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High-End Hi-Fi
Handmade in Switzerland

Credo Audio System - Cinema Reference

Big loudspeaker, big room, big sound? Well, not with most high-end speakers available today.
Michael Kraske
The Cinema Reference by Credo Audio
Credo The Cinema Reference Detail
Credo The Cinema Reference Detail
Credo The Cinema Reference Detail
Credo The Cinema Reference Detail
The High-End music- movie- entertainment room
We talk about the dedicated movie- and or music-room. Room size and heights vary extremely, sometimes acoustic treatment of the ceiling is not possible or the big speakers should go behind the screen.

Often the system is used for movies,music,entertainment (TV,Games) and social events. This is a wide variety of applications and source material. The rooms are designed for three- up to ten (or more) persons.

A entertainment room as described above is a complex and demanding project. It’s a mix of high-end Hi-Fi and a movie theater. Often the used equipment reflects this mix.

  • High-End speakers, not suitable for movies or big rooms with several listeners
  • Semi- or professional theater-speakers, not suitable for small rooms and / or music
  • In-wall speakers, designed for neither of the applications
So we thought about the specifications such a speaker need to fulfill, here are some important ones:
The design goal:
  • Able to play at low and high SPL (sound pressure level)
  • Both with very low harmonic- and intermodulation distortion
  • Clean step- and impulse response
  • Full linear frequency response (20 - 32 kHz)
  • Linear and sooth impedance response
  • Minimum phase response
  • Production of a large sound field
  • Correct perspective
  • Cylindrical sound emission
  • Correct directivity-index DI
  • Modular system, to fit several rooms and layouts
Several years under development, our product designer Michael Kraske combined a whole bouquet of new ideas, existing „Credo developments“, state-of-the-art driver technology and implemented some of the latest line array technologies.

Not yet another line-source: We have solutions to bring the line array design, which was developed for PA (public area) use, into a home environment. Unlike the simple straight-line-array designs available in the High-End market today, we address the well known „Line-array problems“. Which are:

  • Extreme lobes at lower frequencies (200 Hz - 2 kHz)
  • Drop (decreasing) of high-frequencies (on-axis)
  • Rippled and non-linear off-axis frequency response
  • Extreme horizontal directivity at high frequencies (+/- 5° above 8 kHz)

Thanks to our proprietary crossover design, the unique AMT tweeter from MUNDORF and an outstanding 6.5“ mid woofer from ScanSpeak, we achieved the ultimate goal for a speaker, to perform extreme fine dynamics at very low and also at very high SPL. Distortion is kept extremely low at any SPL!

The „Cinema Reference“ is a modular, passive filtered two-way design completed with active subwoofers. The mid-woofers are high-pass filtered, allowing them to perform perfectly at low distortion level down to 35 Hz. For the Subwoofer we use a 9“ ScanSpeak driver with aluminum cone in a closed cabinet. A combination of passive and DSP filters adapts the Subwoofer perfectly to the rest of the speaker. The number of subwoofers is depending on the room size and required power-handling. Later in 2016 a model with 13" ScanSpeak driver will be available.
We developed a brand-new cabinet and front baffle layout, to actually adapt the line-array technology for home-use and to stay within the tight driver layout. Ultimate rigidity of the cabinet was achieved, although we kept the box-size as small as possible! Thanks to the investment into our two CNC machining-centers, all parts are developed and made in-house.

The modular design of the speaker-system makes it possible to get the correct set-up for each room, exactly fulfilling the customers needs. Unlike to similar designs it is possible, without any problem, to use any High-End amplifiers already owned by the customer or to use additional amps that are available on the market. Our speaker- and crossover design offers very high efficiency and linear impedance response, so even lower power amplifiers will perform extremely well also at high SPL!

Of course you should also consider our Credo Amplifiers as well.
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Specifications (per module):


  • Chassis: 2 x 6.5" AMT tweeter; 4 x 6.5“ mid woofer sliced paper
  • Tuning: Bass reflex (side)
  • Crossover: Two-way proprietary filter-topology (external!)
  • Frequency response: 34 Hz - 20 kHz, +/ -3dB, additional 2 dB SPL for 2 - 20 kHz selectable
  • Sensitivity: 91.7 dB SPL @ 2.83V @ 1m
  • Impedance: nominal 6 Ohm, minimal 4.1 Ohm at 42 Hz
  • Recommended amplifier output per channel: 70 - ∞ W RMS
  • Weight: 45 kg per pc. without packing
  • Size (h x d x w): 44 cm x 37 cm x 67 cm
What's Different?
Let's see what is actually different to our existing Credo speakers:

Production of a large sound field, correct perspective, cylindrical sound emission, directivity-index:

How to you steer sound and define the size of the sound-image?

Most speakers in Hi-Fi, also high-end, are point-source designed. Since the sound spreads spherical, it would be ideal a single point is the source of all frequencies. In praxis this is not possible - we need different drivers in different sizes to reproduce sound. In addition, no driver has perfect omnidirectional characteristics, sound focusing (directivity) appears with increasing frequency and cone-size.

Lets see how a high-performance point-source speaker behaves in an acoustically optimized room. This model features a horn-driver to address sound more specific. You can clearly see how the directivity appears with increasing frequency. You can also see how reflexions affect the dispersion.
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How can we fix that?
The technology by its self is not new. But it was never correctly adapted for high-end speakers used in a home-environment!

An other kind of sound source: The line array. They are used for large rooms and listening distances, often in concerts, halls, stadiums, theaters etc. Also some high-end speakers use the principal of the straight line-array, often in a very basic way, but with some advantages.

• Creation of sound-fields
• Definable in size and directivity
• Dramatical less reflections in the room
• Less waste of energy, absorbed by acoustic treatment

A line array is a group of radiating elements arrayed in a straight line, closely spaced and operating with equal amplitude and in phase. How do simple line Arrays work?

Line arrays achieve directivity through constructive and destructive interference.

Consider a speaker comprising a single twelve-inch cone radiator in an enclosure. As we have seen, this speaker’s directivity varies with frequency: at low frequencies, it is omni-directional; as the sound wavelength grows shorter, its directivity narrows; and above about 2 kHz, it becomes too beamy for most applications. This is why practical system designs employ crossovers and multiple elements to achieve more or less consistent directivity across the audio band.

Stacking two of these speakers one atop the other and driving both with the same signal results in a different radiation pattern. At points on-axis of the two, there is constructive interference, and the sound pressure increases by 6 dB relative to a single unit. At other points off-axis, path length differences produce cancellation, resulting in a lower sound pressure level. In fact, if you drive both units with a sine wave, there will be points where the cancellation is complete. This is destructive interference, which is often referred to as combing.

A line array is a line of woofers carefully spaced so that constructive interference occurs on-axis of the array and destructive interference (combing) is aimed to the sides. While combing has traditionally been considered undesirable, line arrays use combing to work: without combing, there would be no directivity.

Lets see how a large, professional line-array behaves. At low frequencies we see similar, omnidirectional characteristics, which correlates with the long wavelength. So we only look at higher frequencies. Starting at 500 Hz:
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