Radian LM10n Planar Ribbon Tested by Voice Coil
August 17, 2024
2 min read
In his article for Voice Coil Vance Dickason explores why the Radian LM10n Planar Ribbon is one of the most interesting drivers currently available in the market!"Radian Audio Engineering is a pro sound driver OEM known for its great sounding compression and coax drivers, several of which have been featured in Test Bench over the years, including the 1.4" 835PB aluminum diaphragm compression driver featured in the February 2020 issue. However, the sample sent to Voice Coil for this month's Test Bench explication was neither a compression driver nor a coax, but one of Radian’s latest planar transducers, the wide band LM10n midrange ribbon driver shown in Photo 1. Voice Coil has featured two of the Radian planar ribbon devices in previous issues, specifically the Radian LT6 (June 2020) and the Radian LT2 (August 2020)."While the smaller Radian planar drivers’ obvious application includes use in home audio systems, they are also intended as a substitute for small 0.5” to 0.75” compression drivers when combined with the Radian bolt on waveguides. However, the LM10n is described as a wide range 120Hz to 20kHz ribbon transducer (so far, no waveguide is available) or as a midrange planar transducer when combined with a smaller ribbon device like the Radian LT2.It is interesting to note that all the Radian ribbon high-frequency devices were designed by 35-year loudspeaker engineering veteran Igor Levitsky. Levitsky began designing planar ribbon drivers and speakers in the former Soviet Union in 1986 as a young engineer after graduating from Kiev Technical University in electroacoustics. Beginning in 1995, Levitsky worked with Hi-Vi Research where he developed a complete production process for manufacturing ribbon diaphragms. Over the next 20 years Levitsky developed planar ribbon drivers and speaker systems for the consumer market for BG Radia (acquired by Christie Digital in 2014) and for the pro market with SLS Audio (acquired by Dolby in 2014).Levitsky also worked with Oppo and Dai-ichi on the development of the award-winning Oppo PM1 and PM3 planar magnetic headphones. He joined Radian Audio in 2018 with the goal of bringing the latest planar ribbon technology innovations to the pro sound market. Levitsky holds a total of six patents on planar ribbon driver and speaker design.
Features for the LM10n wide bandwidth ribbon transducer include a FEA-optimized symmetric push-pull neodymium magnet motor structure, an advanced polymer diaphragm, thermally conductive polymer frames, constant directivity in the horizontal plane, a continuous power handling of 70W AES with a 200W short-term IEC power handing, a 150Hz recommended high-pass crossover frequency (with a minimum 12dB/octave high-pass network), and a 2.83V/1m 94dB sensitivity. This is a fairly large ribbon and measures approximately 255mm (10”) × 116mm (4.6”) and can be utilized in both open-back (dipole) and closed-back (monopole) formats.Check the full Voice Coil articleavailable online here.
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