Industry Update
By Wes Phillips October 10, 2005 — Peter Madnick, alchemist: Designer Peter Madnick is bringing new life to a classic audio marque with his new Alchemy² line of components. The reference, for audiophiles with short memories, is to the now defunct Audio Alchemy line, for which he designed so many products. Alchemy² employs Madnick's original engineering staff and has established a goal to "address the enthusiast market with cool little boxes designed to solve problems and enhance system enjoyment." That sounds familiar.

Alchemy²'s first product will be the D²L Digital Delay Line ($399), which is inserted between a digital source and a home-theater surround-sound processor in order to correct the lip-sync delay introduced by so many video processors (corrects up to 256 milliseconds of audio delay). In the near future, Madnick will also be releasing an audio de-jittering box—"significantly better than any of our DTI era products, that will help both CDs and DVD-As and the audio part of DVDs." Also in the works is a multichannel preamplifier.

Contact: Alchemy², 3533 Old Conejo Rd., Newbury Park, CA 91320. Tel: (805) 647-7875. Web: www.alchemy2.com .

Canton's new Ergo: Canton announced this week that it has begun shipping re-designed versions of its acclaimed Ergo series of loudspeakers (the Ergo Vento 802 DC was reviewed in June 2005). There are new drivers and crossovers, as well as the "most significant changes in the line's cabinet design in 20 years."

All of the full-range models in the Ergo line now employ an update on the ADT-25 aluminum-manganese dome tweeter, including a newly flared transmission front plate, designed to improve high-frequency dispersion and off-axis linearity, and increase driver efficiency by 2—3dB overall. The driver's surround has been tweaked to reduce distortion and lower susceptibility to break-up modes, according to the company. The end result, Canton says, "extends the tweeter's effective operating range all the way out to 40kHz while simultaneously decreasing distortion."

The bass and midrange drivers feature re-designed motor systems, newly developed sinusoidal surrounds, and improved spiders, "leading to 60–100% increases in excursion capabilities, and a 6–9dB increase in deep bass output for all Ergo bass and midrange cone drivers."

Cabinet changes include the addition of bottom plates to the floorstanding models, which is said to improve isolation from the floor, as well as curved front baffles for all Ergo models, "dramatically reducing deleterious edge effects for improved off-axis dispersion characteristics and linear frequency response."

The improved models are: Ergo 611 DC ($4000/pair), Ergo 609 DC ($3200/pair), and Ergo 607 DC ($2400/pair) floorstanders; Ergo 605 CM ($1000/each) center channel speaker; Ergo 603 ($1600/pair) and 602 ($1400/pair) compact speakers; Ergo 601 Low Profile On-Wall Speaker ($1000/pair); and the Ergo AS 650 SC Powered Subwoofer ($2000).