Key Advantages of the
German Physiks DDD Driver
Learn why our speakers are truly different
Award-winning Speakers
The heart of all German Physiks loudspeakers is the revolutionary omnidirectional DDD driver. Although it looks similar to the drivers used in conventional loudspeakers, the way it operates is considerably more complex. It provides the following eight important advantages to all German Physiks loudspeakers and this combination of advantages is what sets them apart from other loudspeakers.
A realistic stereo image more like you experience in the concert hall
When you listen to music in a concert hall, most of the sound energy is reflected off a surface before it reaches your ears. This causes a delay between the sound that arrives directly and the sound that is reflected. Our brains use this time difference to create the stereo image that we perceive. German Physiks loudspeakers create a similar mix of direct and reflected sound in the listener’s room by radiating the sound energy evenly around the loudspeaker through 360 degrees – hence the name omnidirectional. This creates a realistic, well focussed, three-dimensional stereo image, that is both wide and deep and which brings you closer to the immersive sense of space experienced in the concert hall. This was very well described by Dick Olsher, in the quote below, of his review of our HRS-130 loudspeakers in the American audio magazine, The Absolute Sound.
Compared to an omnidirectional loudspeaker, the stereo image produced by a conventional loudspeaker can be unnaturally sharply focussed. This is because the drivers in conventional loudspeakers concentrate the sound energy they radiate into a beam that gets progressively narrower as the frequency rises. Such pin-point imaging may be exciting for some listeners, especially if they are not familiar with the experience of a live performance, but you will never hear a stereo image like this in real life. Our objective with a hi-fi system should be to create a sound that is as close as possible to the original performance and we believe that German Physiks omnidirectional loudspeakers allow us to do this.
A stereo image that is enjoyable in almost all positions in the room - not only in the "sweet-spot”
With German Physiks omnidirectional loudspeakers, you can enjoy a good stereo image in almost all positions in your room, just like in a concert. An additional bonus is that this stereo image also has the correct tonal balance is almost all positions in the room. As a result, you are no longer restricted to sitting in the "sweet-spot” in order to enjoy a great sound and long listening sessions become a more enjoyable and more relaxing experience. It also means that several people can enjoy a great sound at the same time, so you can share your music with family and friends.
By contrast, with a conventional loudspeaker you only get a good stereo image with the correct tonal balance in one position in the room. This is usually referred to as the sweet-spot and is a consequence of the tendency of conventional drivers to concentrate the energy they radiate into a progressively narrowing beam as mentioned above. As you move away from the sweet-spot, the stereo image progressively loses focus and the high frequencies become progressively rolled-off.
An exceptionally coherent and natural sound
The extremely wide frequency range of the DDD driver, together with its comparatively compact size make it as close as we can currently get to an ideal point source. This enables it to provide an exceptionally coherent and natural sound. This is very difficult to achieve when the same frequency range is split over two or more different types of driver, each with a different radiation characteristic and which are in physically different positions on the loudspeaker’s cabinet. This is because over a range of frequencies above and below the crossover frequency, two different drivers are radiating the same signal, albeit at different levels. Because the distances between these drivers and the listener’s ears are almost never the same, the radiation from these two drivers does not recombine perfectly and this can lead to distortion of the perceived sizes of the instruments, as well as smearing of transients.
Very importantly, the DDD driver’s very wide frequency range enables the crossover point in the midrange that all conventional loudspeakers must have, to be eliminated and this gives improved clarity. Our hearing is most sensitive in the midrange, so problems here due to driver integration, or crossover phase effects are very hard to hide. Many designers of conventional loudspeakers do a very good job here, but they are never perfect. Dick Olsher in his review of our Unlimited model in The Absolute Sound described the importance of the exceptional coherence offered by the DDD driver very clearly.
Accurate portrayal of musical instruments’ tonal characteristics
The DDD driver is phase linear. This means that it preserves the phase relationships of the frequencies within its wide frequency range. Music is a complex signal that can be broken down into a wide range of sine wave signals with specific frequencies and specific amplitudes, and very importantly, specific phase relationships between these frequencies. This mix is continuously varying. If an audio component does not accurately preserve these phase relationships, then its output will not be a faithful copy of its input.
By preserving the phase relationships of the complex series of frequencies that make up the music signal, the tonal character of each musical instrument is more accurately reproduced. This, together with the DDD driver’s excellent transient response enables German Physiks loudspeakers to reproduce percussion with startling reality. Voices have a clarity and purity that can be breath taking, with all the elements that comprise the vocal sound correctly located in space and with no undue emphasis. The hardness you sometimes hear with conventional tweeters is eliminated and you get a greater sense of hearing a live musician rather than a recorded one.
An exceptional transient response
Music is a series of transients, so a loudspeaker’s transient response is very important. Another benefit of the DDD driver being phase linear is that it gives an excellent transient response. This allows German Physiks loudspeakers to recreate both the attack of the music and resolve low level detail very accurately. This is essential in order to faithfully reproduce the fine detail of a performance and make it sound like music, rather than just good hi-fi. The resulting transparency is maintained even on complex high-level passages, such as you find in large orchestral music, or action movie sound tracks.
The DDD driver's excellent transient response also means that it does not compress the music the way other drivers may, so you are less likely to feel the need to turn up the volume in order to obtain a satisfying playback level. Because you can avoid high playback levels, you will be able to hear more detail in the music and this is potentially also better for the long-term health of your hearing.
Quick and easy to set up
Because they are omnidirectional, German Physiks loudspeakers are generally less sensitive to room position than conventional loudspeakers. There is also no toe-in adjustment to worry about and you are less likely to need to re-arrange your room to get the best performance. Having more freedom in where the loudspeakers are positioned can be an important point to get the approval of other members of the household. When our Unlimited loudspeaker was reviewed in the American magazine Tone Audio, their editor commented how easy they were to set up and this applies to all German Physiks loudspeakers.
"While these speakers do benefit from about 20 minutes of optimizing the bass driver in the room, those with no speaker setup skills will still be able to achieve excellent results. I’ve never used a pair of speakers that were this easy to place in my three listening rooms."
Jeff Dorgay, Tone Audio, July 2013
The DDD driver is less likely to excite cabinet resonances
The DDD driver puts less energy into the cabinet than an equivalent conventional driver would. This reduces cabinet resonances and helps to increase transparency. There are two reasons for this:
a. The DDD driver has a very low moving mass, much less than an equivalent conventional driver, therefore the reaction forces it produces are much smaller and so there is less energy to cause resonances.
b. The second reason is the way the DDD driver is mounted. On conventional loudspeakers, the reaction forces the driver produces are in the same direction that the panel it is mounted on would naturally want to flex.
On the German Physiks HRS-130, Borderland MK IV and Carbon MK IV, the DDD driver is mounted on top of the cabinet. The reaction forces the DDD driver produces are at right angles to the direction that the cabinet’s panels would naturally want to flex, so it is more difficult for the energy from the DDD driver’s reaction forces to make the cabinet resonate.
On the German Physiks PQS-302 to Gaudi, the DDD drivers use small cylindrical enclosures, minimizing the area of any potential vibrating surface. By being cylindrical, they eliminate the resonances that can arise with a conventional rectangular or square section cabinet. Because they are made from aluminium, a comparatively soft metal, residual vibration of the enclosure is minimized. The DDD driver enclosure end-caps are made from non-resonant MDF and the enclosure is packed with damping material to dissipate any standing waves.
The result is that German Physiks loudspeakers have a degree of transparency and lack of colouration that is comparable to an electrostatic loudspeaker.
The DDD driver is physically extremely rugged
The carbon fibre DDD driver is almost certainly the most rugged loudspeaker driver currently on the market and can withstand physical abuse that would destroy other drivers. This is useful if the loudspeakers are to be used in a household with small children, or partners who are compulsive dusters. Just how much abuse the DDD driver will withstand is illustrated in the video below. We don’t advise our customers to try this however, just in case they are having an unlucky day.