AN UNCERTAIN and confusing new year began for the hi-fi industry this week, when the European directive on electromagnetic compatibility came into force. The regulations have sparked a variety of concerns in the run-up to their introduction. Now loudspeaker companies fear that they may go out of business, and that hi-fi equipment will rocket in price.
Until recently, manufacturers assumed that 鈥減assive鈥� electronic equipment such as loudspeakers would be exempt from the regulations, but Germany has decided that they should be included and most European countries are expected to follow suit.
It can cost 拢10 000 to re-engineer a loudspeaker and pay an approved laboratory to test it. Smaller companies are worried. Dave O鈥橫alley of RAM, a British loudspeaker firm, says: 鈥淲e have no one to turn to for reliable advice. Today鈥檚 market is so competitive, every last nut and bolt has to be costed.鈥�
Advertisement
And for consumers, the penalty could be more expensive equipment. Hi-fi reviewer and designer Martin Colloms estimates that for a manufacturer making several thousand units a year, the cost of winning a Certification Europe茅nne compliance mark could add 10 per cent to the street price.
In Britain, the penalty for failing to meet the EMC directive can be a fine of 拢5000, three months in jail or both. Trading standards officers will police the law, mainly by responding to complaints from firms that inform on rivals selling untested products at lower prices.
鈥淏usiness rivals who have paid through the nose for their CE mark may well be tempted to rat on the pirates, the evaders and the complacent,鈥� says Colloms.
Until recently, hi-fi companies thought the EMC directive applied only to 鈥渁ctive鈥� equipment, such as amplifiers, radio tuners, tape and disc players, which plug into the mains. Their primary concern was that the filters needed to block interference would also muffle subtleties of the sound (Technology, 1 December 1990).
But last year, the German hi-fi trade body The High End Society, warned that in Germany, 鈥減assive鈥� electronics, such as loudspeakers, must also comply. Each hi-fi speaker contains a circuit that sends high frequency signals to the 鈥渢weeter鈥� and low frequencies to the 鈥渨oofer鈥�, and this circuit can generate an electromagnetic field.
The DTI is now advising that: 鈥淪peakers need to be marked, but because they work at low power and are difficult to test, there is no requirement to test.鈥� But this cannot protect manufacturers that export to Germany.
As a compromise, The High End Society has built a 鈥渨orst case鈥� loudspeaker. The Society paid for the speaker to be approved, and for a small fee, manufacturers can compare it with their own models. Anything that generates lower levels of interference should be safe to sell.
But even if speaker manufacturers survive the EMC directive this year, they will face the planned Low Voltage Directive on 1 January 1997.
The Low Voltage Directive aims to protect consumers from electric shocks at voltages as low as 50 volts AC and 75 volts DC. When reproducing musical peaks, a powerful amplifier can generate audio signals that exceed these safety limits. So manufacturers will have to abandon the bare copper spade terminal connections used today. But manufacturers cannot switch to the alternative of push-in 鈥渂anana鈥� plugs and sockets, because the pins on these standard plugs match the size and spacing of the two-pin mains sockets found in most European countries, so they could be plugged directly into the electricity supply by mistake.
CE approval laboratories are now advising manufacturers to stop providing such sockets on amplifiers and loudspeakers. As an interim measure, most manufacturers are plugging their sockets with a plastic bung, which a customer can prize out with a screwdriver. Branko Glisovic, head of the High End Society, says: 鈥淚f we really have to think about everything that really stupid people can do, then we should stop people using screwdrivers, in case they push them into a mains socket.