At first glance, you may only see a rather massive woofer, but as you begin to analyze the technology and the performance envelope of a 10W73, you will realize that they are much more than just another big SPL speaker. For JL Audio, designing a pure SPL speaker, with no regard to sound quality, would have presented a far lesser challenge than the one they chose to undertake with the W7 project. The goal was to design subwoofer drivers that deliver immense output with an extremely high level of fidelity.
It wouldn't be enough for the speaker to sound great or be loud, it had to do both. This goal required JL Audio to develop a deeper understanding of the inner behavior of speakers, new and proprietary modeling systems and six new, patented or patent-pending technologies. They could have made a good-sounding, big speaker without going through any of this effort, but they chose to stretch their limits and devote the time and resources necessary to create a real breakthrough.
The final product is a completely original design from surround to back-plate, requiring a significant tooling investment for all of the component parts. Each W7 (8-inch version to 13.5-inch version) is a completely unique design and shares no major parts with its siblings. Each motor and each suspension system is specifically designed and tuned for each driver. If you consider the preceding, along with the fact that every part of every W7 (even the bolts and screws used to assemble the speaker), has been purpose-designed and manufactured to JL Audio's specifications, you begin to get a firm idea of their commitment to this product. All W7 subwoofers are built to exacting quality standards that JL Audio is famous for.
The Key Technologies of JL Audio's W7 Woofers:
Highly Linear, DMA Optimized Motor System
DMA is JL Audio's proprietary Dynamic Motor Analysis system and is aimed at improving dynamic motor behavior. As a result of DMA optimization, W7 motors remain linear in motor force over an extreme range of excursion and also maintain a highly stable fixed magnetic field in the gap over a wide power range. This leads to vastly reduced distortion and faithfully reproduced transients... or put simply: tight, clean, articulate bass.
Ultra-Long Voice Coil
To allow extreme linear excursion, phenomenal power handling and control, control, control.
W-Cone™
The W-Cone™ is a unit-body cone assembly that delivers astonishing cone stiffness with minimal mass. The shape also provides incredible torsional rigidity, which is critical to maintaining voice coil alignment at the suspension limits.
OverRoll™ Surround
By utilizing space wasted in conventional speakers, this ground-breaking innovation controls the W7's massive excursion without sacrificing precious cone area.
Elevated Frame Cooling
The elevated frame design of the W7 delivers cool air through slots directly above the top-plate to the voice coil of the speaker. This not only enhances power handling, but also sound quality by minimizing dynamic parameter shifts and power compression.
Radially Cross-Drilled Pole-Piece
This innovative venting system greatly enhances thermal dissipation and power handling by directing air flow onto the voice coil former and works in conjunction with the Elevated Frame cooling technology to effectively remove heat from the voice coil. This improves power handling and reduces power compression effects, leading to more linear performance.
Floating Cone Attach Method (FCAM™)
This assembly technique, conceived by JL Audio, ensures proper surround geometry in the assembled speaker for better excursion control and dynamic voice coil alignment.
Plateau-Reinforced Spider Attachment
A derivative of JL Audio's famous VRC technology, this bulletproof suspension attachment relieves stress from the spider material at high excursions for enhanced reliability.
Huge Diameter, Progressive-Roll Spider
The result of intense computer analysis and optimization, W7 spiders provide precise control and motor/voice coil alignment without prematurely limiting excursion.
Co-Extruded, Double Lead-Wires
The extruded casing and carefully engineered attachments ensure controlled lead-wire behavior under the most extreme excursion demands. Two conductors are used per connection for ample current carrying capability.
