As part of the company’s 50th anniversary celebration, British manufacturer Monitor Audio showcased a new bold loudspeaker development. Presented as a fully-working prototype, the Concept 50 is a three-way configuration loudspeaker with a unique driver arrangement, featuring a new-generation MPD pleated diaphragm tweeter surrounded by an array of six mid-range drivers, suspended on a two-legged cabinet configuration holding four force-cancelling bass drivers. The Concept 50 is scheduled to go into production later in 2022.
At High end Munich 2022, Monitor Audio was marking 50 years of speaker designs and naturally used the occasion to showcase limited edition models that enhance and highlight the company’s renowned hi-fi audio products. But the center of attention at the Monitor Audio room in Munich had something special playing for the visitors: a new loudspeaker that currently goes by the prototype name Concept 50.
As the company explains in a series of bold statements, the Concept 50 loudspeaker has been designed like no other loudspeaker on the market, and make “the ultimate statement of just how good a loudspeaker can be.” An effort that, “distills five decades of audio expertise and development into a single stand-out creation.” Monitor Audio also explained that the new prototype design pushes the boundaries intentionally, to combine extraordinary sound, refinement and luxury, as the market expects.
The idea for the Concept 50 loudspeaker started its life in 2020 when Monitor Audio’s Technical Director, Michael Hedges, and Design Director, Charles Minett, carried out an experiment to see how far they could push passive loudspeaker design, and when they spotted the opportunity to create something very special.
“No loudspeaker is perfect. Using our experience and understanding of the physics, we’ve strived to design a real loudspeaker to be as close as possible to perfect. This has been attempted by others many times but with Concept 50 we believe we’ve got closer than anyone has before,” explains Michael Hedges.
“There are two key elements that are often ignored, perceived source size and directivity. For sound stage and imaging to be as accurate as possible the sound must come from a single point and have a consistent directivity. Concept 50 achieves this through the innovative placement and design of each of its drivers, a tightly grouped tweeter and mid-range cluster called ‘The Array,’ plus a compact inward facing pair of force cancelled bass assemblies.”
To make the Concept 50 different from other loudspeakers, ‘The Array’ combines an ultra-compact multi-driver mid-range and tweeter assembly. In what the brand calls “a masterpiece of intricate detail and design,” this driver array is a testament to the collaborative approach of acoustic and mechanical engineering within the Monitor Audio Research and Development team. Using Monitor Audio’s renowned RDT III cone technology the array combines six mid-range drivers that together have a surface area greater than a Platinum Series mid-range. This, Michael Hedges says, is an approach which gives rise to multiple benefits.
“Firstly, each mid-range has an exceptionally wide bandwidth and could cover much of the range of a traditional tweeter. This ensures the smoothest crossover to the tweeter and exceptionally low distortion.
“Secondly, traditional dual concentric drivers add additional intermodulation distortion to the tweeter due to the displacement of the mid-range diaphragm, which forms the tweeter waveguide. This can be reduced by limiting the lowest frequency the mid-range operates to, but is never totally removed. As Monitor Audio’s tweeter waveguide is fixed and the drivers create a flat baffle around the tweeter, there is no additional intermodulation distortion contributed and the mid-range can run to its full potential without compromise.”
The second part of the ‘The Array’ is the definitive version of the Micro Pleated Diaphragm (MPD) high frequency transducer. For over 10 years Monitor Audio has been exploring its pleated diaphragm planar magnetic tweeter design. The Concept 50 uses Monitor Audio’s third generation MPD tweeter which is said to improve nearly all aspects of its design including linearity, distortion, directivity and power handling. “This is the smoothest and most extended tweeter Monitor Audio has ever produced,” the company states.
With Newton’s Third Law in mind, the Concept 50 bass drivers are anchored together in pairs facing each other in a ‘Force Canceling’ configuration. This exact symmetry means the unwanted vibrational energy that each driver generates from an audio signal is cancelled by its opposing twin. This is especially useful on bass drivers which usually transmit these unwanted vibrations through the cabinet. In addition, the drivers are not being shaken themselves leading to reduced distortion and improved control. As a result, the loudspeaker delivers a frequency response in-room that it measured from 21Hz, all the way to 60kHz, with minimal distortion.
Made out of the finest materials, Monitor Audio Concept 50 is also an impressive-looking three-way configuration loudspeaker. The enclosed bass cabinet is made of mineral and acrylic stone which has been thermoformed and precision machined. Meanwhile the mid and high frequency drivers are mounted within a precision machined solid aluminum baffle combined with a custom designed and 3D printed enclosure tuned to the mid-range drivers requirements.
“Our mission to create a loudspeaker like no other both in performance and looks was no easy challenge. However, by using Concept 50’s two unique driver configurations as the backbone of its structure, we have been able to create a unique aesthetic which demands attention but does not overpower a space like many of its contemporaries. This allows us to make a statement which looks forward not back. Concept 50 is about generating ideas that can form the basis of our loudspeaker development for the next generation of audio enthusiasts,” explains Charles Minett, Monitor Audio’s Design Director.
The Concept 50 is a prototype loudspeaker which Monitor Audio will continue to develop into a flagship product which will go into production later in 2022.
Founded in 1972, Monitor Audio’s very first speaker was the iconic MA1, which the brand developed, innovated, designed and refined, with a pioneering approach that saw patent after patent filed. Today, Monitor Audio Group is the parent company of Monitor Audio, Roksan (electronics) and Blok (hifi furniture).
www.monitoraudio.com
