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Loudspeakers have difficulty working with the electron-
ic signals supplied by an amplifier. These difficulties
cause such major phase and amplitude distortion that
the sound reproduced by speaker differs significantly
from the sound produced by the original source.
In the past, these problems proved unsolvable and were
thus delegated to a position of secondary importance in
audio system design. However, phase and amplitude
integrity is essential to accurate sound reproduction.
Research shows that the information which the listener
translates into the recognizable characteristics of a live
performance are intimately tied into complex time and
amplitude relationships between the fundamental and
harmonic components of a given musical note or
sound. These relationships define a sound's “sound”.
When these complex relationships pass through a speak-
er, the proper order is lost. The higher frequencies are
delayed. A lower frequency may reach the listener's ear
first or perhaps simultaneously with that of a higher fre-
quency. In some cases, the fundamental components
may be so time-shifted that they reach the listener's ear
ahead of some or all of the harmonic components.
This change in the phase and amplitude relationship on
the harmonic and fundamental frequencies is techni-
cally called “envelope distortion.” The listener perceives
this loss of sound integrity in the reproduced sound as
"muddy" and “smeared.” In the extreme, it can become
difficult to tell the difference between musical instru-
ments, for example, an oboe and a clarinet.
BBE Sound, Inc. conducted extensive studies of numer-
ous speaker systems over a ten year period. With this
knowledge, it became possible to identify the character-
istics of an ideal speaker and to distill the corrections
necessary to return the fundamental and harmonic fre-
quency structures to their correct order. While there are
differences among various speaker designs in the mag-
nitude of their correction, the overall pattern of correc-
tion needed is remarkably consistent.
THE BBE PROCESS—"WHAT IT IS"
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