Whise HA1500HD-A User manual

HA1500 HD-A® Loudspeaker
Instruction Manual

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents..................................................................................................2
Important Information............................................................................................3
Introduction...........................................................................................................4
Controls and Inputs...............................................................................................5
Speaker placement ...........................................................................................6
Quick Start Installation ......................................................................................7
Step 1) Unpack & Check Voltage ..................................................................7
Step 2) Position .............................................................................................7
Step 3) Connections......................................................................................7
Step 4) Controls and Volume setting.............................................................8
Step 5) Power Up ..........................................................................................8
Audio configuration...............................................................................................9
Imaging .............................................................................................................9
Brightness .........................................................................................................9
Absolute Phase.................................................................................................9
What makes the Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker sound so much better?.....10
HA1500 HD-A®Electrostatic Array .....................................................................11
No more electrostatic restrictions....................................................................11
Non-curved array.............................................................................................11
Front and Rear image is identical....................................................................11
The Art of Speed - Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker.......................................12
Imaging ...........................................................................................................12
HA1500 HD-A®Balanced Woofer.......................................................................13
NTM®(Neville Thiele Method) Crossover....................................................13
PAM™ (Parametric Acoustic Modeling).......................................................13
VR/UR™ (Velocity Reflex/Ultra Reflex) .......................................................14
Troubleshooting..................................................................................................15
Specification .......................................................................................................16
Glossary..............................................................................................................18
Warranty Terms & Conditions.............................................................................19
© 2008 All rights reserved. Immersion Technologies International plc of One America Square,
Crosswell, London, United Kingdom EC3N 2SG.

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Important Information
To ensure that you get the best possible experience from your new speakers,
please read the following points before continuing with the set up of your
speakers.
This product contains hazardous voltages inside.
DO NOT attempt to gain access to the internal workings of the loudspeaker.
• Before making or changing any connections between the speakers and your
audio equipment, ensure that both the speakers and equipment are turned off.
• If the speaker is behaving abnormally, unplug it from the wall socket and
• Any faults or problems should be referred to a qualified repair technician.
Contact your dealer for information.
• Any excessive moisture or liquid that makes contact with the speaker or its
internal workings creates a potential safety risk of fire or electrical shock.
• Do not place any liquids on or around the speaker.
• Be sure to use a properly grounded AC power source.

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Introduction
Thank you for investing in the Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker. It represents a
leap forward in audio reproduction, and is achieved through the application of
over 18 years of experience and research into both electrostatic and
conventional electromagnetic speaker technologies.
• The Whise 1500 HD-A®electrostatic array does away with the perceived
limitations of electrostatic sound. It can achieve crystal clear sound at amazingly
high levels without distortion. The speed at which our array moves reduces inter-
modulation distortion significantly, and allows not only the details of the audio to
get out, but sets the music free by reproducing all the subtleties of the recording
environment and presenting them to you as a holographic sound stage.
• New techniques have been employed to produce a dispersion pattern that is
even and clean without resorting to curved arrays or artificial delays. This results
in a smooth and well-integrated image that the speakers practically ‘vanish’ to
your ears, and all that you are left with is an amazingly life-like sound.
• The Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker features 100 Watt amplifiers for each
array and woofer. This allows you to run the Whise 1500 HD-A® loudspeaker
from any signal-level source, without having to purchase expensive power
amplifiers for each stage. You can directly plug in your CD player, computer,
game console, or even portable music player. You can even directly plug
multichannel decoded outputs from any high definition source (DVD, SACD, Blu-
ray, HD-DVD etc) straight into the speakers. The independent subwoofers can
create a 5.2 or 7.2 or 10.2 systems when surround, rear and centre channels are
added. They are compatible with all lossless formats including Dolby TrueHD
and DTS-HD sources.
• Got your favorite amplifier? No problem! The Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker
also accepts speaker-level input for total flexibility.
• The Whise 1500 HD-A®subwoofer recreates bass with incredibly low levels of
distortion, and amazing power efficiency. Using PAM™, VR/UR™ and NTM®
digital crossovers (an acronym for the Neville Thiele Method) enables precise
control of frequency signals giving the Whise 1500 HD-A®subwoofer a
proprietary advantage over competitors with conventional alternatives.
• The PAM™ (Parametric Acoustic Modeling) technology uses acoustic modeling
and mechanical filtering techniques to control audio quality. This technology has
already won awards for its ability to remove mechanical distortion from low-
frequency reproduction.

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Controls and Inputs

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Speaker placement
Basic guidelines for standard stereo and multichannel surround sound
configurations are illustrated below. You may have to adjust the characteristic of
the sound to accommodate for your room shape and size, but try to ensure that
the panel portion of each speaker is a minimum of 30cm away from any nearby
walls.

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Quick Start Installation
Since you are no doubt eager to listen to your Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeakers,
here is a fast guide to get you up and running in no time.
Step 1) Unpack & Check Voltage
Remove your new Whise 1500 HD-A® loudspeakers from the packaging.
Check the correct voltage setting on the IEC power input at the base of
the Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker has been selected.
Step 2) Position
For optimal performance place your Whise 1500 HD-A® loudspeakers
such that the rear of upper panel is at least 30 cm from any back wall.
Point the Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker inwards slightly, towards the
listening position if you wish.
They may also face straight forwards or slightly inwards if you wish to
have a larger listening area, but for the absolute optimum listening for one
person only, aim the Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker directly at the
listener.
Step 3) Connections
With your equipment turned off, connect your Whise 1500 HD-A®
loudspeakers to the equipment either via the RCA pre-amplified input or
via the loudspeaker output of your equipment.
If you choose the speaker-level connection, be sure that you connect both
loudspeakers in the same polarity (i.e. Red to +, Black to -) or else the
loudspeakers will be out of phase with each other and the sound image
will become vague and incoherent.
If your preamplifier or surround decoder system has a separate output for
bass (below 80 Hz) a separate RCA input has been provided (on the front
units), marked as SUB-in, to allow you to recombine the bass frequency
component with the rest of the audio.
See the Controls and Inputs section of this manual for more detailed
instructions.

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Step 4) Controls and Volume setting
Set each of the four knobs at the upper-right of the rear of the speaker
(fronts only) to the 12-o’clock position to begin with. You can adjust these
settings to your personal preference once you start listening to the
speakers and determine any adjustments required for the room.
Step 5) Power Up
Connect either the IEC power cable to the back of the speaker (front /
rear), and the other end into the wall socket and turn on. Make sure you
are not playing any audio when you turn the speakers on, as you will not
know what volume to expect the first time and may damage your
equipment.
The Whise logo at the front of the speaker will turn blue when there is a
signal present. The speaker will go into standby mode after 2 minutes of
zero input, and the logo will change to amber.
Congratulations! You are now ready to experience audio at its finest! Refer to the
Audio Configuration section for more information on adjusting the Whise 1500
HD-A®loudspeaker to your room and taste.

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Audio configuration
Once your Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker are in a position you are comfortable
with, you should spend some time adjusting the bass and treble to suit both the
room you are in, and your own personal preference.
The best way of achieving this is to select a recording that you are intimately
familiar with, such as a favorite song. Select music that has a broad range of
frequency components so that you can judge where to set each of the knobs
more effectively.
Imaging
The first thing to check is that the stereo image is even and coherent. Make sure
that the components of the track such as vocals, different instruments etc are in
the places they should be within the stereo image as if you were listening to the
song on headphones.
This is especially important if you have never listened to electrostatic speakers
before, because they create a more precise, detailed and wider image compared
with conventional electromagnetic cone speakers.
Once you are satisfied that the audio imaging is correct, listen to the various
frequency components with the knobs all set to 12 o’clock.
Brightness
Now you should adjust the room brightness to your taste. It is not uncommon for
this to be somewhat lower than the normal, especially if you have a lot of
reflective surfaces in
the room. The best way to test is to clap your hands. The echo you hear is the
time delay effects and room resonances, and so this adjust feature lets you
compensate for that.
Adjust the knob until it sounds natural to your ears.
Now listen to the track with frequency adjust knobs set to their extremes, one at a
time. First set the 80 Hz adjust knob all the way up and listen, and then all the
way down and listen. Repeat this with the 250 Hz adjust knob. This will help to
give you a feel for the limits of the adjustment, and give you some idea as to
where you would prefer to listen.
Absolute Phase
If you are using your own power amplifier to connect to the Whise 1500 HD-A®
loudspeaker, you might want to experiment with Absolute Phase. This is a much

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talked about phenomenon. Imagine you are listening to a bass drum. When the
sound gets to the speaker, the diaphragm will either move forwards first or
backwards first. There is some debate as to whether or not this makes a
difference to the sound quality, but there have been reports of subtle changes
achieved by reversing the phase on all the speakers (ensuring that they are still
in-phase). Try it out for yourself and see if you prefer it one way over the other.
It helps to remember the last time you listened to a totally live and “unplugged”
performance; conventional electromagnetic cone speakers start to seem dull in
comparison. If your initial setting is lower than the standard setting, over time you
may wish to increase this once you become accustomed to the nuances and
detail that the Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeakers offer. If you go back to listening
on conventional electromagnetic cone speakers you will appreciate just how
much of the recording was missing, and just how much additional information the
Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker recovers from the recording.
What makes the Whise 1500 HD-A®loudspeaker sound so much better?
The techniques employed are unrivalled, and are designed to ensure that all the
frequency components are in the proper place in the time domain; harmonics and
distortion components are reduced to incredibly low levels, even at maximum
output. The result is a crisp clean sound that is incredibly complete. You can hear
details that are commonly masked, and readily identify the smooth transition
between the frequencies.