The Noizeworks - Gigging Musician. Gigging Musician Issue 1 | Page 7

Speaker Corner The Noizeworks Loudspeaker 'Skunkworks' and GSS Speaker Systems. A couple of years ago we set up The Noizeworks loudspeaker 'Skunkworks' to develop a range of loudspeaker products, kits, systems and components that would offer the performance of products many times the price. Permanently disappointed by the far Eastern products in this sector, we thought we could come up with something much better. So rather than source and re-badge a standard far Eastern product range, we've been designing, testing and developing our own range of products. Products that sound more like high end PA speakers from the top western manufacturers rather than cheaper far eastern products. But at affordable prices, for use with mixer/amps and powered mixer combinations as well as larger systems. Speakers that can be used for permanently installed systems and grass-roots music venues as well as portable/touring rigs. By taking this approach, we are able to not only offer finished loudspeaker systems, but we can also offer the systems in kit form so clients can 'resurrect' broken or damaged speaker boxes, or use the designs to build their systems from scratch. The data we've compiled can also be used to advise clients that build their own loudspeakers on component selection and use. The idea was to not only design and build the products, but to also chart the story and the design decisions we took to offer an interesting insight into the story of the products and the design process and offer complete transparency on the decisions and compromises made. The first mission we embarked upon was to build the best sounding sub £500/pair ish 1 2" PA loudspeaker possible. The result is the GSS ONE 350 Watt (RMS) 1 2" PA loudspeaker. The story of this system can be found on our blog and to say we're peased with the results is an understatement. Our first production pair are now on demo at our facility in Rainham, Essex. So come and take a listen, we can't wait to show you them. Great for portable music and vocal applications as well as permanent install projects, the GSS delivers a transparent, clear sound that will do justice to your art. The GSS ONE is also available in kit form without the enclosure and horn flare. So if you're in possession of an old or broken pair of 1 x 1 2's, you can resurrect them with a pair of GSS ONE KIT s. Each kit contains a woofer, 1 " compression driver, and the all important passive crossover network and wiring. The compression driver is available in either bolt on or threaded types so it can be used with both types of horn flare fittings. We also have a range of horn flares available should you also need these. The only thing better than hearing your favourite tracks through a pair of GSS ONE s is hearing them alongside a pair of GSS TWO 1 5" 600 Watt subwoofers. In the process of developing the GSS TWO , we dicovered that the low frequency drive unit market is full of highly disappointing products. Low efficiency, low power handling products that simply don't deliver or 'keep up' with efficient mid/high systems. This problem was solved when we fitted an Eminence Kappa 1 5LF unit to the test enclosure. Powerful and efficient, the Kappa 1 5LF delivers tight, powerful low frequency output in spades even in a relatively compact enclosure. Some fine tuning of the enclosure ports, and we were all set. The emergence of affordable lightweight power amplifiers by the likes of Peavey, Crown and QSC has made high quality passive speaker systems a much more viable proposition for many clients and we have packages built around these combinations. More info at www.thenoizeworks.co.uk