Ikon Audio

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Our Ikon Audio powered tower speakers (HW212, HW210, HW28) are the flagships of the series, providing the most dynamic performance with its integrated amplifiers powering dual side-firing subwoofers. They can handle the most powerful receivers with ease and fill the largest rooms with incredible acoustics and effects.

During the production project of the powered loudspeaker systems, we had 2 key objectives in mind, Outstanding Bass Performance & Ease of use.

•	Outstanding Bass Performance Make the Ikon Powered Systems sound sensational, and be capable of producing extremely high listening levels.

•	Ease of Use Despite the technology integrated, the speakers should be a simple “plug and play” design for easy set-up and maximum performance.

	Most of the outstanding bass performance is achieved through careful engineering of the cabinet, drivers and amplifier. However, outstanding performance in this case is also tied to ease of use. Most subwoofers have various controls to adjust its sound but Ikon Powered Systems use a traditional speaker wire connection and do not require a low level input like separate subwoofers. Unlike using a separate subwoofer, where variables such as a speaker’s acoustic characteristics and placement in relation to the subwoofer exist, we have a situation where all variables are known and controlled for consistent sound quality. Since we know the TSP (Thiele Small Parameters) where on the cabinet the drivers are located, and the amplifier’s performance spec (we designed them) we therefore also know:

How the drivers will interact with each other, with a specific x-over design.
How the drivers’ phase react at the x-over frequencies, and design so that there is minimal cancellation of bass information.
The best x-over design for the specific subwoofer driver used.
The x-over design that will offer the highest SPL/Deep bass output for the available internal cabinet volume.
How to design the most appropriate amplifier EQ curve for each specific combination of passive tower section, amp and sub.

With this, we design to achieve maximum system performance with a simple speaker wire hook-up that all consumers understand easily. Compare this methodology to other similar designs in the marketplace which are powered towers (not a separates) with an amplifier that has an LFE input incorporating a continuously variable x-over, continuously variable volume setting (and sometime continuously variable phase switch). This makes a systems’ optimal and synergistic performance design, when operating in a specific set-up, suddenly quite variable. Allowing the end-user access to these controls may be a nice marketing approach, but generally does not improve sound in any way, and in fact can easily muck it up. Not to mention the additional switches and controls become a set-up nightmare for the average end-user.

Some specifics about how the speakers were designed.

The bass drivers run full range, as low as they can in their cabinets.
The powered sub is crossed over at 70Hz with ultimate slope of 24dB per octave.
The powered sub does not contribute much above 100Hz (so this is a true sub in every sense of the word).
The Gain control just replaces the volume control, again so customer does not manipulate things in a random fashion.
The bass drivers run full range, as low as they can in their cabinets.
he Gain control simply allows the user to lift the area below 80HZ by up to a generous 6dB.(4x the volume at “-3dB” position) .

Setting up for surround
In a 5, 6, or 7.1 set-up, setting the receiver’s L/R to “large” and every other speaker to “small” will send the all LFE information to the L & R speakers.
This means NO low-frequency “.1” information is lost.