Blue Sky Ships New Big Blue Monitor System

Blue Sky International has announced that their highly anticipated Big Blue system has begun shipping to dealers.
Announced in late 2005 and previewed at several audio industry events throughout the beginning of this year, the Big Blue system is comprised of the SAT 12 three way, tri-amplified mid-field monitor and the SUB 15 Universal 1000-Watt subwoofer.
“Big Blue represents more than the top of the Blue Sky line,” said Chris Fichera, Blue Sky Vice President. “We’re confident that the SAT 12 and SUB 15 Universal combine as a seamless system with capabilities that are comparable to the world’s finest studio loudspeakers at any price, while still offering Blue Sky’s commitment to the highest ratio of performance to cost.”
Designed for critical listening applications in music mixing, mastering, and audio post-production, Big Blue takes Blue Sky’s 2.1 monitoring paradigm to the highest level, incorporating advanced proprietary driver, circuit, and cabinet design. It starts with the SAT 12, a three way, tri-amplified, 500-Watt, mid-field monitor. The SAT 12 features a 12" high excursion hemispherical woofer, an ultra low distortion 4" hemispherical midrange driver, and a 1" dual concentric diaphragm tweeter with integral wave-guide, for superior off-axis response. To reduce destructive cabinet diffraction effects, the SAT 12’s baffle incorporates Blue Sky’s proprietary "Multi-Aperture Acoustic Diffraction Absorber", which helps to maintain smooth on- and off-axis frequency response throughout the critical MF and HF frequency range, without the need for a large wave guide or horn.
Each of the SAT 12’s three drivers is powered by its own dedicated low-distortion amplifier, implementing a 200-Watt amplifier for the 12" woofer, another 200-Watt amplifier for the midrange driver, and a low distortion 100-Watt amplifier for the tweeter. This tri-amped design allows it to effortlessly deliver clean and accurate sound with a frequency response of 45Hz to 30kHz +/-3.0dB (200Hz to 15kHz +/- 1.5dB). For full compatibility with the SUB 15 Universal and Blue Sky’s BMC (Bass Management Controller), an 80Hz high-pass network, with phase correction filter, is also included. For the ultimate in monitoring flexibility, the rear panel of the SAT 12 provides two completely independent balanced input stages with XLR connectors. The main input is for standard 80Hz bass-managed operation, while the second input is for traditional monitoring, without the use of a sub. The rear panel also has controls for "full space" (placement in a room) or "half space" (mounted in a baffle wall) operation, along with individual HF, MF and LF level trims, as well as two switchable input attenuators and a variable gain control. Big Blue is designed to operate both vertically or horizontally, thanks to the innovative rotatable MF/HF plate.
The SAT 12 has been designed to integrate perfectly with Blue Sky's new 1000-Watt subwoofer, the SUB 15 Universal. It uses a sealed box design, built around a 15" forward-firing driver with a massive cast aluminum frame, dual 2.5" voice coils - which has 2.36" of excursion (peak to peak) and features an enormous 20+ Lbs. motor structure (total driver weight 36 Lbs.). One of the SUB 15 Universal's unique features is a switchable low frequency response characteristic, of either 30Hz to 200Hz +/-3dB or, in "extended LF mode", 20Hz to 200Hz +/-3dB (anechoic). The extended mode is ideal for large rooms that don't exhibit the room gain phenomenon of smaller sealed spaces.
The SUB 15 Universal also has two built-in bass management modes, designed specifically for use with the Big Blue system and other Blue Sky products, or for using the subwoofer with satellite speakers from other manufacturers. The first bass management mode incorporates a fixed 4th order 80Hz Linkwitz-Riley low pass filter as well as an 80Hz high pass filter, optimized for the SAT 12’s bass-managed input. The second mode offers a variable 4th order high and low pass filter with adjustable cut-off frequency from 50-160Hz, allowing it to be an excellent LFE speaker solution for any high-quality monitor system.
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