The d&b audiotechnik B4-SUB has earned a 2010 PLASA Award for Innovation. Each year the Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) London exhibition puts the spotlight on the latest leading technologies. This year at the Innovation Gallery, showcased products were judged by an independent panel of experts, live in front of visitors and manufacturers. The B4-SUB stood out among fifty five leading products to win one of seven Awards for Innovation.
The carefully conceived B4-SUB overcomes what was at one time thought improbable, abandoning Digital Signal Processing (DSP) to produce cardioid propagation of low-end (40-150Hz) through well crafted cabinet and driver design and little else. The patented B4-SUB incorporates a band-pass cabinet design, coupled with unique driver characteristics and some special porting to replicate acoustically what would normally be done electronically using DSP.
The judges remarked that, while cardioid subwoofers are not new technology, the development of a passive cardioid subwoofer certainly is. The panel was particularly impressed that, instead of employing traditional, active DSP, the B4-SUB uses what d&b R+D refer to as PSP or Plywood Signal Processing.
Steve Jones, from the d&b GB Education and Application Support team presented the B4 to the panel. "It's my favourite sub,” he declared. ”It has so many benefits. When that little cabinet thumps you in the chest, it's an emotional experience."