In recent years, "Guochao" has become a new popular trend, especially in the field of domestic audio, "Elvis Audio" founded by Mr. Zeng Dejun, a well-known Chinese sound designer, has become one of the representatives of "Guochao × Audio". Elvis Presley continues to conquer intelligent technology and continue to create wireless audio products with both sentiment and high sound quality, while Mr. Zeng Dejun also runs "Desert Island Radio" with friends and continues to crowdfund different types of audio products.
From audio products to music culture, Mr. Zeng Dejun has done enough in the public eye. But in fact, in the past 16 years, he has been constantly exploring the dream pursuit of natural and comfortable musical artistic expression of speakers; On the last day of 2022, the ideal sound he chased finally ushered in the moment of "fulfilling his dream", that is, the set in the picture - small baffle Hi-End speaker No. 0, codenamed "Prometheus".
More than 40 years of precipitation, deep cultivation in the industry
Zeng Dejun, as a veteran of China's audio industry, has been deeply cultivating in the industry for more than 40 years, insisting on innovative exploration, and standing at the head of the tide, whether it is Hi-FI or consumer-grade audio products, he has always insisted on exploring and innovating, which is led by Elvis founder Zeng Dejun's deep feelings and unremitting efforts in the audio industry, even after 5 ups and downs in entrepreneurship, as a generation of audio people and entrepreneurs, It has always maintained an indomitable spirit of exploration and sincerity for the development of the audio industry.
There may be many friends who are still relatively unfamiliar with Mr. Zeng Dejun's past experience, here is a brief summary of the path he has taken after entering the audio industry——
- In 1964 he saw the radio for the first time and assembled his own ore radio that year. Every year after that, he would assemble a more "advanced" radio, and in those days he became a radio maintenance master in a small county.
- 1971-1974 Maintenance manager at the secondary school radio station
- 1974-1976 During the rural area, he took the lead in establishing the radio station of the rural production brigade, realizing that the team had big speakers in the fields and small speakers in every household
- In 1978, he was rated as an excellent technical innovation expert in the army, and went from Qinghai to Beijing to participate in the science and technology conference of the Second Artillery Corps, and then transferred to Beijing to do communication and audio product design
- 1979 As a designer, he designed two generations of FM receiver audio equipment and wireless microphones. Thus began his career as a sound designer
- From 1984 to 1990, he led the research and development of China's first high-fidelity analog acoustic system for strategic missile simulation equipment. This gave him the opportunity to systematically learn and apply hi-fi theory (this project was used for strategic missile simulation training and teaching, and the project won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and the special prize for military science and technology progress)
- 1986-1991 Design of a series of hi-fi gallbladder machines in Xi'an (about 20 different varieties)
- In 1992, he came to Shenzhen on behalf of the unit to start a business, and as a designer in Shenzhen Yinyao Electronics Co., Ltd., he designed China's first commercial Hi-Fi bile machine SAP-50T
- In 1993, Shenzhen Vickers Electronics Co., Ltd. was founded and designed the VAA-70 bile machine kit (this kit became the textbook for the entry bile machine that year)
- In 1994, he founded the Dajidian brand, focusing on high-quality Hi-Fi gallbladder machines. After the establishment of the company, a series of classic bile machine products were designed, which basically led the development direction of the domestic bile machine market that year
- In 1995, Zeng Dejun participated in the CES Hi-Fi Show with the dream of internationalization of Chinese audio, which was the first time that Chinese Hi-Fi audio companies participated in the CES Hi-Fi Show
- In 1997, the first domestic Hi-Fi CD player design leader
- 1998 For policy reasons, the company ceased operations and returned to the university to continue teaching. He then switched to multimedia audio studies
- In 1998, he served as a consultant of Shenzhen Sannuo Company
- In 1999, he led several Chinese HI-Fi audio companies to participate in the CES Hi-Fi Show, and in 1999, he designed the world's first tube multimedia active audio
- 2000 Served as a consultant of Zhuhai Huiwei Company and Beijing Rambler Company (currently listed enterprises)
- 2000 Graduate student, School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University
- In 2002, he became the director of TCL Audio Technology Research Institute, leading the design of home theater audio systems
- In 2003, Shenzhen Jidian Technology Co., Ltd. was established, mainly engaged in high-end multimedia speakers
- 2003 Launched the first Hi-Fi class tube multimedia speaker
- In 2004, after buying hundreds of German, European, American and Japanese radios from the 50s and 60s of the last century, he began to design a log 2-band radio (the predecessor of Elvis 2) for himself
- 2007 Served as R&D director, product director and marketing director of Shenzhen Fenda Company (now a listed company)
- In 2010, he served as the chief engineer of Shenzhen Yinbo Electronics Co., Ltd
- 2010 Established Shenzhen Yundong Chuangxiang Technology Co., Ltd., focusing on intelligent audio software (intelligent audio operating system)
- In 2010, I made myself a 4-band super large desktop radio as a gift for myself
- In 2011, he founded the Xuandao Hi-Fi audio brand, and designed the Xuanzhen No. 1 landing Hi-Fi speaker and the Xuanzhen No. 2 bookshelf Hi-Fi speaker
- In 2012, he completed the research and engineering prototype of his favorite Hi-Fi small baffle cabinet without cabinet high-fidelity speaker
- In 2013, he led the development and production of China's first smart speaker (360 dongdong).
- In 2014, he led the formulation of the standard team leader of the "Intelligent Audio Interconnection Transmission Protocol" (group standard, released in 2015).
- In 2014, he guided the research and development of JD.com's "Dingdong" smart speaker
- In 2015, Elvis Presley Radio and Elvis Presley Audio brand Elvis 2 were launched
- In 2016, Elvis Presley Little Prince and Elvis Little Prince OTR products were successfully launched, and millions of units have been sold since their launch
- In 2017, he led the formulation of the national "Intelligent Audio Interconnection Transmission Protocol" (the national standard came into effect on November 1, 2017) and served as the leader of the standard team
- 2017 Elvis Audio Innovation and R&D OhPlay Elvis Miaobo software and hardware integrated technology, won the CES Innovation Award twice (2017, 2021) (so far, Zeng Dejun and Elvis Audio have won a total of 8 CES Innovation Awards)
An antique radio from Mr. Tsang's collection
More than 40 years of accumulation has given Mr. Zeng Dejun a set of his own cognition of music, sound and value——
Cognition of music: Music is Zeng Dejun's "soul mate", he said: sunshine, air, water and music constitute his life, music is the breath and expression of human emotions, everyone deserves the joy of life brought by listening to music.
Cognition of sound: good sound is the artistic reproduction of sound, the pursuit of high-fidelity audio product design is the direction pursued by sound designers, and then further explore the essence of audio, he believes that "sound is the means of performance of music content being perceived by people, and the essence of sound is a channel for transmitting emotions".
For hi-fi sound, in addition to better reflecting the real state of music source recording, he believes that there should be a deeper understanding. The biggest difference between Hi-End sound and Hi-Fi audio is not in technology and indicators, but in artistic cognition.
Recognition of value: Whether it is an individual or an enterprise, Zeng Dejun believes that before considering commercial success, what needs to be considered is what value the industry brings to the society and users, and has been engaged in the industry for more than 40 years, always insisting on doing "different" things, doing creative things, opening up to vision and mentality, constantly learning and improving, seeking breakthroughs, facing the challenges of time cycle and social changes, always adhering to long-term value and strategic determination, and not rushing to pursue short-term business success.
Looking back on the development of "Cloud Innovation" in the past ten years
Founded in 2010, Mr. Zeng Dejun devoted a lot of effort to creating a new form of Hi-Fi speakers and smart speakers with Internet thinking, but because of the popularity of Elvis Presley's radio, he saw the love of Chinese young people for audio, which also affirmed his determination on the importance of product design. Once Wu Xiaobo took Chinese craftsmen to Japan for exchange, and when Japanese young people saw Elvis Presley's products, they couldn't like them. So at that time, I knew that the design language was common, and good things must be recognized by humans. So Elvis has repeatedly occupied the first place on the Tmall and JD retro speaker rankings, which I think is not strange at all, and it is also normal.
The showroom of "Cloud Motion Creation" displays audio boutiques from various eras, showing the history of audio development from a technical point of view.
As a sound designer, Zeng Dejun has designed hundreds of products that are loved by audio enthusiasts. The above pictures are some of the representative works
"Yundong Chuangxiang" has devoted a lot of thought to discovering the characteristics and design codes of previous audio products, using new audio technology and production technology to resurrect these former audio boutiques, and creating functions and content with the consumption habits of young people, and the company has also continuously expanded its own young team.
Mr. Zeng Dejun once said that good audio products: the first is to look good, the ultimate grasp of the user's heart, with emotional design to transmit, reflect the user's emotional resonance of a product; The second is to be easy to use, easy to use is the ultimate experience, that is, simple and easy to use, no manual, like Apple, it has created such an era; The third is to sound good, for an audio product, we must make it extremely good; The fourth is to be fun, especially like the current users, their multi-scene and multi-directional needs, that is, the product is not only used to use, may be used to see, used to place, and even used to make social currency, in this case, the four points of the product well, may really be able to make users satisfied.
Industry value mission drives forward
Zeng Dejun and his founding Elvis Audio as a part of China's audio industry, not only to do a good job themselves, but also look forward to making their own possible contributions (even a little) in the future-oriented development of the industry, and at the same time as a Chinese audio brand adhere to the sustainable development route with independent core technology.
To this end, what Elvis Audio has done and is doing is -
1. Establish standards - national intelligent audio national standards
2. Establish industry alliances - set up smart audio industry branches and intellectual property alliances to develop together and promote the prosperity of the industry ecology
3. New breakthrough in technology - breakthrough in professional audio technology + technological innovation: With 10 years to lay out the unique connection of "music and people", Elvis Presley's original integrated software and hardware connection control technology (won the CES Innovation Award twice in 2017 and 2021) and realized productization, creating a new category of audio - Miaobo Audio
4. Bring people a new listening experience - Elvis launched a new category of audio - Miaobo speaker, the 1.0 stage has been realized to open good music, the next step will be towards "think and hear" such a "smarter" listening experience
5, China's audio brand to internationalization - in terms of audiophile audio technology, brand is basically Europe and the United States has been dominant, China's audio industry has experienced more than 30 years of development is still on the road, I believe there must be opportunities to achieve from imitation to learning, and gradually complete the process from innovation to creation. As one of the Chinese audio brands, Elvis looks forward to working with peers to create the future with theory + practice, technology + innovation, and is committed to building an international Chinese audio brand
16 years of chasing ideals, with an ideal for music and sound quality
Mr. Zeng Dejun, who has gone through most of his life, has always had an ideal for music and sound quality, so he began to explore speaker products to replay his dream sound at an early age. After 16 years of diligent pursuit, he finally "fulfilled his dream" and created a finished product: a small baffle Hi-End floorstanding speaker.
Artwork Name: Small Baffle Hi-End Floor Speaker - "Prometheus"
System design: Zeng Dejun
Industrial Design: He Dilong
Engineering design: related work team and engineers
Main parameters
- System frequency response: 25Hz – 20KHz+4/-6dB
- System impedance: 4 ohms
- Maximum carrying power: 200W (peak)
- System sensitivity: 86dB/W/m
- Woofer: 12 inches × 2
- Midrange unit: 7 inches
- Tweeter: 28mm (silk soft dome) (Note: The mid-tweeter is a front-mounted tweeter coaxial structure)
- Crossover point: low-mid crossover point: 100Hz, mid-high crossover point: 1.8KHz
- Maximum construction size: 1490 (height) (excluding foot peg size) × 580 (width) × 715 (depth) mm
- Net weight: 120Kg (each)
This work is characterized by the unique aural expression of the low frequencies of the music. It is a natural, relaxed, extremely comfortable low frequency and brings a sound performance that is significantly different from the low frequency of traditional speakers. The reason for this is that the loudspeaker uses an innovative low-frequency sound structure, that is, a small baffle structure and a corresponding acoustic system.
For baffle speakers, friends with Hi-Fi speaker experience know that this is a "ideal" acoustic structure from Hi-Fi speakers that can show the "most ideal" sound reproduction. However, due to the limitation of acoustic principles, if this structure wants to have "ideal" low-frequency performance, it needs to be large enough for the baffle size, otherwise the low-frequency is very limited. In recent years, there have also been some baffle speakers in the market that use the "dipolar" principle. Its typical representative is the R909 and R907 launched by Zunbao Jamo in 2011. But these two speakers are not very satisfactory "ideal" in terms of low-frequency performance.
What is a dipole baffle speaker? The dipole baffle speaker is also a baffle with an open structure, and the width and size of the baffle are relatively small. Under the general understanding of the bass, it will be caused by a short circuit? Effective bass output. In practice, however, it has been found that complete acoustic shorting only occurs where the front and rear phases of the horn are exactly opposite, such as the side of the baffle. This results in a symmetrical figure-of-8 radiant shape.
Directly in front and behind the woofer, the output is still maximum, so there is still a certain amount of low frequencies. The largest mentioned here is for the points within the horizontal 360 degree range, not to say that compared with the closed box or half-space radiation, compared with the latter two, there is indeed a partial cancellation phenomenon because of the phase difference, the degree of cancellation and frequency and the width of the baffle is related, simply put, the wider the baffle, the higher the frequency The smaller the degree of cancellation, so in the lowest frequency band, the degree of cancellation is quite serious. However, at this time, the directivity and attenuation rate of the low frequency are very strong, so the frequency and volume sense of low-frequency diving are not satisfactory. To improve this problem, the best way is to use a baffle that is wide enough. But this still brings other problems, such as unreasonable peaks at higher frequencies, or limited size.
The well-known Jamo R907 and R909 baffle speakers are based on this principle (including several other brands of baffle speakers on the market are based on this principle). Anyone who has used or heard of the Jamo 909 and 907 knows that the low frequencies of this product are not satisfactory, even if the top-of-the-line model R909 uses two 15-inch woofers, its dive frequency can only reach 35Hz. Therefore, Jamo only positioned these two speakers on "home audio and video speakers" for home theater systems. There are also some other brands of baffle speakers on the market that are also based on this principle, but the low-frequency performance is similar, in order to make up for the lack of bass, one or several subwoofers are often used to supplement the user's demand for low-frequency listening (this combination actually loses the value of the baffle speaker).
Why does the low frequency of "Prometheus" sound good?
1. From the principle of sounding, the sound of the small baffle speaker speaker for low frequencies is the same as the sound form of real musical instruments (both direct sounds). This is because the low frequency we hear has not been processed, lifted, or treated by the low frequency box structure, and is in its natural form. (This statement is not necessarily accurate, this analogy is only for ease of understanding)
2. Because of this, the low frequency of the small baffle speaker is attenuated by the natural slow attenuation of -3dB sound, which sounds very natural. Due to its acoustic characteristics, the traditional subwoofer must be sharply attenuated downward in the form of -6dB, 12db, -18dB, etc., thus causing an unnatural sense of impact and oppression at low frequencies.
3. Also because of this, the low frequency of the small barrier speaker is "direct" sound, so that the low frequency has no delay at all. Similarly, because the structure of the subwoofer is to improve the low frequency to be "processed", it brings the low frequency that people hear, and the low frequency that has lagged behind the real signal in time, which is the structural delay problem that the inverted, maze, and subwoofer will have.
To sum up: one of the advantages of baffle speakers is that the bass is clean and soft, and the room has little impact on it; The second is that there is no cabinet dyeing and reverberation, the sound is natural and real, and it sounds very comfortable, which is closer to the live experience of the concert hall.
This time we came to audition this pair of "Prometheus", which is placed in Mr. Zeng's office, with rows of bookshelves on the back, which has a good acoustic effect, and the reflected sound around it is somewhat reduced, and there is not much interference and pollution of ambient sound when listening to "Prometheus".
"Prometheus" as a baffle speaker, because there is no cabinet structure, the expression of the sound depends more on the quality of the unit itself, and because "Prometheus" is not a mass production product, so Mr. Zeng prepared dozens of sound units, and in them to choose and match, find out the best effect to install up, this time we see the dual 12-inch woofer, 7-inch midrange unit and 28mm treble, are in the best state, after all, it is carefully selected, but also "cooker" hundreds of hours.
In fact, the effect of "Prometheus" is also beyond our expectations, the audition music we prepare includes classical symphony, violin solo and opera, as well as female solo and children's chorus, in addition to CD records, we also have high-definition Hi-Res format studio music documents, including electronic music, movie soundtracks, and then online streaming platforms Apple Music and QQ Music, here is European and American pop and Japanese retro music.
No type of music played on "Prometheus", more can reflect its comprehensiveness, first take classical music as an example, the symphony playback pursuit is the coordination and clarity between each instrument, "Prometheus" tweeter is specially designed, for a variety of high musical instruments resolution is very good, such as piano and violin treble performance is completely separated. When the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 is played, the tone of the strings is precisely reproduced, and the sound of the triangle bells is crisp and clean, completely floating in the air. In the low-frequency part, the large dynamic symphony has a surging timpani, every time the drum is beaten, there is a feeling of distance and near, and the volume gradually increases, this layer of pushing low frequencies makes the atmosphere of the music is constantly stacked, and the silhouette of the entire symphony orchestra is formed in the middle of the room, which is very imposing.
This is also what many bookshelf boxes can not present, even many floor speakers do not have this effect, the low and midrange parts do not sound weak at all, which is the most distinctive place of "Prometheus", complex sounds can be clearly separated, simple music can enhance the sense of energy, so that the thickness of the music increases.
Then there is the "Mozart Violin Concerto", in the solo part of the violin, there is not much to evaluate, the piano sound is oily, there is quite a lot of detail and vibrato, the Japanese Soulnote promoted "Prometheus" has a good sense of speed, the corners are unambiguously dragged, and every turn in the music is clean. What surprised me the most was that in this violin work recorded in the field, I actually saw the width and depth of the entire stage, with the subtle echo and breath, I could see that the artist was 5-6 meters ahead, and he was still standing on a stage more than 1 meter higher than us, although it was a bit exaggerated, but the high-pitched design of "Prometheus" faced us sitting on the sofa, which would be a little higher than our ears, so the sound would also go a little higher, but this sense of presence was really enjoyable.
Then there are several studio vocal works, such as Xu Meijing's "Allure", Beyond's "Lover", the sound does not have too much deliberate monitoring style, more analog taste, but with a CD but hear the feeling of vinyl, here is not that "Prometheus" is not sharp enough, more because the low frequency in the music after this double 12-inch bass rendering, become very rounded, bass guitar plucking, with the elasticity of retro music, which is the unique characteristics of recordings in the 80-90s, The comfortable melody can instantly relax the whole body and fall into the maze of melody.
Finally, the author also tried today's European and American pop and electronic music works, this time switching to Hi-Res music files and online streaming Apple Music, "Prometheus" can clearly hear the difference from the CD when playing, although it will be a little more frizzy, but these are the characteristics of current pop music, such as The Weeknd's "Out of Time" and Bruno Mars' "Versace on the Floor" audition. The low-frequency sound is very elastic, and every hit in the electronic music is full of energy, and it is easy to retract, the key is that these bass effects do not have a cheap rough feeling, the vocals under the low frequency and melody immediately appear in front of the room, unlike the pompous sense of other vocal works, the singer's voice does not eat the audience in one bite, but appears very deep, the singer's voice and us keep a distance, as if we are looking up at him offstage, "Prometheus" The connection between the midrange unit and the tweeter is very exquisite, which also makes the vocals sound very comfortable, not stiff or overly soft.
"Prometheus" is not a perfect work, but as a hand-designed and built baffle speaker, it is really surprising that it can take the form of music in the form of Hi-End. The author thinks that "Prometheus" has more playability, for example, you can try the electronic crossover of the pre-stage, or try the Bi-Amp connection method, and of course, you can try to try it in a room where the area and proportion are not possible, I believe it is also quite interesting.
Introduced here, I believe many people are curious about how much "Prometheus" is priced and how it will be sold? But Mr. Zeng Dejun said: This speaker is reserved for his own enjoyment, without any commercial ideas and plans (still do not). As for why it was named "Prometheus"? This is because a friend visited Mr. Zeng Dejun and listened to the pair of speakers, saying that it should be named "Prometheus" (meaning the god of creation), so as to pay tribute not only to all the creative teams including Mr. Zeng Dejun, but also to the creative spirit of all Chinese audio people.
Finally, we at AV New Life wish that the future development of "Cloud Motion Creation" will be better and better, Mr. Zeng Dejun will be in good health, and he will continue to create more excellent audio products in the future.