2009 - Smart Power

Isobaric Bass Speaker Technology – pioneered by Orange

The 2009 ‘Smart Power’ Bass Cabinet range continued the kind of cutting-edge bass cabinet design which began back in 1970 with the Parabola/Reflex 2×15. This bass cabinet was way ahead of its time and ahead of anything made by Orange’s competitors back then.

In 2009, the same applied to the ‘Smart Power’ range which used ‘Isobaric’ speaker cabinet construction [outlined below]. 2009 also saw the return of the legendary Orange 8×10” bass cabinet originally made in limited numbers in the early 1970s. The cabinet features four acoustically voiced compartments.

OBC810 with AD200B

Ade Emsley – Technical Director

Our three ‘Smart Power’ bass cabinets were ‘Isobaric’, which means there is a speaker behind a speaker, and this helps the front loudspeaker move air. The porting of the cabinet is adjusted accordingly, and the result is the projection of a 2×12 – but coming from a cabinet half the size.

Isobaric technology is based on mounting two loudspeakers behind each other within the cabinet. In practical terms, this increases the linearity in the speaker movement, which lowers the bass frequency handling, as well as boosting the output. We chose lightweight Neodineum loudspeakers for performance and portability.

Our three speaker cabinet models were the SP210 [600 watts], SP212 [600 watts,] and the SP410 [1200 watts,]. All had a dynamic and responsive tone and the trademark Tiny Terror compactness, with the SP210 coming in at a little over 30 centimetres square. Built in the UK using marine quality Baltic birch plywood, the ‘Smart Power’ cabs were all rated at 8 ohms.

SP210

SP212 in Black

SP410