Wes Phillips

Sort By:  Post Date TitlePublish Date
Wes Phillips
Not Quite What I Expected
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  5 comments
I don't quite know what I expected, but YGA's "factory" was not what I expected. I put factory in quotes because that sounds all automated and industrial, whereas YG's speakers are essentially built by hand. The speakers are constructed of aircraft grade 6061 T651 aluminum and the baffles are milled out of ballistic-grade aluminum/titanium alloy. On the day I arrived, the factory was being prepped for the delivery of a huge CNC station and a ceiling-mounted crane system to move large sheets of stock from station to station. At the moment, large panels are turned into speaker-sized parts by an outside contractor, but Geva prefers to do everything in-house so that he can assure himself that things are done to his specifications.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Accuracy!
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  3 comments
Geva believes that measurements don't lie—well, he allows that they can fib, but that a competent engineer should be able to interpret them with great accuracy. He uses aluminum and ballistic allow instead of wood or MDF, he said, because they are the "most resonant free, deadest, stiffest, strongest, least diffractive, and most sonically desirable materials ever found."
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Now That's a Tweeter!
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  4 comments
Made by ScanSpeak, designed by Geva and ScanSpeak's engineers. "The motor, voice coil assembly, and membrane incorporate our most advanced technology." It is assembled in-house at YGA's factory.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Tweet Tweet
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  1 comments
The other side of the tweeter assembly.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Woof Woof
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  0 comments
The woofer for the Anat Ref Pro and Studio II is also an exclusive YGA design. "From the voice coil to the surround and cone, the woofer is the ultimate expression of what can be produced for our enclosures and sub-amp technology."
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Subwoofer Amp Assembly
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  4 comments
The Anat Reference Professional incorporates a powered subwoofer. This is the amp module.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
World's Largest Capacitor?
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  4 comments
Every time I passed the parts bin with this bad boy in it, I did a double take. Man, that's big!
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Finishing a Panel
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  1 comments
This precision sander puts the lovely exterior finish on the Anat's panels. Yes, the machine does the grunt work, but factory manager Roger Wertz supervises the entire time with his hand on a deadman's switch.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Crossover
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  3 comments
It's an acoustic fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley, crossing over at 1.75kHz, if you're keeping score at home.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
The Other Side
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  0 comments
More crossover naughty bits.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Anechoic Chamber
Wes Phillips  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  5 comments
YGA gets its open air measurements by lifting the speaker under measurement away from that pesky floor boundary with a forklift.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Pratchett and Gaiman: Together Again
Wes Phillips  |  Jun 17, 2008  |  0 comments
At Waterstone's website, Neil Gaiman interviews Terry Pratchett. If that isn't enough to whet your interest, the interview is accompanied by excellent Paul Kidby illustrations.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
Louis Armstrong's Mix-Tape Art
Wes Phillips  |  Jun 16, 2008  |  0 comments
When I visited The Louis Armstrong Archives a few years ago to visit archivist Michael Cogswell, Cogswell escorted me back into the stacks to show me Armstrong's collection of 650 open-reel tapes, almost all of which sported collages assembled by the great trumpeter. More than touching his trumpet, I felt a direct connection to Armstrong viewing (and hearing) his mix tapes—Satchmo was one of us!
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
The Specter Haunting Pop Music
Wes Phillips  |  Jun 04, 2008  |  9 comments
Sasha Frere-Jones has a fascinating article in the June 9 The New Yorker about Antares's Auto-Tune software. In case you aren't familiar with it, Auto-Tune is pitch correction software that is used almost universally in contemporary pop recordings—sometimes just to "fix" an off note, increasingly frequently as an effect in its own right.
Continue Reading »
Wes Phillips
This You Must Read
Wes Phillips  |  May 31, 2008  |  2 comments
Having visited China and witnessed the building boom firsthand, I must admit that I suspected corners were being cut in construction—so I wasn't surprised by how many buildings came down. Considering all the construction accidents happening in NYC this year, who am I to look askance at China?
Continue Reading »

Pages

X