In order to provide an accurate understanding of just what Manifest Sound System is, it’s necessary to examine the choices that lead to its creation. Each loudspeaker design was selected and built because there are no commercially
available options that perform comparably.

The designs in particular were the Paraflex Type A 1×12 subwoofer and Paraflex 1×12 top. Both created by Matthew Morgan J one of the three founders of the High Order Quarter Wave Society (HOQS).

The Paraflex 1×12 top was chosen because it has an inherently flat response, unparalleled phase coherence, can be arrayed both vertically and horizontally, and is incredibly loud. It is a feat of modern engineering, and at the cutting edge of audio.

The Paraflex Type A 1×12 subwoofer is a collaboration with Robert Moon and like all Paraflex designs, the result of numerous iterations, each gradually improving upon the previous design until the process reached it’s optimal and final point. They deliver a very clean, unlabored bass, and due to the geniuses at the HOQS, are suitable for arraying, with multiple units coupling together resulting in noticeable sub bass gain and pattern control.

Manifest Sound System is constructed head to toe with birch ply. Birch’s core is unlike traditional plywood you may be used to seeing. Its high-quality multiple plies (veneer layers) provide a panel that is able to handle heavy loads or high impacts. The plies are nearly void free (no missing knot holes) and perform well even on stereo cabinets and other demanding applications. Every part of every speaker is CNC milled with a 0.004” tolerance to ensure quality control and minimize the human errors that naturally occur when building any project.

Father and son team, Martin & Andre Schrock, then assembles these pieces. Lastly the amplifiers chosen to drive this massive herd of speakers are capable of more than twice the maximum wattage rating of every box used. This was done intentionally, in order to leave a large amount of head room on all channels. The Amplifiers never work hard, keeping the audio distortion free and completely unlabored.

Manifest Sound System is Pittsburgh PA’s preeminent sound system and the result of the collaborative effort of multiple minds. It is entirely owned and operated by Andre Schrock.

What Does Paraflex Mean?

The word Paraflex itself is a double portmanteau formed by joining the names of the three founding father’s companies. The three founding fathers of the Paraflex are Matthew Morgan J, Dustin Morgan, and J.R. Vansickle. Dustin’s company is called “Flex Tech”, and Mr Vansickle’s company is called Paragon Concept. By combining the first 4 letters of their companies creates the word Paraflex.

This also works on another level. An old name for a quarterwave resonant pipe with the driver tucked into the mouth was called the “Transflex” and it is considered to be a series-tuned 6th order bandpass design. In addition to that old classic, another resonator is included into the designs, which adds a parallel-tuned aspect to the design for a combination of both parallel-tuned and series-tuned topology all at the same time, therefore it is a Parallel-Transflex hybrid, or again Paraflex for short.

Paraflex speaker cabinets can be best described as compound quarter wavelength horns. The principle is similar to a tapped horn (and transmission lines) but instead of a single path (like a tapped horn) there are two separate resonators. A low tuned resonator (LTR) and a high tuned resonator (HTR). These utilize the output from both sides of the driver respectively. The LTR is tuned lower (longer, with a controlled cross sectional area) giving these designs the LF gain benefits commonly associated with tapped horns and the HTR is tuned higher giving Paraflex boxes a secondary bump in efficiency at that equivalent path tuning frequency (whilst also controlling cone movement). This means Paraflex boxes are extremely demanding on drivers, and get the performance of two front loaded horns from one box. Whilst generally not flat on their own (the gain induced by the secondary resonator pushes the 1w/m sensitivity of the upper bass up to around 105db-110db, typically in the 70-130hz region, depending on the specific design) once 4+ are coupled (with all horns the gain from multiple boxes is not consistent across the frequency range – there is a low frequency emphasis) the HTR gain is balanced out by the box coupling effect giving an inherently flat frequency response. The other benefit of this approach is that the group delay profile of these boxes far more consistent across their passband than tapped horn, bandpass and most reflex designs. This makes them really fast (when appropriate processing is applied).

Paraflex is both a name, paying homage to its creators, as well as an advanced type of driver horn loading.

Technical Specifications

PARAFLEX TYPE A 12” SUBWOOFER
External Dimensions: 36” H X 24”D x 14.5”W
Tuning: 36hz
Power Rating: 1000 Watts RMS
1500 Watts Max
Usable Range: 27 hz – 90 hz
1/1m: 100 dB halfspace
Number available: 12

PARAFLEX 1X12 TOP
External Dimensions: 13” H x 23.6” D x 23.6” W
Tuning: 36hz
Power Rating: 1000 Watts RMS
2000 Watts Max
Usable Range: 85 hz – 20Khz
1/1m : 105 dB halfspace
Number available: 4