THE GENESIS OF THE TEMPEST ONE AND ALIX-ANNE AUDIOPHILE TRANSDUCER SYSTEMS
The TEMPEST ONE, and ALIX into ALIX-ANNE loudspeaker designs both began life in the Spring of 1988. The TEMPEST ONE was originally named the LT2, for LINEAR TRANSMISSION LINE TRANSDUCER. Both designs were based on two earlier patents, the first, my US Patent Number 4,385,210 included a unique complementary symmetry balanced, first order crossover. The second, my US Patent Number 4,792,978 included a unique complementary symmetry balanced, first order transmission bass system. My first transmission line design had been the TRANS-STATIC ONE, which became the foundation of ESS, ELECTROSTATIC SOUND SYSTEMS, INC.
The two speaker designs were accomplished in response to a growing market for sports and aerobic fitness related dancing and exercise programs often conducted in large open indoor sports arenas or within tennis or basketball court facilities. The performance need from an audio quality point of view, was for highly sensitive and efficient, intelligible designs; which could cleanly communicate the rhythmic, motivational, emotive content of the music without distortion or loss of clarity at high sound pressure levels into very large indoor and thus often echoing, spaces and outdoor spaces with equal fidelity.
As an added benefit both designs were, are, very thin, the TEMPEST ONE only 7.5 Centimeters thick, the ALIX-ANNE only 10 CM thick, so both designs could be rigidly attached to walls, thus providing both a massive cabinet vibration energy sink, and a co-planar pressure zone in phase reflection surface so that all energy from the drivers, both on and off axis could be directed forward completely in phase.
Both designs worked equally well in large venues, such as churches, music recital halls, and as speakers in indoor and outdoor Public Address systems, powered by very large amplifiers, and in ordinary living rooms powered by 10 watt and less vacuum tube single ended triode designs.
The ALIX and successor design, the ALIX-ANNE have been in continuous production since 1988, and are the main sound systems in hundreds of churches and other public spaces, while also appearing with the TEMPEST ONE in ultimate high end home theater systems.
Both speaker systems are ideally realized first order designs, with extreme rise time, impact transient, and time domain fidelity coupled with high sensitivity for exhilarating dynamic range.
Both systems, the TEMPEST ONE, and the ALIX-ANNE are now available on special order with a unique new mid-high AMT type folded ribbon driver which extends the benefits of the AMT principle down to well below 500 HZ.
Comprehensive computer generated spectrum analysis data will be published quite soon. These superlative transducer systems are available in a variety of non-endangered hardwoods and finishes with the finest fabrics and art designs available as finishing touch high décor grille materials.
TEMPEST ONE: 7.5 CM thick: 75 CM tall: 35 CM wide: weight 7 kilos.
ALIX-ANNE: 10 CM thick: 92.5 CM tall: 37.5 CM wide: weight: 18 kilos.
