Hey! This is Sia. In a previous life I ran a little company called Serene Audio. Back then we had a product (called Talisman) that was very very well received by customers, reviewers, and was a hit at the shows. I attribute its success chiefly to the class-leading low distortion of its driver. It resulted in a very clear and non-fatiguing sound. Today audio is a hobby, but the lesson from Talisman speakers remains with me. Meaning, I’m always on the hunt for affordable low distortion drivers for my projects - unicorns essentially.

A few years ago I came across the concept of current drive amplification. At first it sounded almost too good to be true: instead of spending more and more on “better” drivers, you could change the way you drive a perfectly normal driver and get a meaningful drop in the distortion the driver itself produces. I tried it on a few drivers I had on hand and immediately saw the kind of changes that made me lean in - especially in odd-order harmonics and intermodulation distortions - the stuff that tends to translate into that subtle “edge” or listening fatigue over time.

I also knew how easy it is to fool yourself with audio experiments, so before I invested real time into building hardware around the idea, I wanted to answer one simple question: does this work on most drivers, or only on a lucky few?

That question turned into a proper measurement project. I built a repeatable test method and ran it across 30+ drivers (different sizes, brands, and price points) measuring each one with conventional voltage drive and with current feedback. The results were consistent enough (and compelling enough) that I decided it was worth building a practical module that could bring this approach into real projects: An amplifier module where you can do the crossover and EQ properly, keep low-frequency behavior controlled, and apply current control where it matters most.

Black Horse Audio is where I’m collecting that work: the measurements, the experiments, and the hardware/software that came out of it. I’m still doing this as a hands-on passion project; designing boards, writing the DSP tooling, and sharing the results as clearly as I can.

If you’re curious, the best place to start is the 31-driver study. If you’re building active speakers and want to try something genuinely different, I’d love to hear what you’re working on.