ARC®
Anti-Resonance Composite
Having various applications within a number of our speaker ranges, this high-tech Anti-Resonance Composite material is a thermo-set polymer loaded with minerals to provide very inert, optimally-damped components. Refined by Monitor Audio’s engineers initially for the Platinum series, ARC is ideal for acoustic design, where a high degree of structural rigidity and vibration damping is required in order to prevent the propagation of standing waves and modal resonances.
RDT®
RDT is a unique technology developed specifically by Monitor Audio's engineers for the Platinum series of loudspeakers*. Designed to reduce mass and increase cone stiffness, RDT applies ultra-thin skins of C-CAM to a core of honeycomb Nomex®** material, creating a structure which is extremely light but incredibly rigid. At only 40 microns thick, the C-CAM skins are half the thickness of a human hair, yet when bonded to the Nomex core they form an RDT cone, which is 150 times more rigid than a single layer of 200 micron C-CAM alloy, but has a fraction of the overall mass. These properties allow the cone to operate as a lightning-fast piston for a clearer more natural sound. The RDT cone's concave geometry has been refined by FEA analysis to provide a smooth frequency response and to eradicate break-up.
* PLW-15's driver is C-CAM only
** Nomex® is a registered trademark of E.I DuPont de Nemours and Company
Ribbon Transducer
Monitor Audio's proprietary ribbon tweeter design uses an ultra-thin sandwich of C-CAM alloy suspended in a powerful transverse magnetic field of high energy NeFeB rare earth magnets. The ribbon serves as both voice coil and radiating diaphragm, with every part of the ribbon driven directly and simultaneously without energy storage. Having a mass of just 18mg, its diaphragm is able to start and stop in an instant, producing a transient response capable of defining the leading edge and natural harmonic resonance of complex musical sounds. Specified to reach ultra-high frequencies up to an elusive 100 kHz, Platinum’s magical ribbon tweeter will reproduce with ease every last nuance and detail from vinyl, CD, DVD-A and SACD, together with the wider bandwidth of Blu-ray.
