![]() The overriding impressions on firing up the Minipods alone are of clarity and an absence of typical box colourations. The combination of these controls endows the Bass Station with the versatility to integrate with satellite speakers other than the Minipods, but their primary purpose is to provide adjustment for fine‑tuning the system to different rooms, setups and tastes. ![]() ![]() Blueroom's efforts to solve the problem on the Bass Station, through the use of such generous flaring inside and out, is unusual and suggests there's some thoughtful engineering going on.īolted to the 'back' of the Bass Station enclosure is a 75W amplifier module that carries the subwoofer inputs (including high‑level inputs on bare‑wire terminals), a phase reverse switch, a level control and a low‑pass filter control. The usual solution is to reduce the diameter (and consequently the length) and just shrug shoulders at the resulting distortion and compression. The problem is that the diameter of port required to keep the air flow linear means that the length then needed to achieve the necessarily low tuning frequency won't physically fit inside the enclosure. Port turbulence is, perhaps surprisingly, a significant limiting factor on reflex‑loaded subwoofers. The port flaring on the Bass Station is probably the most extravagant I've ever seen and can do nothing but benefit the performance. Again, shape provides the rigidity that would not be present were the same material used to make a flat‑sided box. As with the Minipods, construction is from two painted ABS mouldings. It is a substantial circular reflex enclosure with a top‑mounted 10‑inch driver and a port that vents downwards. The Bass Station, while not possessing quite the head‑turning looks of the Minipods, is still a pretty unusual shape for a speaker, having something of the appearance of an Eastern percussion instrument. The lightweight construction feels somehow inappropriate for a serious loudspeaker, especially in a world where thick, damped wooden loudspeaker panels are commonplace. The back moulding simply carries a pair of bare‑wire or 4mm‑plug connection terminals that work pretty well. The extravagant shape of the front provides generous diffraction‑suppressing curves around the drivers and turbulence‑delaying flare around the port. The front moulding carries a five‑inch magnetically shielded and Kevlar‑coned bass/mid‑range driver, a 25mm soft‑dome tweeter and a reflex port. ![]() ConstructionĪ Minipod's curves are constructed from two 4mm‑thick painted ABS mouldings bonded together along a joint line that runs vertically around the body. Of course, having said this, decades of engineering refinement mean that box speakers can be made to work extremely well, and rectilinear shapes are far more efficient containers of the necessary air volume than curved shapes. When you listen to a conventional loudspeaker you hear not just the drivers, but also the delayed and distorted sound added by diffraction and panel resonance. Secondly, flat panels are very effective radiators of sound when excited by the mechanical vibration of the drive‑units. For a start, sharp edges cause diffraction that smears the acoustic energy leaving the drive‑units. Certainly, this design avoids some of the pitfalls of traditional wooden cabinets. The Minipods have made little headway in the nearfield monitor market that I'm aware of, being primarily sold through hi‑fi dealers, although Blueroom say they're ideal for the role. The B&W engineering pedigree is still noticeable, though, and the electroacoustic design brain behind the Minipods and the Bass Station subwoofer is Laurence Dickie, the man responsible for B&W's original, and utterly over‑the‑top, Nautilus loudspeaker. Can these unconventional plastic‑bodied speakers possibly be suitable for studio work?īlueroom started life in the mid '90s as an offshoot of B&W, but in recent years the company has reinvented itself as a fully independent manufacturer, redesigned and relaunched the Minipods, and developed an active subwoofer.
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