I don't know what to make of this one..
- Thread starter TKoP
- Start date
I love his accent!
All the science in his design is solid. I imagine he gets pretty good performance in general. The "pros" are mentioned and somewhat obvious - unlimited dynamics, low THD, little to no early reflections in front of the listener, etc.
The cons, however, are also worth noting:
Those are most of the performance related "cons." Other things include size, weight, narrow listening sweet spot (which isn't big deal for any proper audio nerd), and such.
If I were asked how to improve on the design, I'd switch to electronic crossovers, align the mouths of the horns to the front and use a delay for each driver to get perfect time alignment. I'd also put a foam or solid "phase shield" in the direct middle of the round horns to reduce the beaming effect. I'd use a longer bass horn with a larger mouth area to improve the loading. And, I'd use a different subwoofer design with more drivers.
All the science in his design is solid. I imagine he gets pretty good performance in general. The "pros" are mentioned and somewhat obvious - unlimited dynamics, low THD, little to no early reflections in front of the listener, etc.
The cons, however, are also worth noting:
- The drivers are spaced very far apart and if sitting close to the speakers (like within 8 to 10 feet) it will be pretty obvious that the mid-bass horn is low to the ground and the low-mid horn is very far away above the listener. This could be acceptable, but something one would have to get used to.
- The higher frequency horns are behind the larger horns so the acoustic wave coming from them will have reflections and blocked pathways. This will cause some muddying and "blurring" of the details in their operating ranges.
- The upper horns are all round which are extremely prone to laser sharp beaming requiring the listener to sit at exactly the correct off-axis point AND for the direct beam to be diffused or absorbed behind the listener if there is a wall back there to reflect the beamed sound.
- Using a field coil magnet can be very tricky and requires constant calibration, even with the best power supplies. This is why he is using lab-grade power supplies instead of the fixed power supply - he has to be able adjust the field-coil voltage to get the correct magnetic field for the voice coil.
Those are most of the performance related "cons." Other things include size, weight, narrow listening sweet spot (which isn't big deal for any proper audio nerd), and such.
If I were asked how to improve on the design, I'd switch to electronic crossovers, align the mouths of the horns to the front and use a delay for each driver to get perfect time alignment. I'd also put a foam or solid "phase shield" in the direct middle of the round horns to reduce the beaming effect. I'd use a longer bass horn with a larger mouth area to improve the loading. And, I'd use a different subwoofer design with more drivers.
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I would love to go to Californyer!
I didn't watch the whole video, but I would have thought he was from New York instead of California. Although the way you spell California makes me think I'm missing something.
Flint mentioned he loved the guys accent and as I was watching the guy said Californyer.
Just sayin...