Subwoofer Quality Sound At A Fraction Of The Size; Wavesí Miniwoofer Shrinks The Subwoofer To A Seven-Inch Cube

14-Jul-04

Imagine if every TV and stereo in your home had a subwoofer connected to it, so anytime you listened to anything - no matter what room you were in - youíd get rich bass sound. To most, this sounds expensive and impractical: after all, subwoofers are big and take up a lot of space. But what if a subwoofer was 75-percent smaller, consumed 50-percent less power, and was available at just a fraction of the cost?Thatís what Waves has in mind. An Israeli-based company with offices in Knoxville, TN Austin, TX and Tokyo, Japan, Waves has won more professional audio signal processing awards than anyone else in the industry. With a ten-year history, Wavesí limiters, equalizers, compressors, effects, and noise reduction tools are the standard used on virtually every top music, movie soundtrack, and multimedia title produced worldwide. And what theyíre developing now is revolutionary - a so-called MiniWoofer that delivers the same high sound quality as a subwoofer at a fraction of the size: the MiniWoofer is a seven-inch cube weighing about than five pounds. For the past year, Waves has been working on the technology to make this possible, and now it is. Samples of the MiniWoofer will be available soon, and products utilizing this MiniWoofer technology are expected to be on store shelves by early next year.The key technology behind the MiniWoofer is MaxxBass, which is a Waves patented signal processing algorithm that extends the lower end of bass frequency response up to one-and-a-half octaves without distortion, delivering deeper, richer, more natural bass. Close your eyes when you listen, and youíre hearing subwoofer quality sound - youíll be able to tell little or no difference at all from the much larger-sized version. MaxxBass is not a bass boost technology, but rather it generates bass extension psycho-acoustically, taking advantage of the way your ear and mind are wired to improve the quality of the sound you perceive. By drastically shrinking the size of the subwoofer without compromising the quality, Waves is opening up a whole new realm of possible applications: a three-inch thick flat panel MiniWoofer that could hang under a LCD or plasma TV; a small box sitting on top of your regular TV or incorporated into it; or a device that could fit under your car seat or be incorporated into a DVD player in the back seat of a minivan. And the difference in sound quality that consumers will hear is tremendous: bass frequencies are what carry most of the emotional impact in music, movies, and games.  Reducing the size reduces the cost as well - a smaller product requires less power and fewer materials to make. And itís more attractive: while a regular subwoofer looks like a big black box, the first samples of the MaxxBass MiniWoofer look like one small speaker. Waves plans to market and sell some of these units themselves, plus theyíll also sell the technology to other manufacturers who can put their own brand name on it. And theyíve already got quite a few enthusiastic customers, eager to get in on a product thatís poised to revolutionize the market. The company predicts that five years from now, most home theater systems will utilize MaxxBass-based technology. The combination of MaxxBass and new optimized speaker designs will enable a huge range of new innovative products for consumers. Gone are the days of the 50-pound subwoofer sitting in your living room. For more information, please visit www.waves.com.

Read More:
http://www.waves.com