F.A.Q

The first thing to note is that musical instruments are not all made of wood: saxophones, trumpets, cymbals, drums… are enough to demonstrate this.

In the case of a wooden instrument, such as a guitar or a violin, it is important to keep in mind that the body contributes to the tonality of the instrument by vibrating harmoniously.

In a speaker, it is the excitation of the speakers, not the body, that reproduces the musical signal: when the cabinet of the speaker begins to vibrate, the quality of the reproduction immediately suffers. To achieve excellent wooden speakers, many reinforcements are often used to stiffen the body.

One of the solutions most appreciated by purists is the creation of sandwich walls filled with sand, a particularly dense & inert material… and glass is made from sand!

The advantage of a glass speaker, apart from the obvious aesthetic aspect, is the extreme density of the body: no vibration of the structure of the speaker alters the quality of the sound reproduction.

The glass used in our speakers is systematically tempered (also known as safety glass). Waterfall’s acoustic speakers are the result of advanced research and technology requiring the use of specific adhesives with very low machining tolerances. These adhesives ensure very high mechanical resistance to the assemblies (250 Kg/cm2 in shear).

No acoustic treatment is applied to the glass itself. The operation of the speakers in a reflective structure such as glass is made possible thanks to our patented technology “Jet Stream”

It is clear that Waterfall is a pioneer in this field. While it is true that glass is a very dense material, it is nonetheless reflective, which is a challenge in the design of the speaker because the energy radiated inside the cabinet by the back of the speakers must be dampened. To dampen this energy, manufacturers line the inside of the cabinet with a dampening material, which in this case defeats the purpose of having a transparent speaker.

The challenge, therefore, is to dampen the internal energy without using any dampening material, something seemingly irreconcilable.

The secret to the functioning of glass speakers lies in the “Jet Stream” technology. The principle is simple: rather than dampening the energy on the walls of the speaker, it is just as effective to dampen it at its source, in this case right behind the speakers.

The Jet Stream loading system is placed behind the bass/midrange drivers and performs three main functions:

1. Control of the damping of midrange frequencies thanks to the integrated damping chamber.
2. The “Hydraulic Damping” function; by behaving like a hydraulic damper at low frequencies, the technology effectively controls excessive membrane excursions, significantly reducing distortion in this area while increasing mechanical power handling.
3. Perfect mechanical decoupling of the Bass-Midrange Speaker from the glass structure.

This technology is applied to the three glass column models: Iguasçu XT, Victoria XT, Niagara XT1, Niagara XT2 and Niagara XT3.

The entire range is designed around the principle of acoustic homogeneity; each Waterfall speaker possesses the same timbre coherence with very high spatial precision (sound image). What varies as you move up the range are primarily the abilities to respond to low frequencies and the capabilities of pure acoustic pressure. In other words, it is the quantity that varies, not the quality.

It is therefore perfectly possible to create home cinema packs with the different speakers in the range. It is simply necessary, during the setting of your installation (see our manuals and those of your audio/video processor), to compensate for the differences in efficiency and frequency response between the speakers.

Your choice will essentially be guided by your integration criteria and the size of the room. We invite you to consult the individual sheets of each product to check its adequacy with your specifications.

The electrical power handling (excluding amplifier saturation) of a speaker is related to the temperature tolerance of its voice coil and its ability to dissipate this temperature. Waterfall uses Teflon voice coil supports on all its speakers, which can withstand a temperature of 250°C. The heat generated by the coil is dissipated through the magnet; once it reaches saturation temperature, the speaker is at risk of destruction.

Waterfall Audio has developed Heatstream technology to significantly improve the dissipation potential of the speakers:

This patented technology allows for exceptional power handling by optimally dissipating the excess heat from the voice coil through coupling the motor with the speaker’s aluminum alloy cabinet. The speaker thus serves as a cooler.

To compensate for the small size of the speakers, we use Neodymium magnetization on our wall speakers. This material allows obtaining an extremely high magnetic flux with small magnets, thus providing excellent efficiency.

Waterfall Audio speakers are guaranteed for 5 years Parts & Labor and our amplifiers and the electronics of the subwoofers are guaranteed for 2 years.