Amadeus, based in France, one of the premiere manufacturers of high-end sound reinforcement systems and custom studio speakers, has announced the new DIVA M² array speakers at Prolight & Sound 2017. The new DIVA M² (pronounced DIVA M Squared) is the culmination of over 25-years of research and development in live and installed sound by Amadeus.
“Originally released in 2006, the DIVA Array Series, including three formats, today equips some of the major musical, theatrical and public institutions—both national and international—including the Philharmonie de Paris, La Gaîté Lyrique, the National Assembly of South Korea, the Beijing Stadium, the National Theatre of Brittany and the Seine Musicale, among many others,” says Bernard Byk, co-founder and CEO of Amadeus.
The DIVA M² is the newest middle format line source system of the Amadeus DIVA Series. The system has a 3-way enclosure, biamplified design, with two active drivers. Gaetan Byk, Marketing Manager at Amadeus elaborates, “The DIVA M² is not a simple evolution of the DIVA M speaker series created in 2006, it is a revolution, a total and radical reinvention. This new version raises the bar much higher. Its new design incorporates a dramatic collection of over one hundred major changes, compared to the previous model.”
“The structure of the low, medium, high frequency transducers, the geometry of the cabinets, their internal and external structures, the active filtering design and more broadly all major acoustic, electro-acoustic, electronic and mechanical components have been completely rethought, reinvented,” he adds. “The development philosophy inherent to Amadeus products remains firmly in the new DIVA M² speaker system,” adds Bernard Byk. “The development process of this new array system, with a team led by Michel Deluc, has been focused by the needs, demands and feedback of the main users of our current products.”
The enclosure features one direct radiating 8’’ neodymium LF transducer, mounted in a bass-reflex enclosure, and two neodymium diaphragm compression HF drivers, coaxially-mounted with a single acoustical output, and coupled to an individual proprietary waveguide. Its unique diffraction horn has been optimized to get a vertical dispersion of 10° and a horizontal dispersion of 100°. This type of load ensures a perfectly uniform coverage and en excellent spectral quality throughout the whole listening area.
The mechanical and acoustical design enables vertical arrays of up to twenty-four loudspeakers with vertical splay angles from 0° to 10° with resolution based on a logarithmic function.
Michel Deluc, Amadeus’ Director of Research & Development, says, “The design of inter-element angles by a logarithm function has been an inherent part of the DIVA Series since its creation. This function induces a fineness and a coherence of pointing that no other system can claim – because it features a variable curvature rigging system based on a ‘logarithmic structure’ of inter-element angles (0°, 0.25°, 0.5°, 1°, 1.5°, 2°, 2.6°…) which helps cover a listening area in finer detail, especially the last rows of seats, far away from the front stage. Our long experience in the field of fixed installations in theaters, operas and other venues, has led us to maintain this differentiating mechanical bias.”
The DIVA M² offers a revolutionary HF (High Frequency) ensemble tweeter featuring two voice coils, each with its own magnet assembly and its own specialized phasing plug – which transforms the circular planar wavefront emitted by a compression driver into a rectangular planar wavefront. This phasing plug makes dramatic improvements in high-frequency sound and performance possible in the new M² speaker. The tweeter features a unique combination of extended frequency response, high efficiency, and wide dispersion pattern. The driver is a 2-way system, employing two concentric annular ring diaphragms. Each driver covers a smaller frequency range for increased power handling, high dynamic and extremely low distortion.
The larger annular midrange diaphragm, featuring a 3.5’’ (90mm) voice coil, covers the frequency range between 750 and 6 500 Hz with a smooth, linear response. The ultra light annular diaphragm for the high range, featuring a 1,75’’ voice coil, offers exceptional transient response with very high efficiency from 6 000 to 22 000 kHz. The DIVA M² system frequency response is 65 Hz to 22 kHz (-3 dB).
To obtain an optimal full-spectrum sound quality, the DIVA M² SUB should be paired with the DIVA M² speaker. The SUB is equipped with two 12-inch transducers, mounted in a bass-reflex enclosure.
