CUW-180 is a X-Y stereo microphone that has two cardioid capsules and can be rotated any angle up to 180 degree, with 15 degree detent.

●The advantage of X-Y stereo microphone

Two capsules have same arrival time of sound wave because the capsules are designed on the same vertical axis regardless of the angle.
Therefore, dephasing is not caused between L and R in any angle.
The method of laying out using one X-Y stereo microphone for L and R, one for LS and RS, is called “Double X-Y method”.

Because the phases of L and R (LS and RS) are same, a natural sound can be obtained.

There is a distance of about 21cm between front CUW-180 capsules and rear ones.
It makes the feeling of front-rear space when sounds are monitored by loud speakers.
This distance is almost equal to the distance between microphones of the IRT Cross method.

In addition, there is a method of setting up a small line microphone CS-1 for the center channel, then two CUW-180 and one CS-1 are set in one holding mount.

The purpose of the line microphone CS-1 is to secure the independence of the center channel and to minimize the overlap of L and R.

The feature of the CUW-180 surround system is to keep the natural continuousness of five channels without dead points, and the accurate localization of sound images.