GT AUDIO WORKS

I design and build my own planar magnetic and ribbon drivers

The planar magnetic drive unit is designed to operate full range, no alteration of the input signal from a crossover element, just like the wonderful Quad electrostatic speaker, thus making the speaker easy to drive, very resolving and transparent. 

There are maunfacturers who will use conventional cone drivers in an open baffle configuration.

While this will work, these drivers were never designed for such an application.

Because a cone driver must be built in such a way to handle the rigours of reproducing music in a box, they have parts such as spiders and surrounds and heavy glue joints and are driven by a relitively small voice coil for their given cone area.

All this unnecessary baggage hampers the ability for the driver to reproduce the complete musical spectrum

as well as a true planar driver.

The planar magnetic driver reproduces the majority of the musical spectrum from bass to treble, from one coherent source. The diaphragm is driven uniformly over the entire driver area, not just from a central point like a cone driver.

This allows it to react to the audio signal much quicker than a cone driver, it simplicity and light weight allows it to track much smaller changes in the audio signal, this all translates into a speaker with superior speed and resolution.

The planar driver would be fine to listen to on its own. It can reproduce a satisfying full range signal from bass to treble. But by adding a ribbon tweeter to fill in the very top and a powered sub to fill in the very bottom, the speaker becomes an entity greater than the sum of its parts.

The drivers are dipoles, which radiate sound equally from front and rear without much energy bouncing off the side walls or the floor and ceiling. This fact allows the soundstage to bloom to a more realistic height width and depth. Creating a more realisitc listening experience.

By contrast, a speaker in a box excites all room surfaces equally, and the loudness falls off at the listening distance quicker, creating room integration issues.

The magnets used in the drivers are very expensive rare earth, high energy, neodymium which gives the speaker higher sensitivity than standard ceramic magnets. This translates into greater dynamic and transient capability requiring less amplifier power.

The planar and ribbon drivers are long and of a large radiating area, and are driven uniformly over their radiating area.

This allows them to move a lot of air with little distortion and couple to the air efficiently. This gives the speaker the ability to play loudly without sounding strained or aggressive.

All this gives the speakers the ability to fill a room with a wide, full, dynamic and transparent window on the music.

Instead of buying off the shelf and being limited to working within the driver manufacturers parameters,

Plus the reality of suppliers going out of buisness and being stranded without a supplier of a key component,

I chose to build my own drivers.

I was looking for the best, highest quality, most simply executed design possible that would operate without the need for shaping of the sound through a complex cross over.

The "keep it simple as possible" engineering philosophy usually yields the best results.

I believe I have achieved this in my speakers