Introduction
Many of you recall my amazing speakers built back in 2008/2009 in which I put into practice design principles not common in commercial speakers but which address issues related to imaging, distortion and dynamic performance. I made them taller and wider than most, off-set the mid and high frequency drivers, focused on the baffle and placement more than aesthetics, and aggressively isolated the drivers from vibration. They were amazing, but one design aspect related to vibration isolating the drivers resulted in the speakers becoming ruined.
I had cut ¼ inch thick sheets of very soft Sorbothane into rings and used those as gaskets behind the mid-woofer, suspending them and absorbing all vibration from the driver and thus reducing distortion and tightening the impulse response both measurably and audibly. It was a brilliant design, but alas the Sorbothane failed and turned into a black tar-like goop that seeped into the rear of the mid-woofer frames and eventually out the front of the baffle and destroying things. Yuck. I cried.
But, I love listening to music far too much to give up altogether on having a killer stereo. So, I got back into designing and building speakers and built a new speaker rig, replacing everything in my old system, other than the IB subs, and starting over with the latest and greatest designs in a cost is no object system.
Design Decisions
Choosing the Transducers (woofers, midranges, and tweeters)
When considering a new system, I always want to replace the old with something significantly better than the previous system. Sometimes “better” means more convenience or greater efficiency, but with speakers I always want better audible performance – like VASTLY superior performance. Since speakers are always the weakest link in any audio system, going for the best I can afford always makes sense, even if it means not getting the amps, cables, power conditioners, or other parts I would like. So, I started my design process by researching the raw transducers on the market. Given the advances in speaker design since 2008, I knew there were some amazing options out there. Dome tweeters were improving, as were midrange drivers and even mainstream woofers. Materials were getting more and more refined and less and less “sexy” – always a good thing. Gimmicks are getting less common as well, which makes life much easier. Choosing the Transducers (woofers, midranges, and tweeters)
However, as I started my search a new driver design which initially appeared about as gimmicky as they come was announced by Scan-Speak, an incredibly respectable transducer maker out of Denmark. What did they launch? Well, it was a set of tweeters and midrange drivers with, and wait for it, elliptical voice coils. Not round voice coils like we’ve had for 100+ years, but elliptical. In the tweeter the elliptical VC meant the dome was now also elliptical, a strange look. In the woofer the cone was still round, but the dust cap at the center was elliptical making it appear more like an optical illusion than a new design. The claims Scan-Speak made was that the design reduced distortion by a huge amount. In fact, the distortion was so reduced that the designers didn’t have to apply dampening techniques in the cone or dome which reduce resonances at the cost of efficiency. So, these new speakers had an order of magnitude lower distortion AND significantly higher efficiency. The rated sensitivity of the tweeter was 95dB 1W 1M, which was 4dB higher than the previous top of the line tweeter from the company. 4dB is more than double the power – so a 100 watt amp could be replaced with a 50 watt amp using the new tweeter and the in room loudness peaks would remain the same. Crazy! But unbelievable.
So I continued contemplating designs with other transducers while waiting for real world tests of the new Scan-Speak elliptical VC drivers to show up. To my surprise, a famous kit designer out of Denmark presented his bookshelf speaker based on these new drivers, and low and behold he said all the claims from Scan-Speak were more than true and even provided standard measurements to demonstrate the improved performance. Hmmmm…. But that’s just one dude in a socialist nation who depends the great USA for their defense. Cannot trust those pinkos, so I waited for more tests from real people and continued working on designs with some new drivers from Morel that looked really good – one drawback is that the top of the line Morel tweeter is the same one I was replacing in my old dead system and I wanted significantly better performance. There were the new Beryllium tweeters from Scan-Speak and SB Acoustics I was considering, but I’ve never liked metal domes. It was a long frustrating wait.
So, while I waited and played with new design ideas, I got to help Heeman with his stunning 13” woofer cabinets. That was a good time. Then I built my huge line array speakers and master bathroom speakers. Along the way the trade rag, Voice Coil Magazine, published a test bench review of the new Scan-Speak elliptical speakers, called the Ellipticor line, and the extremely trustworthy and often brutally honest Vance Dickason (author of the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook) gave them not only his highest compliments, he was almost gushing in the article. This thrilled me as I desperately wanted the claims by Scan-Speak to be true. I immediately emailed Vance to confirm the tone of his article and he couldn’t have been more positive about a set of speakers. Damn, it appears these are the greatest thing in the high fidelity speaker market in a LONG LONG time.
With that I started pricing a system and given the insanely high prices for these new hand-made in Denmark speakers, I was struggling to justify using them. At first, I considered abandoning my proven MTM D’Appolito array which has proven audible in-room benefits and going with a mere MT design which saved me the price of two of the midrange drivers, but I simply could not go backwards. So, I settled on finding a way to pay for the MTM solution. Then, I considered building a woofer enclosure similar to Heeman’s since I knew how good it sounded, but as much as I love Heeman, I had to be better. So I chose the little brother to his 13” woofer and went with two 10” woofers resulting in 18% more cone area, 52% greater motor strength, 84% more power handling, and 110% higher sensitivity (per speaker channel) which should result in higher peak output, lower distortion, and more powerful dynamics.
So, my drivers were chosen, all from Scan-Speaker, all hand-made in Denmark, and all the absolute state of the art for the classes:
ScanSpeak Revelator 26W/8861T
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-10-woofers/scanspeak-revelator-26w/8861t-10-woofer/
Scanspeak Ellipticor 18WE/4542T-00
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.c...k-ellipticor-18we/4542t-00-7-midwoofer-4-ohm/
https://www.audioxpress.com/article/test-bench-scan-speak-ellipticor-18we-4542t00-midbass-woofer
ScanSpeak Ellipticor D3404/5520-00
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.c...r-d3404/5520-00-38mm-elliptical-dome-tweeter/
https://www.audioxpress.com/article...lipticor-d3404-552000-tweeter-from-scan-speak
Ellipticor release announcement:
https://www.audioxpress.com/news/sc...t-models-from-its-new-ellipticor-driver-range
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-10-woofers/scanspeak-revelator-26w/8861t-10-woofer/
Scanspeak Ellipticor 18WE/4542T-00
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.c...k-ellipticor-18we/4542t-00-7-midwoofer-4-ohm/
https://www.audioxpress.com/article/test-bench-scan-speak-ellipticor-18we-4542t00-midbass-woofer
ScanSpeak Ellipticor D3404/5520-00
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.c...r-d3404/5520-00-38mm-elliptical-dome-tweeter/
https://www.audioxpress.com/article...lipticor-d3404-552000-tweeter-from-scan-speak
Ellipticor release announcement:
https://www.audioxpress.com/news/sc...t-models-from-its-new-ellipticor-driver-range