Waveform Factory Tour
by Doug Schneider

Waveform has long been one of the best-kept secrets in Canada’s collection of high-end-loudspeaker companies. Waveform was officially registered in 1985 and debuted its first product at the Summer CES in 1986. Although the company’s strategies for distribution and pricing of its products have changed dramatically since its inception, its overriding goals have not. John Ötvös, Waveform’s president and sole owner, has a plaque on the wall at the entrance to the manufacturing portion of his facility that reads:

On value…the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten -- Unknown

Ötvös lives and works in Brigton, Ontario (an hour east of Toronto) on a large plot of land overlooking Lake Ontario. I visited the Waveform factory (shown right) at the end of May 2000 and can attest to the fact that Ötvös is a man who enjoys making something of the highest quality with exacting precision. He is also an avid music lover and a pursuant of the science of musical reproduction. These are his life.

History

The original Waveform Loudspeaker (there was no model designation because at the time there was only one product) was designed by Paul Barton. Back then and today, Barton is one of the world’s most-respected speaker designers. He is, of course, synonymous with the name PSB. The Waveform was an all-out design that went far beyond anything being done at PSB in terms of technology and quality. It was a massive, beautifully built loudspeaker with some five drivers, including a ribbon tweeter and 15" woofer. It needed to be bi-amplified. Today Ötvös describes it as an exercise in "woodworking and engineering."

Barton's work is legendary alongside that of Dr. Floyd Toole at Canada’s National Research Council (NRC). Toole’s work spanned many years and involved many of today’s best designers. Barton and Toole had managed to do what few others even attempt to do -- correlate objective loudspeaker measurements with subjective listening. This groundbreaking research formed the basis for some of Canada’s most-respected loudspeaker manufacturers, including Barton’s own PSB as well as Paradigm and Audio Products International. The summary of this work can be found in Subjective and Objective Measurements of Loudspeaker Performance, a booklet published by the NRC. While that work is far too involved to go into here, three important speaker criteria arose and are worth mentioning because Waveform adheres strictly to them. A speaker should have: wide bandwidth, low distortion, wide and even dispersion. (For a more in-depth look at the NRC and Barton, see our article called "A Day at the NRC With Paul Barton of PSB Speakers.")

Ötvös’ job, then and now, is building the actual loudspeakers, although this is a gross understatement because he runs the entire company. He is a master craftsman capable of building products of great quality, reliability and beauty. This skill extends far beyond just audio products. He built his own house and the Waveform factory too. Ötvös is also no slouch when it comes to the technicalities of loudspeaker design. Get him talking about his favorite passion and he can go on for hours about what he believes makes for a superior loudspeaker.

Then to now

That first Waveform speaker was priced at $20,000 per pair and weighed in at 250 pounds each. It was a beautiful, triangular-shaped loudspeaker made from 2"-thick solid cherry. At the time, it was one of the most expensive speakers in the world and was designed to give cost-no-object performance. There were very few speakers as large or expensive. Sales of that original speaker were through the traditional method of storefront retailers.

In 1991, Waveform produced the second version of that speaker, which they called the Mach 7. The "7" signified seven visits to the NRC in seven years. At that time, Ötvös also decided to go factory-direct, and he hasn’t gone back. Selling straight from the manufacturer to the consumer resulted in a whopping price reduction. Waveform ended up selling the Mach 7 for $8000 per pair.

The Mach 13 came out in 1995 and was the last speaker of the design series. Afterwards Ötvös decided it was time for a totally new design that would extend the art and science even further. With Barton increasingly involved in PSB, Ötvös turned to Dr. Claude Fortier, who holds a doctorate in physics and is an expert in acoustics and speaker design. Fortier works as an acoustical consultant and also designs loudspeakers for the pro market -- his own companies are State-of-the-Art Electronik and State-of-the-Art Acoustik.

Fortier works in Ottawa and also has plenty of experience at the NRC. As a result, the existing NRC doctrine that helped produce the first series of loudspeakers fit perfectly into Fortier’s approach. In fact, Fortier performed all final measurements of the new line of Waveform products right at the NRC. These facilities include a state-of-the-art anechoic chamber for precise measurements, and few companies in the world have access to this. (Incidentally, SoundStage! uses these same facilities to measure loudspeakers for review.)

Get cracking

With this new design, Ötvös and Fortier wanted to approach state-of-the-art performance with regard to dispersion (from a forward-firing loudspeaker). In order to do so, they had to look closely at cabinet design, driver characteristics and the crossover. The goal, according to Ötvös, was to make a true point-source -- something he defines as "having equal radiation in all directions." That design goal led to the selection of the egg-shaped cabinet that holds the midrange and tweeter on all existing Waveform loudspeakers. According to Ötvös, it’s the perfect cabinet design for maximizing dispersion.

Basically, the shape is supposed to get out of the way of the wave and allow the speaker to spread its sound better. While this may seem apparent, it also begs the obvious question -- "Why is dispersion so important?" This goes back to the days of the NRC, where it was found that the best-sounding loudspeakers had wide and even off-axis dispersion. This means that energy is not just concentrated toward the front of the cabinet; it is also evenly dispersed to the sides and around back, although it is impossible to get as much energy to the sides with a front-firing speaker. What’s more, such a speaker doesn’t only disperse horizontally, it does so vertically as well.

While this may seem illogical because the listener sits in front of the speaker, it must be remembered that the speaker is normally played inside a room, where walls, the floor and ceiling all interact with the sound produced. In fact, Floyd Toole has said that room reflections account for more than 60% of the sound we hear at the listening position. As Paul Barton describes: "Sixty-five to seventy degrees off-axis is the ‘second sound’ that is heard. Together with the direct sound, the two combine to form the timbre of the sound for the listener." This is known as the Haas (or Precident) effect.

Ötvös also points out that the egg shape reduces tonal colorations. He makes a convincing argument for this with a simple demonstration. Start speaking and then place your hands flat and directly beside your mouth to simulate a baffle around a speaker. Even with hands flat and in line with your mouth, there is a noticeable change in the sound of your voice, and Ötvös says this is synonymous with colorations in a speaker. Move your hands forward to cup the mouth and it gets worse. Go backward until your hands are flat with your cheeks and it consistently improves.

Raw eggs

While this all sounds fine in theory, actually making the egg proved a more difficult matter. Ötvös tried all kinds of materials, including balsa wood and fiberglass. Before he settled on his current method, he found layered MDF that was put on a lathe to form the shape to be good. However, this was much too time consuming and still didn’t produce the exact result he wanted.

He has now settled on aluminum, which is liquefied and formed as a one-piece casting in a two-piece mold. The "raw" eggs are cast and machined in Mississauga, Ontario. They’re only partially prepared when they get here, however. Ötvös still needs to do plenty of finish work, including powder-coating for final use. When finished, the eggs weigh 27 pounds each and are exceptionally rigid in a way that is ideal for loudspeakers.

Products

Although Waveform started as a single-speaker company, their lineup today is far broader. The current top-of-the-line speaker is the Mach 17. At $8495 USD, the Mach 17 is a formidable speaker that is impressive to look at, the egg perched atop a truncated-pyramid bass enclosure. It’s somewhat unique in the loudspeaker world in that it is a three-way design that uses an active crossover (designed by Bryston). Because the crossover is active at the line level, driving the speakers requires an amplifier for each drive-unit section -- bass, midrange, tweeter. Ötvös prefers identical amplifiers on each section -- to have identical gain (however, the company will work with a prospective buyer to use what they have). In a normal setup, three stereo amps would be used, one amplifier driving the bass, another driving the midrange and another on the tweeters. Other options are obviously possible, such as mono amps (you would need six), or perhaps a single six-channel amplifier.

As for the active crossover, Ötvös and Fortier believe active technology to be better than passive components. This sentiment is echoed by companies like Paradigm, which makes fully active speakers. Proponents of this technology feel that greater crossover precision can be achieved at the line level, and as well, power efficiency from the amplifier is increased because the amplifier now doesn’t have to drive potentially large crossover components -- the power goes straight to the drivers. Still, despite all this technology, the Mach 17 isn’t for everyone.

Knowing that not all consumers would want to put together a multichannel amplifier system to drive the Mach 17, Waveform created the $4535 Mach Solo speaker (Ötvös is seen below left inspecting Solos on his assembly line). It uses a passive crossover and has only a single set of binding posts, meaning only one stereo amplifier is needed. The Solo’s egg enclosure is identical and uses the same 1" Vifa tweeter and 6" Audax midrange driver as used in the Mach 17. However, unlike the dual 12" woofers that provide extension to 20Hz in the larger speaker, the Mach Solo uses a single 10" woofer in a slightly smaller cabinet. The result is a speaker that is very close to the Mach 17, but in Ötvös’ estimation it lacks a bit of the bigger speaker’s bass extension and does not measure quite as well far off-axis. It’s also not quite as efficient. Still, in terms of value, you would be hard-pressed to place it far behind the Mach 17.

Next down the line is the $2170-per-pair Mach MC with the optional MC.1 subwoofers ($2470 per pair). The MC is basically the egg as a bookshelf monitor. It uses the same tweeter, but the midrange is a Vifa unit designed to go deeper into the bass. Like the Solo, the MC also uses a passive crossover and can achieve bass extension to 80Hz before it starts to roll off steeply (measured under anechoic conditions). To achieve full-range bass extension, you can up the ante with the MC.1 subwoofers that use the same bass driver as the Solo. These are passive units with built-in crossovers designed to mate perfectly with the MC. Obviously the price and performance come close to those of the Solo, but each speaker has its own strengths that will make it suitable for different rooms. The MC/MC.1 combination allows the flexibility of placing the satellites in one spot for best imaging and the subwoofers in another for best bass.

Facilities

Waveform speakers are built in a 3000-square-foot factory a few hundred feet from Ötvös’ home. When you walk into the building, you see the large CNC router that is used for precision cutting of MDF for the cabinets. Walk through that room and you end up going through a small hallway with doors on each side. To the left is Ötvös’ office. To the right are the storage rooms for drivers, crossover components and the rest of the parts needed. Straight through and you are into the main production facility.

The production area is very spacious, clean and meticulous in a way that reflects Ötvös’ personality. On the day of my visit, the production line was midway through a run of the Solo speakers. Veneered cabinets were in one part of the room awaiting sanding before finishing. The eggs, in their "raw" state, were in boxes in another area. Waveform, like many highly specialized high-end companies, is small. Ötvös is likely involved in the creation of each loudspeaker and will have significant role in building and inspecting each unit.

As to the creation of each loudspeaker, suffice it to say that there is a lot of fine cabinet work being done. However, it’s probably not as interesting to focus on how each cabinet is built but rather to add some insight into other aspects that go into each loudspeaker’s creation.

In one part of the manufacturing area is an IEC-standardized wall baffle for measuring the "raw" performance of each driver (shown left). Measurements are a key part of the Waveform design, so it stands to reason that measurements for each speaker produced are imperative. This wall is an open-back design, so there is no cabinet reinforcement. The intention here is to mount each speaker that arrives on the wall, record its frequency response, and then store that information in a database. Then, one-by-one, pairs of drivers are matched to each other so their in-cabinet frequency response is as close as possible.

When matching the drivers, Waveform looks primarily at the region where the driver will be operating and less so at the area outside of its operating range (i.e., beyond the crossover region). As pairs of drivers are selected, they are logged for each speaker in which they will reside. One obvious side benefit to all of this is the fact that should a driver fail in the field, Waveform has the specs on hand to send out a matched replacement.

While we toured the facilities, I got into a discussion with Ötvös about driver selection for his speakers. Waveform, after all, has taken some heat from label-conscious audiophiles regarding their use of not-so-esoteric drivers and component parts in their designs. For example, the drivers in the Mach 17 are from Vifa (tweeter), Audax (midrange) and Philips (woofer). Ötvös is direct in his response. He has other drivers on hand (and pulled various ones out of storage to prove it), but the ones he uses "measure better in our designs." Same goes for his component parts in the crossovers. Ötvös feels what he's putting in gives the best performance for the consumer -- regardless of brand name. As well, he's found the drivers to have excellent consistency batch to batch. The question then becomes, "Do you just want to pay for a name or do you want to pay for the best component in a particular design?"

In the middle of one of our many discussions, the shipping company arrived -- there’s no rest in the high-end-audio world. I guess you would call this the end of the line for a pair of speakers. From its small Ontario location, Waveform ships speakers around the world. As with anything, Ötvös is meticulous and prepared. His small forklift carries the well-packaged speaker crates easily to the truck, and in a few moments the speakers are gone.

Versatility

Like all good speakers, the Waveforms can be used for music and home theater. And because all speakers in the line are tonally matched, the consumer can use a variety of the company’s speakers to achieve multichannel sound. If a television is going to be placed in the center, then the MC will likely be the center-channel speaker of choice because it is small and can sit atop or in front of a set (the MC is the only Waveform speaker that is shielded). If you want to create a multichannel-only setup, as Ötvös’ own system is, then the choice may be different. For example, he uses a Mach 17 for the center channel because there is no television in his main room. Other combinations are obviously possible too.

Ötvös has two systems in his home. The main multichannel system has three Mach 17 speakers forming the front, two MCs to each side, and two more MCs in the back (it’s a seven-channel (!) system). In another smaller room with a TV, Ötvös uses five MCs and three MC.1 subwoofers. The second system is primarily used for home-theater viewing and listening. Downstairs he has some pre-production Solos set up in a stereo configuration for the kids' system -- a Waveform family of products for the family, I guess.

The future

During the tour, John Ötvös and I talked as much about speaker building and design as we did about the future of audio. And believe me, Ötvös has many opinions about that future that he’s more than willing to share -- and debate over! What's more, Ötvös' opinions come from that of a music lover far more than a home-theater enthusiast. Certainly he watches and enjoys movies at home; however, his real passion is music, and that is where most of his interest lies.

One of the areas we discussed was the future of multichannel audio-only systems, particularly since Ötvös uses one right now. I personally feel, as does Ötvös, that in the future we will see more and more systems that are like Ötvös’ own reference system. By this I mean three identical speakers across the front (no video screen) and then two or more speakers flanking the sides and/or rear. I even made the comment that "It will be interesting to see the day when manufacturers start selling their main speakers in matched groups of three." This configuration, while scarce today, I predict will be more of a reality in a few years.

Where we differed mainly is an assessment of quality for what exists in the present. Certainly the loudspeakers and amplifiers today are more than up to the task for multichannel music. But what about the processors? Today Ötvös prefers to listen to music in surround -- preferably surround-encoded music, but even stereo music, which he processes with his Lexicon DC-2 as "music surround." (Of course, this doesn't include all music which simply doesn't sound better when forced into surround mode.) Indeed, I listened and can hear what he likes so much. In this mode, there is a vast sense of spaciousness that envelopes the listener. When the sound is adjusted properly, it can be far more involving and intimate than stereo. Center images are locked more tightly to the center position due to the center-channel speaker, which makes off-center listening more pleasurable. Flipping back to stereo, you can hear the image slide forward to the front speaker plane and flatten out considerably. There are problems with all this, though. Compared to high-quality two-channel system, some transparency is lost through the processing -- it’s not as pure of an approach, and it is readily audible. Ötvös agrees but is content to forgive for the other benefits it extends. For myself, hall-like imaging is not necessarily as important as hearing the sound itself perfectly. While we could debate for days which is better, one thing is obvious -- we are far from perfection. This brings us to the next topic.

Where we agree again is on exactly how surround music should be recorded. Placing musicians beside, around or behind the listening position is a big no-no. Still, we’re seeing these "special-effects" type of recordings more and more. Where this sort of thing should be saved for the movies, it is creeping into and destroying the reality that multichannel sound can help bring. Unfortunately, no real surround standards exist, and some recordings seem to be created as if to say, "Gee, look how much sound comes from the surround speakers." As Ötvös says, "The surround channels should be used for hall and ambient information."

One thing is for certain, though: Ötvös' system, with Bryston amplification, sounds terrific. The Mach 17s are full-range loudspeakers capable of large-scale dynamics and wonderful neutrality. Whether played in two-channel stereo or full multichannel surround, they’re stunning. Supplement the sides and rear with the MCs and you have a perfectly matched system. While it’s impossible to make a definitive judgment on the absolute sound quality of a particular component in an unknown system, suffice it to say that the Mach 17s are definitely worthy of a lengthy audition.

And whatever the future holds for audio, I feel confident that Waveform will be there. In fact, in many ways I think they are representative of the future. They may be a small company, but they’re extremely progressive -- active crossovers, state-of-the-art cabinet design, fully matched loudspeakers systems for two-channel and multichannel audio. Waveform’s got it, and right now.

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To find out more about Waveform
visit their website at www.waveform.ca