The sound engineering behind these subwoofers is very
clever. Each pair of passive cones is connected to a
powered woofer. When the woofer thumps, sound is carried
down carbon connecting rods to the passive cones that act
as soundboards, amplifying the sound. In this manner
Tymphany is able to use small woofers to create heavy bass.
In addition to the LAT 500 and 700 series, Tymphany is
developing smaller woofer modules for use in
home theater, HDTV and
PC applications. So you can expect to see this design
used in home theater systems, televisions and even iPod
speaker docks. Alpine was recognized as a CES ‘06
Innovations Honoree for their LAT Powered Subwoofer
System.
   
Hearing the LAT system in a hotel suite is one thing, but
feeling it bump the glasses off your face while sitting in
the driver’s seat of a demo car is a completely separate
beast. Our next stop was Alpine’s showroom where we had
the chance to feel the LAT 500s in action. The seats of
the Scion xB demo car were vibrating furiously as the 250
Watt built-in amp pushed the little speakers around. This
was, by far, better sound than what was available in
Tymphany’s hotel suite - but it got even better.
   
The demo xB served a dual purpose in that it showcased the
LAT system as well as Alpine’s new VPA-B222 Vehicle
Hub Pro component add-on system and PXE-H650 OEM Audio
Processor. The Vehicle Hub Pro allows users to incorporate
aftermarket audio equipment, including iPods, satellite
and HD radio,
DVD players and navigation systems into their factory
OEM stereo head unit. If users want to upgrade their
speaker system while retaining the factory head unit, the
PXE-H650 OEM Audio Processor can optimize the upgrades for
premium sound quality. For instance, if you have a nice
new Inifiniti G35 Coupe and you don't want a cheesy head
unit replacing the nice stock one, this is great news for
you. This unit flattens all factory equalization and
retunes it based on audio inputs received from a
proprietary diagnostic microphone placed in various
locations inside the vehicle. Optimization takes about 20
minutes and will be performed by authorized Alpine dealers.
In our demonstration, the difference between the upgraded
sound system and the optimized upgraded sound system was
night and day. The PXE-H650 processed sound quality was
crisper, ‘bassier’ and had more depth than the
non-optimized upgraded system.
Of course Alpine had a couple other tricked out rides
including a thumping Honda Ridgeline loaded with speakers
and subwoofers and a heavily modded BMW 645i that looked
more like an H.R. Giger creation than a slick German
roadster.
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