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At the very least it can be said that, at Meyer Sound, the beard is a symbol of distinction, as demonstrated by the presence on the stand of John Meyer in person and Big Mick Hughes, sound engineer emeritus, a good meter of whiskers between them.
Every wizard needs a beard, right? Well, the latest wizardry of Mr. Meyer is the new addition to the Leo family: the lean and wiry Leopard, with obligatory class-D amps and a beefy new sub designed to accompany it, the 900 LFC. Who better than Marco to tell us about them…
SLU : What can we say about the Leopard… first of all that it is finally Meyer’s successful application of a class D amplifier in a system more powerful than Mina ?
Marc de Fouquières (Technical Director for the Dushow group and Best Audio, importer of Meyer Sound in France) : Yes, among other things, we could say that. We like this new product a lot because it combines the technological innovation of a switching power supply with variable voltage rails, the so-called class D, with an amplifier that is in some way analog, and that delivers the current to the speakers in pure class AB and suddenly, by varying the voltage rails, it wastes very little power.
This is a similar topology to that employed by other manufacturers. The advantage is that it obtains very high power with an extremely low weight, which obviously interests sound companies like ours.
Having almost the same weight as some systems made by other manufacturers, with powerful enclosures that do not require external amplification, is a real plus.
The weight advantage over the rest of the Meyer catalog is quite real, as it weighs just 33.6 kilos. This places it in the upper-average of its “adversaries” on the market, such as KARA at 26 kg, S10 at 27 kg, 34 kg for the V12, or the STM M28 that weighs 37 kg – all passive systems, unlike Leopard. The folks at Meyer seem to be well aware of their progress, as they proudly boast that only one 500 kg hoist is required to lift six Leopard heads and two 900 LFC subs.
An amp ? What for…
SLU : What are the most obvious benefits of having the amplification on board ?
Marc de Fouquières : It’s simple. For us the amp rack is a plague. It always has been and it always will be, as it is a source of errors – not the least of which are using bad presets or cabling errors. Send the bass signal to the HF transducers and damage is guaranteed. The existing flexibility – where everything can go with everything – in a kit like ours means a lot of manipulation or adapters. You understand that, if a mistake can be made, sooner or later it will be.
When Meyer built the amplification into their enclosures, like so many others we were skeptical at first. Then MSL4 and UPA were the first powered speakers to convince us of the validity of this technology. Today we believe that it streamlines our business and allows us to focus our energy elsewhere. It is in step with what is happening in lighting.
When you have a moving head and you have to send up a PowerCON and 5-pin DMX, it’s still easier to implement than when you have dimmers on the floor and you have to send up thick, heavy cables. You have to transport and deploy a set of much more complex and heavy equipment than when everything is in the enclosures.
SLU : Getting back to the weight of Leopard, were compromises necessary, in terms of materials, to accomplish this ?
Marc de Fouquières (nodding) : There are no compromises in the quality of the result, and, therefore, not in the the means used, either. Meyer has won the bet, and I tip my hat to him. To quote someone: in the Leopard, the speaker basket is not the mould for an otherwise plastic cabinet (laughs!)
SLU : Tell us about the amp that is on board, the technology seems very interesting…
Marc de Fouquières : I will, but I have not yet had the opportunity to take a look at it, so I’m only repeating some information that John (Meyer – ed.) gave me. Knowing the engineer who designed these stages, above all he strives for simplicity and to reduce the number of active components between the one emitting the current and the coil of the transducer that receives it. They have gotten further in this quest than they had been up until now.
If we take, for example, IGBTs with variable voltage rails, there is no heat dissipation in the absence of signal. When there is no signal, there is no voltage. In a simple class AB amplifier, the rails are invariable, still at +/-30 volts, while in this one the rails change value. When there is no signal – let’s say for simplicity – there is no voltage. It is a simple but very well designed topology. The past four years at Meyer could be called a race for simplification.
SLU : Mina opened the way for this ?
Marc de Fouquières : Yes, in a certain way, but one can’t compare it with Leopard because this one features an analog amplification stage.
SLU : Is the filtering in Leopard done in analog ?
Marc de Fouquières : No, the signal processing is digital. They are the same processors as those in the Galileo. The only enclosure that remains 100% analog is the Leo-M. Starting with Lyon, we have entered a new era; with digital processing, we manage to do things that are impossible in analog.
SLU : Has the waveguide benefitted from the experience acquired with the two other enclosures in the Leo family ?
Marc de Fouquières : Yes, absolutely. The 3-inch driver is coupled with a manifold adapter, the one that creates the isophasic wavefront, that has been redesigned, in particular, using finite-element analysis software. The result is improved coupling between two speakers that are, necessarily, separated by more than one length of the exit of the horn, what is known as the filling coefficient. This reduces interference at the bottom of the stack or outside the coverage area but close to it.
No toroidal phase plug and no backache… how could it sound ?
SLU : Have you been able to hear the new enclosure ?
Marc de Fouquières : Yes, of course. Some people from Meyer are at Dushow in our studio for a few days, so that I can listen to it and measure it in every way.
SLU : And ?
Marc de Fouquières : It measures well and it sounds great, obviously. To us, the sound is exactly like what we have heard from the Lyon and Leo – namely, an incredible dynamic capability undoubtedly related to the capacity of the power supply to emit astronomical voltages instantaneously, and as the power stages follow, it provides a very punchy sound. Although the average power consumption is not very high, the music being produced is (the peaks); the Leopard therefore fits perfectly into the line of products that Meyer has always manufactured, designed to make music and not noise.
SLU : Speaking of the range and the positioning within it, where does the Leopard fit in?For example, does Lyon arrive at 3 or 4 dB less than Leo-M and Leopard get to about that same amount less than Lyon ?
Marc de Fouquières : You have to look in the MAPP Online. The difference between each speaker is slightly bigger but, judging by listening and by measurement, even though it is a compact enclosure, Leopard can replace Mica despite being half the size at the front panel. The upper-mid range, in particular, is even a little bit superior to what is reproduced by Mica. Only the mid-bass is barely behind but, as it is part of the spectrum you are going to attenuate when summing enclosures, the problem is solved.
Meyer has also chosen to use pre-conformation curves on the speakers. The goal is not to make them appear correct in MAPP online – something that doesn’t interest anyone because I’m the only one who looks at MAPP online (laughs!) –but, when they are assembled in arrays of six units and given a signal, to produce a beautiful curve of perfectly usable energy in a range from 63 Hz to 20 kHz – yes, I said 63 Hz. It can go down a third of an octave lower than Mica (which employs 10-inch woofers as opposed to Leopards 9-inch LF transducers – ed.).
18 inches and two voice coils
SLU : Can you tell us about how it combines with the 900 LFC ?
Marc de Fouquières : You put them on the ground, one per side, and it’s enough to do anything.
SLU : Meyer seems to be pushing the configuration with two subs at the top of the arrays. Six Leopards and two 900s on a half-ton hoist.
Marc de Fouquières : Of course, I also recommend flown arrays whenever possible, but the problem now is that users want subs in the air and on the ground. By doing this, they create interference.
However, if one were to use flown subs and others stacked, I recommend joining them at the bottom by making a column starting from the floor, a solution that has the advantages of creating the least interference and being the most effective. It is just my personal opinion that you should do it this way whenever possible, but we all know that it is always the scenography that takes precedence over the sound and not the other way around.
SLU : Reading the sparse introductory and preliminary info, it would seem that the 18-inch woofer installed in the 900 LFC is new, as it is equipped with two separate voicecoils and, therefore, two amps…
Marc de Fouquières : Yes, apparently that’s the way it works, as far as I have been led to understand. But, again, not having taken one apart, I can’t confirm this. I do know, however, that this technology allows for very high current and, in particular, permits the use of a speaker with a very low impedance, hence the idea of having two coils. This allows them to double the current, without having to create an amplifier that can handle the short circuit.
SLU : So, this really is a new woofer, compared to those in the 1100 LFC…
Marc de Fouquières : I think so; it certainly must retain the same magnet, which is extraordinary. The 18-inch woofer in the 1100 looks like every other speaker in the world, weighs about like every other speaker in the world but, instead of ferrite, it uses a neodymium magnet. I have not measured the power factor that you can get out of it, but it must be out of this world.
Invasion of the Leopards
SLU : Do you have any idea about the date of the first deliveries of these new products ?
Marc de Fouquières : We should have the first speakers towards the last week of June, but Meyer may be a little slower than that because the success appears to be overwhelming.
SLU : So, I guess there is business to do at Dushow in order to sell off your Mica inventory !
Marc de Fouquières : We are still using it, so, in this period of transition between the two systems, the answer is no! We have already hired it out, so we can’t sell it now (laughs!).
