In To Depth: Fulcrum Acoustic And Its Passive Cardioid Technology™
PASSIVE
CARDIOID
TECHNOLOGY™
Fulcrum Acoustic’s latest innovation, Passive Cardioid Technology™, was developed to overcome the excessive rear low frequency (LF) radiation that is a major performance challenge of many loudspeakers.
Conventional loudspeakers
The challenge has always been that conventional loudspeakers become progressively less directional with decreasing frequency. At the lowest frequencies reproduced, the sound radiated to the rear of the loudspeaker is approximately equal to the sound radiated forward to the audience.
(see Fig. 1)
Active Cardioid Arrays
Active cardioid arrays are often employed to address undesired rear LF radiation. By requiring additional cancellation loudspeakers, and their associated amplifiers and signal processors, active cardioid arrays are intrinsically cumbersome and costly. (Fig. 2)
Fulcrum Acoustic Passive Cardioid Speakers
Fulcrum’s game-changing Passive Cardioid Technology eliminates excessive rear LF radiation without the extra cost, space requirements and inconvenience of active cardioid systems – with a single passive cardioid speaker doing the work of an active cardioid array. Fulcrum passive cardioid speakers produce high sound pressure in the forward direction and consistent attenuation in the rearward direction without additional amplifiers, drivers and signal processors. (Fig. 3)
The Benefits
Passive cardioid technology achieves impressive directional control mechanically within the enclosure in less than half the space required for active cardioid array systems. This allows for cardioid performance in applications that might not otherwise have the budget or space to accommodate an active cardioid array. Fulcrum’s single-amplified, full-range passive cardioid speakers also deliver system cost benefits over traditional bi-amplified active cardioid speaker arrays by enabling up to eight speakers to be driven by a single amplifier channel.
Passive Cardioid Technology was first introduced in Fulcrum’s FL283 Line Array Module and is the basis for the Cardioid Subwoofers product line.
The Line Array speakers and Cardioid Subwoofers are intended for permanent installation or portable applications in a wide range of venues, including festivals, performing arts centers, hotels, houses of worship, sporting facilities and nightclubs that need reduced low frequency radiation and keep the energy in front of the speakers.
