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ably to other designs in which the voice coil is buried inside a massive piece of
metal, where the heat has effectively no place to go.
The excellent heat dissipation of these drivers makes them remarkably reliable.
Planar magnetic speakers can handle a great deal of power without undue stress
or audible strain. In fact, for a given size, they can handle many times the power
of a traditional dynamic driver.
Easy on amplifiers
Because the conductor of a planar magnetic driver is essentially a long, thin
wire, it presents a purely resistive load to the amplifier. This is comparable to the
simple test loads that amplifier companies use when measuring their amplifiers
to show how terrific they are. As such, you can be assured that your amplifiers
will sound and work their best.
Line source behavior
Almost all loudspeakers radiate sound into the room as imperfect “point
sources.” This means that most of the energy they put into the room expands as
an ever-enlarging sphere, as though emerging from a single point in space. This
results in a multitude of reflections from the ceiling and floor that can degrade
sound quality.
By contrast, the Insight Series L8i speakers radiate sound as a “line source.” The
sound moves into the room as an expanding cylinder, rather than as an expand-
ing sphere — as though from a vertical line drawn on your wall.
Line source speakers provide two significant advantages:
• ceiling and floor reflections are minimized, resulting in greatly re-
duced interference, letting you hear more of the speaker and less
of the room;
