Innovations

At MC Systems, we try our best to create an unparalleled listening experience for you. In order to achieve this, we have developed several systems in order to create the most distortion-free loudspeakers.

This page is still under development.

Let us talk about drivers and cabinets

A cabinet and drivers are fundamental parts of a speaker. Drivers translate electrical energy into motion, which creates pressure waves in the air that our ears can perceive as sound. A cabinet is used to amplify and control this pressure so that we can extract everything from a driver.

When an amplifier energizes the coil of a driver, the coil moves the driver’s cone. This coil and cone have a small mass. When this mass starts vibrating, it will create a force that is equal and opposite to its movement. This is Newton’s third law of physics. In a way, the driver is pushing against the air surrounding it, and the air pushes back.

Since the driver is usually mounted to a speaker baffle, it cannot move, so this force will be transduced into the speaker baffle and cabinet. This will cause the entire cabinet to vibrate, and in turn, create its own sound waves. This problem is amplified by the fact that in order to mount a driver to a front panel, we need to cut a hole in it, further reducing its rigidity.

These unwanted sounds will impede the speaker from accurately reproducing music and cause several issues.

When a speaker is unable to reproduce the incoming signal (top), it will output a distorted signal (bottom).

Added distortion

Distortion occurs when a speaker doesn't accurately reproduce the incoming sound signal, resulting in added noise or alterations to the original sound. This can make the music sound fuzzy, harsh, or muddled, detracting from its clarity and quality. When the entire cabinet is vibrating, it will add unwanted distortions to your music.

Another factor which adds distortion is the flexible surround of a driver's cone. The vibrations of the cone transfer to the surround it is suspended in and will make it function as a poor driver. Furthermore, when a driver moves outwards, it will create a small vacuum inside the cabinet. This will “suck” the surround inwards when the cone is moving outwards, adding even more distortion.

Lack of focus

Our ears are very sensitive to the timing of sound queues, it is how we locate where sound is coming from. When sound is coming from our left, it will reach our left ear before it will reach the right one. The delay between our ears aids us in locating the source of said sound.

When all sides of a speaker cabinet produce sound, then sound will reach our ears over a small period of time. This is because our distance from every side of the cabinet is slightly different. We don’t want this, because it will basically smear the sound. It might help you to visualize this as a photo in focus versus on that is out of focus or blurry. In the unfocused photo, you might still be able to make out that it’s a person being photographed, but you won’t be able to recognize this person.

So we want the drivers in a speaker to be the only sound producing part. This will make sure that as much information from a recording regarding depth, height and width, will be heard.

MC Systems is different

We believe that the cabinet of a speaker should resonate as little as possible. Ensuring that the original recording reaches your ears in its most pure form. To achieve this, we use several techniques, differentiated by four main series.

B-Series

Our B-series speakers are our entry level speakers. The design techniques are comparable to regular loudspeakers, but the sound definitely is not. They are characterized by a very easygoing sound signature. Well suited to critical listening, but also very relaxed in nature. These speakers play well with entry level equipment, and scale with better equipment.

Our entry point into hi-fi

M-Series

Using unique ways to reduce unwanted vibrations

Our M-series speakers are a serious step-up into hi-fi. In order to reduce unwanted vibrations and distortion, we have incorporated several unique techniques.

We mount the mid/bass driver to the cabinet in a way that its unwanted vibrations are only very minimally transferred to the cabinet. How do we do this? Well, this driver is mounted to a solid aluminum rod. This rod is then surrounded with a pipe and the space in between is filled with vibration dampening material. Then we mount this pipe to the rear of the cabinet, this pulls the driver against the front of the cabinet, sealing it with a gasket to prevent air leaks. This has several advantages:

The rod and vibration dampening material absorb much of the unwanted vibrations before they are able to reach the cabinet.
The front of the cabinet has a big hole in it to fit the driver, this weakens the front. By mounting the driver to the rear of the cabinet, it is mounted to a much stiffer panel. This reduces vibrations being transferred into the cabinet.
The rod is mounted to the driver through its middle by a phase cone. This phase cone improved the sound from the driver whilst also allowing a small amount of air to flow in between the magnet and coil. This allows the driver to effectively cool itself and increase its power handling capability.

The front panel has an integrated waveguide for the tweeter. A wave guide can drastically improve the efficiency of a driver by selectively amplifying a frequency range. A tweeter can usually only play down to a certain frequency before it will start to struggle, or “break up”. This is usually around 2.5KHz, this is the range to which our ears are most sensitive. When this happens, it will add distortion to the signal and need a lot of power to produce the requested tone. By amplifying this frequency range, the tweeter will have a much easier time producing those tones and thus drastically reduce its distortion.

If the cabinet is vibrating, and the tweeter is connected to it, then the tweeter will also vibrate. By connecting the tweeter to the vibration-lacking front panel, it is effectively isolated from any unwanted vibrations. This furthermore reduces distortions emanating from the tweeter. A bag of fine sand is seated against the rear of the tweeter, absorbing even more vibration.

Using unique ways to reduce unwanted vibrations

MP-Series

Adding a secondary mid/bass driver to further reduce distortion

Even though our M-series speakers are very innovative by themselves, the MP-series takes it a step further. The MP-series uses all our innovations found in the M-series, but adds a second woofer and chages the way they are mounted. The addition of a second woofer increases sensitivity, reduces distortions and reduces unwanted vibrations even more by effectively having them cancel each other out.

Imagine a moving driver as someone pushing and pulling a box back an forth. This person is applying a certain amount of force and is able to move it back and forth. Now we add another person on the other side of this box, trying to move the box with the same amount of force the opposite way than the first person is. What will happen? Nothing, the two forces cancel each other out and the box is not moving. Now imagine that these people are drivers and the box is a rod connected in between them. This is what the MP-series has to offer.
Instead of connecting the woofer to the cabinet, we connect it through a dampened rod to a second identical woofer inside the speaker cabinet. We then move the second woofer inversely to the first and voilà, the forces will cancel each other out. This almost completely eliminates unwanted vibrations from getting into the cabinet. Furthermore, the drivers are suspended by gaskets within the cabinet of the speaker to reduce the transfer of vibrations even more.

A second benefit from having double the amount of woofers, is that the efficiency of the bass/mid-response goes up a lot. This will make the speaker produce effortless lows and mids, increasing dynamics, clarity, depth and reducing distortions.

HR-Series

High efficiency, easy to drive

Our HR-series are designed much like the M-series but with a twist, high efficiency. These speakers are designed to produce as much music with as little power as possible. Even though our main speakers are at a high efficiency to begin with, the HR-series turns this up a notch. Having a high efficiency will make a speaker create sound more effortlessly, converting more of your amplifier’s power into sound. This makes them ideal for use with a tube amplifier, which generally have a lower power output.