With LED Wall Displays inching their way into home theater environments, this presents new challenges for installers to incorporate speakers beside such displays. In many cases there is simply no room for speakers, except in the ceiling.
Although in-wall/ceiling speakers are not uncommon, we haven’t quite seen anything like ASCENDO’s new DIRECTOR Series in-ceiling speakers for high-end home theaters and private screening rooms.
The ASCENDO Solution
The new ASCENDO DIRECTOR Series is comprised of a two-way, professional AMT waveguide speaker and 10-inch mid-woofer. The waveguide speaker is specifically angled for ceiling mount installation, and the mid-woofer can be either wall or ceiling mounted. The combo is sold per channel at $16,800 MSRP.
In addition, a second 10-inch mid-woofer (MSRP $4,600) can be installed to push the system from an already insane 127dB to 130dB SPL. That’s the level of a jet take-off and probably more headroom than most people will ever need. Nonetheless, a remarkable achievement in dynamic capability.
DIRECTOR Overview
ASCENDO’s DIRECTOR is a direct-radiating point source speaker that is designed to provide consistent, captivating, and powerful sound to every seat. Its flush-mount in-ceiling design integrates invisibly for more elegant home theater and media room designs that keep the focus on the video screen. So, even though speakers are mounted above a video wall (or screen), sound is perceived as coming from the vertical center of the video display.
Tech Note: DIRECTOR speakers can also be used in a setup that uses a non-transparent projection screen instead of a video wall with the same effectiveness.
From Geoffrey Heinzel, ASCENDO co-managing partner: “Our design approach, as always, is using a point source. In this case, we are using an asymmetrical, controlled-dispersion pattern waveguide to achieve our goals,…Only point source speakers can deliver the desired seat-to-seat performance consistency in multi-seat home theater environments, and only a direct-radiating system is capable of the highest-performance results.”
To support the DIRECTOR concept, ASCENDO designed, developed, and tested 3D-printed special waveguides for the DIRECTOR’s tweeter and woofer to find the best coupling between them without significant lobing or cancellations. The speaker’s AMT-driven waveguide has asymmetrical horizontal and vertical sound dispersion and an HF dispersion lens.
In rooms with high ceilings where steep listening angles exist, ASCENDO uses psychoacoustics through a time-aligned, equalized, and level-matched balancing speaker positioned below the LED wall to lower the perceived phantom sound source.
The wall channel portion of the speaker comes with a mounting plate that allows the rotation and aiming of the speaker module in the ceiling for perfect alignment and coverage as L/Lc/C/Rc/R speaker (any of the five channels often required for very large walls).
The optional balancing speaker used below the wall is very shallow at less than 4″ deep, and only 7″ wide, using a powerful, point source coaxial design.
The primary in-ceiling system is a two-way, active design with external amplification and DSP. When a balancing speaker is needed, each set of upper and lower speakers requires a three-channel amplifier and DSP (or a processor such as Trinnov or similar, which has these capabilities).
ASCENDO says the speaker drivers were carefully chosen to achieve record-low distortion levels and true high-end resolution. The tweeter incorporates an AMT design, and the woofer is a 10″ quad voice-coil, dual gap, low inductance design like the ASCENDO 18” and 21″ drivers.
From Todd Sutherland, owner of Sutherland AV Marketing, distributor for ASCENDO in the United States and Canada: “ASCENDO continues to innovate with application-specific solutions for challenges like this one,…The DIRECTOR is unlike anything available, giving the audience a realistic and exciting LED wall audio experience from an in-ceiling system that lives up to ASCENDO’s reputation for sublime sound.”
Specifications
- Speaker Type: Asymmetrical Waveguide Design with 8″ AMT and a single or double 10″ mid-woofer
- Enclosure Type: Vented / Reflex
- Passive | Active: Active, 2Ch DSP + 2Ch Amplifier are required
- Recommended Amplifier Requirements: low-mid 71 Vrms, 100 Vpk, 8.9 A; high 62 Vrms, 88 Vpk, 3.9 A; equivalent to LF 630W@8Ω, HF 240W@ 16Ω
- Recommended ASCENDO Amplifiers: DNA 2250.2
- Peak Output
- 127 dB peak | 1 x Director sub
- 130 dB peak | 2 x Director sub
- 105 dB peak | AMT Waveguide
- Frequency Range: 78 Hz – 21 kHz / -3 dB
- Woofer: 10″
- Tweeter: 8″ AMT
- Speaker-In Connection DIRECTOR Waveguide: Neutrik Speakon Nl4
- Speaker-In Connection DIRECTOR SUB 10: Neutrik Speakon Nl4
- Enclosure: Internally braced birch ply
- Finish: Structural paint black
- Dimensions and Weight
- Waveguide (WxHxD): 17.25 x 8.81 x 21.91″
- Waveguide Weight: 23.15 lbs
- SUB 10 (WxHxD): 12.2 x 12.6 x 13.39″
- SUB 10 Weight: 18.74 lbs
- Mounting Waveguide: 2 x metal mounting brackets
- Mounting SUB 10: 2 x metal mounting brackets
Pricing & Availability
ASCENDO DIRECTOR Series is only available from authorized distributors, dealers, and installers at the following prices in USD:
- The DIRECTOR (Two-Way, Professional AMT Waveguide Speaker + 10” Mid-Woofer) is $16,800 MSRP per channel.
- An additional DIRECTOR SUB 10 (10” Mid-Woofer) can be added to the above to provide an extra 3dB of peak output for $4,600 MSRP each.
For more information: aia-cinema.com
Demonstrations
ASCENDO Immersive Audio GmbH will debut its DIRECTOR LED Wall Loudspeaker System at the upcoming 2024 CEDIA Expo, September 5–7, at the Colorado Convention Center in ASCENDO Sound Room 3.
The supporting system is expected to include:
- StormAudio ISP Evo20 processor for audio
- madVR Envy Mk2 processor for video
- Seymour-Screen Excellence Ambient Visionaire Black screen
- Christie M 4K15 Pure Laser projector
- Kaleidescape will provide the source content
- LYON media sofa
About ASCENDO Immersive Audio GmbH
ASCENDO was founded in 1999 in Stuttgart by Norbert Heinz, Stefan Köpf, and Jürgen Scheuring. Initially focused on DSP, audio networking, and measurement systems, ASCENDO evolved into ASCENDO Immersive Audio GmbH with Geoffrey Heinzel as co-managing partner. ASCENDO specializes in state-of-the-art home theater systems, including its infrasonic subwoofers, leveraging decades of research into human sound perception.
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