Relec SA
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| Private limited company | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Professional audio |
| Founded 📆 | 1975 |
| Founder 👔 | Alain Roux |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , |
Area served 🗺️ | Worldwide |
Key people | Roger Roschnik (CEO) |
| Products 📟 | Active loudspeakers , subwoofers , and Active noise control |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | https://www.psiaudio.swiss |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Relec SA is a private limited Swiss company founded in 1975 that owns and manufactures high precision audio equipment under the brand name PSI Audio. It specialises in producing Active loudspeakers and Active noise control. The company's products are widely used within professional studios also some domestic and industrial settings.
History[edit]
PSI Audio was conceived in 1975 when Alain Roux started producing his first speakers while studying at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Two years later Alain started selling his speakers and decided to form a company called Roux Electroacoustique. In 1988 the company became a Limited Company and was renamed Relec SA. At this time Alain also relocated the company into a new purpose-built facility in Yverdon-les-Bains. Over the years, Alain and his team developed a huge variety of speakers starting from the Hi-Fi industry, Public Address systems all the way to Professional Studio applications. Many loudspeakers were also produced as OEM products under the brand names of respected international companies. In 1991 an analogue and digital electronics section was added to the acoustic laboratory and electronics expert Christian Martin was recruited, to lead development in these areas. From 1992 until 2003, Relec SA worked in close partnership with Studer. Relec SA developed and produced the OEM line of monitors for Studer comprised of A1, A3 and A5. In 2004, Studer was acquired by an international group and had to stop selling studio monitors under the Studer brand. Relec SA and Studer therefore had to discontinue their relationship. This was then the start of PSI Audio brand in the studio monitoring. Since then, PSI Audio has developed to become a worldwide brand, producing professional studio monitors and active bass absorbers with fully analogue technology.
Design Philosophy[edit]
Flat frequency response[edit]
Most sounds are a combination of many different frequencies. Every note of a musical instrument will typically have a fundamental frequency as well as many harmonics. It is this combination of harmonics that will give each instrument a particular timbre. When reproducing sound, the frequency response of a loudspeaker needs to be flat to faithfully reproduce the fundamental frequencies as well as all the harmonics to ensure the instruments sound identical. [1]. A flat frequency response ensures the timbre of each sound is respected so that you can recognise each instrument.
Linear Phase Response[edit]
Linear Phase response and dynamic behaviours are also extremely important to reproduce a natural sound. When playing a musical instrument, the fundamental frequency and its harmonics all leave the instrument at the same time, travel through air and reach your ear simultaneously. Imagine a snare drum, when it is hit, a multitude of frequencies will leave the snare and reach your ears at the same time, giving you a sense of impact.
When going through any type of filter the frequencies are affected differently with the lower frequencies being delayed. This is most obvious with audio crossover filters but also true for all other filters be they electronic, acoustic, or mechanical.[2]
To hear the same impact from a snare reproduced through a loudspeaker, it is paramount for the phase of all frequencies to be identical to the signal. In other words, the frequencies of the signal need to be respected but so does the timing of the frequencies. Phase, or time coherence between frequencies, plays a very important role in sound location. It is necessary to localise the source of sound from the difference in phase in the acoustic signal received between both ears. Location of sound source is also much more distinct on transients or impacts. An accurate sound stage requires accurate phase reproduction.
Human beings are sensitive to phase in frequencies with a wavelength that is the same order of magnitude as the distance between their ears, i.e. 20 cm. [ref?] When wavelengths are much smaller, there are several cycles between what is received by one ear and the other making it difficult to identify sound source based on the phase. Humans are therefore more sensitive to the difference in sound pressure that phase in frequencies above 3000 Hz.
When the wavelength is long (several meters), there is only a small phase shift over the distance between the ears. Furthermore, low frequency sound behaves in every direction. Therefore, humans are not sensitive to phase below approximately 300 Hz.[3]
Between approximately 300 and 3000 Hz phase coherence plays a vital role in sound location. The design philosophy is to ensure phase is accurate above 150 Hz in the loudspeakers to ensure that transients are natural and dynamic.
References[edit]
- ↑ Erickson, Robert (1975). Sound Structure in Music. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02376-5. Search this book on
- ↑ Ashley, J. Robert; Kaminsky, Allan L. (1971). "Active and Passive Filters as Loudspeaker Crossover Networks". Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. 19 (6): 494–502.
- ↑ Flanagan, Sheila; Moore, Brian C. J.; Stone, Michael A. (2005), "Discrimination of Group Delay in Clicklike Signals Presented via Headphones and Loudspeakers", Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 53 (7/8): 593–611
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