Test Bench: The LT2 Ribbon Transducer and Waveguide from Radian Audio Engineering

For this Test Bench, Vance Dickason characterized the LT2 Ribbon Transducer and corresponding waveguide from Radian Audio Engineering. This is effectively a smaller version of the LT6 ribbon transducer reviewed in the July 2020 issue of Voice Coil, but offering much more diverse possibilities, as Vance Dickason discovers. And as the compact LT2 shows, this was designed to be more of a hi-fi or home theater substitute for any high frequency driver. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, August 2020.

The BMS 4507ND is a unique transducer that uses a neodymium coaxial compression driver to drive a planar waveguide intended for use in line arrays. BMS Speakers patented the two-way compression driver technology in 1997. This month’s Test Bench subject, the 6.5” 4507ND features a 300-Hz to 22-kHz bandwidth (6 to 22 kHz for the tweeter and 400 Hz to 6.3 kHz for the midrange). The rectangular planar waveguide is optimized for 0° to 15° vertical dispersion and up to 120° in the horizontal plane. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2014.