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KS Audio / KS Digital FIRTEC DSP Technology
FIRTEC = Finite Impulse Response Technology
KS Audio / KS Digital has successfully developed a listening standard in loudspeaker design that guarantees the reproduction performance for each loudspeaker unit (fitted with FIRTEC) for the stage and studio production environments. The standard is FIRTEC DSP control technology and it is exclusive only to KS Audio.
The KS Audio standard is unique, and the first to create a standard of determinate quality of audio performance, whereby the loudspeaker faithfully reproduces the input signal in a finite and predictable way that can be measured, stored and replicated uniformly into each of the KS Audio DSP loudspeaker units for studio and stage equally.
The KS Audio FIRTEC program digitally corrects and matches up the performance of the loudspeaker to the input signal, and in doing so, all effects of distortion, artificial imaging, colorations and other unwanted resonances that are the expected natural and normal by-products of transferring electrical energy out to atmospheric pressure via the exertion of a mass are removed. Therefore, the sound of the whole unit remains invisible to the listener, exposing only the original input signal for the first time. The listener is closer to the original performance than ever before, experiencing clear and accurate audio with little or no auditory fatigue.
Expertly engineered sound productions are only fully realized and experienced when replayed on KS Audio DSP studio and mastering reference monitors, or on stage with selected digital concert PA loudspeaker systems. KS Audio has successfully applied this technology in numerous installations such as various German Opera and Play Houses and the Reichstag (Congress) in Berlin as well as in recording and broadcast studios across the world.
For 28 years, FIRTEC DSP technology has been the express aim of KS Audio in Germany. It is currently available in several KS Audio products, both in self-powered and in un-powered systems. FIRTEC DSP technology is a unique product innovation that separates KS Audio from all other manufacturers.
The application of Finite Impulse Response (FIR) is well known in the field of acoustic measurement. However, KS Audio has broken the chains that have locked out the availability of the incredible range of results achieved by the correct implementation of FIR in all aspects of the sound reproduction signal chain. KS Digital FIRTEC DSP technology is the world's first and fully successful implementation of FIR (Finite Impulse Response) in an enclosure-driver-loudspeaker of a traditional design.
The result of FIRTEC processing is: that it is possible to hear with clarity and accuracy as if one were listening to the original performance acoustically. Standardization of "flat frequency response," "positive phase response," and "precise center imaging," particularly for two or more speakers, is now the KS Audio "Sonic Truth" Standard.
DSP is "digital signal processing": a computer program that processes the input signal in the digital domain. FIR is "finite impulse response": a measurement process whose results are utilized by our DSP programs. FIRTEC is "finite impulse response technology" : a DSP controller program that integrates the measurement results to correct the audio signal so that the loudspeaker is able to duplicate the input signal for frequency and time (phase), without any discrepancies.
The following is an explanation of the FIRTEC DSP technology. The graphs are made on the KS ADM 1 and ADM 2 (now ADM10 and ADM20) Studio Reference Monitors and are applicable to any KS Audio concert, PA or studio reference monitors fitted with the FIRTEC DSP technology.
Finite Impulse Response Plot of our ADM 1 three-way, tri-amplified Mid Field Studio Monitor:
The above graph illustrates the results of FIRTEC DSP. The graph on the left illustrates a 22 microsecond (22/1000 second) full frequency impulse burst (all frequencies at the same volume).
The additional motion that you observe after the termination of the impulse above and below the horizontal “0” line is not sound. It is unwanted noise from motion, phase anomalies, frequency alterations and distortion, all created by the erroneous, indifferent movements of the driver, beyond the original demand of duplicating the input signal.
The graph on the right illustrates the same 22 microsecond impulse burst, with the FIRTEC DSP engaged. The comparison explains the vast improvement in the performance of the driver. And all corrections are performed in the time domain with a latency not greater than 5 milliseconds.
This second pair of graphs illustrate the "before and after DSP processing" of frequency response measurement:
Again, the graphic on the left represents the unaltered signal while the graphic on the right represents the same signal with the FIRTEC process engaged.
THERE IS NO EQUALIZATION of any kind utilized in this report.
The response you are looking at is the express result of Finite Impulse Response corrections performed exclusively in the digital time domain. FIR filtering also includes the crossover points, which are imperceptible when measured or audibly reproduced.
It would be possible to use contemporary frequency equalization devices to make the graph on the left “look like” the graph on the right. However, for each added band of equalization there would be additional noise, distortions, frequency and phase shift anomalies (this is the problem with contemporary equalization-based DSP designs).
When the FIRTEC process is engaged, these added circuit components are no longer needed, and reproduction is direct and accurate (thus representing the original signal entirely).
The next pair of graphs illustrate the "before and after DSP processing" of phase response measurement: