Loosing out?

[CJSF]

I have possed the question re 'Full Range Speakers/Drive units'. We are loosing out if the replies and links that have come back are anything to go buy . . . the 'we', very much refers to the serious hifi'er who enjoys his or her music?

CJSF

 

[JamesMellor]

Well this "we" loves his music and cant live without it and can still suddenly be struck into stilness by it , captivated by suprise , the world stops the singer sings and the gituar plays.

Really CJ how it will evole is unknown , no ones rack 25 years ago looked anything like it does now , maybe yours , but even you I think are thinking about computer based music , source and speakers are in flux , what will hi fi become ?

James

 

[CJSF]

Well this "we" loves his music and cant live without it and can still suddenly be struck into stilness by it , captivated by suprise , the world stops the singer sings and the gituar plays.

Really CJ how it will evole is unknown , no ones rack 25 years ago looked anything like it does now , maybe yours , but even you I think are thinking about computer based music , source and speakers are in flux , what will hi fi become ?

James

Be carful James, my preferd system in essence is the same as it was in the 80's, true, I do listen to streamed music out of convenience, never in the street, I dont have an ipod type phone, just a simple 'phone'. I enjoy the old things in life, like cars, cottages, and vinyl.

I want my hifi to sound the best it can, so I'm looking at the 'latest' in single full range speaker/drivers. They are simply better at what they are designed to do, faster, cleaner, more detail, human voice is the bees knees. The cone is only 75mm in diamiter, minimal mass, and there is nothing in the way of the signal between amp and driver, except a bit of cable (which every one argues over). Base can be compromised a tad but my type of music is fine.

Horses for courses, yes, but one should have an open mind?

CJSF

 

[Al ears]

Certainly full-range drivers have their place in the world. There have been some very good designs made in the past (and still are being made). I have owned a couple of them. They can be very efficient and suit low output SET's particularly.

Well worth an audition for sure if you have the right set-up / listening environment.

Along similar lines I am now very curious about these:- www.ultrahighendreview.com/audience-clairaudient-11-loudspeaker/

 

[Electro]

CJSF , you might be interested in this company who make full range speakers using Jordan drivers and transmission line design on some models, but they also have a tweeter that is level adjustable that can be switched off if not wanted .

I used to talk to someone on another forum who had a pair of the Arousal vsx floorstanders and he loved them !

http://websites.uk-plc.net/ultra_resolution_Loudspeakers/index.htm

I love music beyond words and could not live without it , my system gives me more that I could ever have dreamed was even possible when I first started buying equipment over 40 years ago and I still have to pinch myself just to make sure that I am not dreaming occasionally , so I don't think I am loosing out at all *smile*

 

[chebby]

I enjoy the old things in life, like cars, cottages, and vinyl.

I like old cottages too. However, I have come across very few that have preserved anything but the basic structure and - in listed properties - the original outward appearance.

Most have 'Homes And Garden' designer interiors and are owned as weekend and holiday homes / 2nd homes / homes for rich 'downsizers' escaping from busy cities. It's all granite and glass and stainless steel and bl###y AGAs now.

A lot of what are called cottages nowadays are usually old terraces of one-up, one down dwellings that were knocked into one property. Many were simply bulldozed in the last 70 years due to being unfit for human habitation or because they were in the way.

A friend's mother - who is about 80 years old - grew up with her grandmother in the 1930s and 40s in a two room cottage, with a dirt floor downstairs, in the New Forest. Post war building standards ensured that it was demolished and the occupants re-housed. (They were basically country 'slums' no matter how quaint they looked.)

With the building of the motorway network (especially the M4) and the increasing mechanisation of agriculture, the surviving cottages became extremely popular as holiday and weekend properties with well-heeled incomers from the 1970s onwards. The (usually retired) occupants were grateful to sell their badly heated, badly drained, draughty, insanitary and ill-maintained homes for the newly inflated prices on offer and were often baffled as to why anyone would want to live there if they didn't have to!

How it's all changed. Half a million will barely get you a farm labourers cottage or a converted piggery within an hour's drive of London any more. Your neighbours will be ex-bankers, media executives, owners of carpet warehouse chains and the kind of people who think Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV shows depict 'real' country life. (That's if you ever actually see the neighbours anywhere outside of their cottage, or the local 'Gastro Pub', or briefly unloading all the Waitrose bags from the Range Rover. when they arrive.)

 

[CJSF]

Interesting replies, 'Loosing out', no I dont think I am either even if I stayed with my present setup, however the enquiring mind likes to look at 'what are the options'? Some out of financial reach, some, as in the case of the Jordan/Wilmslow Eikona, an affordable project that will keep me interested over the winter. For me it extends further than pure hifi/music, I like working with wood, do I have the cabinet components (flats) made in birch ply or the standard MDF, the finish will present a challange, veneer, wood inlay, stain or paint and laquer. All done by myself, learning as I go???????

But first the build, then listen, evaluate, they will be in there raw wood state, no point in lotes of hours on the finish if they dont cut the mustard, and of course the revamped listening room. A project in operation as I type, clear the 'study' clutter, put more air around the existing speakers, corner and wall damping. All has come from a simple thought, 'what about Full Range Speakers'.

No I'm not loosing out . . . *preved*

CJSF

 

[CJSF]

I enjoy the old things in life, like cars, cottages, and vinyl.

I like old cottages too. However, I have come across very few that have preserved anything but the basic structure and - in listed properties - the original outward appearance.

Most have 'Homes And Garden' designer interiors and are owned as weekend and holiday homes / 2nd homes / homes for rich 'downsizers' escaping from busy cities. It's all granite and glass and stainless steel and bl###y AGAs now.

A lot of what are called cottages nowadays are usually old terraces of one-up, one down dwellings that were knocked into one property. Many were simply bulldozed in the last 70 years due to being unfit for human habitation or because they were in the way.

A friend's mother - who is about 80 years old - grew up with her grandmother in the 1930s and 40s in a two room cottage, with a dirt floor downstairs, in the New Forest. Post war building standards ensured that it was demolished and the occupants re-housed. (They were basically country 'slums' no matter how quaint they looked.)

With the building of the motorway network (especially the M4) and the increasing mechanisation of agriculture, the surviving cottages became extremely popular as holiday and weekend properties with well-heeled incomers from the 1970s onwards. The (usually retired) occupants were grateful to sell their badly heated, badly drained, draughty, insanitary and ill-maintained homes for the newly inflated prices on offer and were often baffled as to why anyone would want to live there if they didn't have to!

How it's all changed. Half a million will barely get you a farm labourers cottage or a converted piggery within an hour's drive of London any more. Your neighbours will be ex-bankers, media executives, owners of carpet warehouse chains and the kind of people who think Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV shows depict 'real' country life. (That's if you ever actually see the neighbours anywhere outside of their cottage, or the local 'Gastro Pub', or briefly unloading all the Waitrose bags from the Range Rover. when they arrive.)

. . . got your cynical hat on this morning Chebby.*acute* I grew up in the country, in a village called Redbourn, 2 up 2 down cottage was the norm, complet with outside 'thunder box', wash house, stand pipe, etc. You are right of course, that cottage is now worth a fortune. My Father could have bought it for a few hundred pounds in the mid 50's, no money then!

These days our standars are dfferent but it is nice to have old familier things around, like doning an old cumffy pair of shoes, old trousers and jumper the wife keeps threatening to throw out!!!

Lets be fair, a mixture of ainchent and modern goes down well these days, hummer those of us who bend towards the ainchent, it has its good points when rubbed against the modern . . . *pardon*

CJSF

 

[chebby]

. . . got your cynical hat on this morning Chebby.

Not really. If it weren't for a generation or two of rich 'incomers' then vast numbers of such beautiful places (not just cottages but entire villages and landscapes) would have gone under the bulldozer. They should be thanked I suppose.

Doesn't stop me poking a bit of fun at them though.

 

[CJSF]

CJSF , you might be interested in this company who make full range speakers using Jordan drivers and transmission line design on some models, but they also have a tweeter that is level adjustable that can be switched off if not wanted .

I used to talk to someone on another forum who had a pair of the Arousal vsx floorstanders and he loved them !

http://websites.uk-plc.net/ultra_resolution_Loudspeakers/index.htm

Hi Electro, below is a quote from the website you linked to:

Quote: Acoustic Insight, website:

" . . . The advantages are numerous, immediate and obvious including flawless timing, flawless stereo imaging, honest detail resolution, explosive transient response, more open, more emotive, more engaging compared to convention.

'Emotional involvement in the performance is to a degree rarely, if ever, experienced outside an unplugged live stage performance.'

This is rather difficult to describe fully without the experience. Some call it sonic virtual reality... it's ACOUSTIC Insight, by design."

Make you want to have a go dont it . . . *biggrin*

CJSF

 

[CJSF]

. . . got your cynical hat on this morning Chebby.

Not really. If it weren't for a generation or two of rich 'incomers' then vast numbers of such beautiful places (not just cottages but entire villages and landscapes) would have gone under the bulldozer. They should be thanked I suppose.

Doesn't stop me poking a bit of fun at them though.

Painfull/happy memories for me. I was brougth up in one, owned another and now have come full circle, live in and own one again, not once have I been able to realise the inflated values talked about? . . . *smile*

CJSF

 

[Al ears]

I enjoy the old things in life, like cars, cottages, and vinyl.

I like old cottages too. However, I have come across very few that have preserved anything but the basic structure and - in listed properties - the original outward appearance.

Most have 'Homes And Garden' designer interiors and are owned as weekend and holiday homes / 2nd homes / homes for rich 'downsizers' escaping from busy cities. It's all granite and glass and stainless steel and bl###y AGAs now.

A lot of what are called cottages nowadays are usually old terraces of one-up, one down dwellings that were knocked into one property. Many were simply bulldozed in the last 70 years due to being unfit for human habitation or because they were in the way.

A friend's mother - who is about 80 years old - grew up with her grandmother in the 1930s and 40s in a two room cottage, with a dirt floor downstairs, in the New Forest. Post war building standards ensured that it was demolished and the occupants re-housed. (They were basically country 'slums' no matter how quaint they looked.)

With the building of the motorway network (especially the M4) and the increasing mechanisation of agriculture, the surviving cottages became extremely popular as holiday and weekend properties with well-heeled incomers from the 1970s onwards. The (usually retired) occupants were grateful to sell their badly heated, badly drained, draughty, insanitary and ill-maintained homes for the newly inflated prices on offer and were often baffled as to why anyone would want to live there if they didn't have to!

How it's all changed. Half a million will barely get you a farm labourers cottage or a converted piggery within an hour's drive of London any more. Your neighbours will be ex-bankers, media executives, owners of carpet warehouse chains and the kind of people who think Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV shows depict 'real' country life. (That's if you ever actually see the neighbours anywhere outside of their cottage, or the local 'Gastro Pub', or briefly unloading all the Waitrose bags from the Range Rover. when they arrive.)

"Aye, and you try telling the young kids of today that" ........oh, you just did..

 

[JamesMellor]

Sorry I may have you mixed up , I know you "tweak" alot, with your existing kit , I think I've seen pics of a chair you turned into a TT support and I thought about a month ago you where getting a new car and where looking for a pod type player for it .

My point was no one knows how stuff will change , you are looking at a home project right now making a speaker , it maybe the norm in 20 years .

Right now we have PC's , NAS drives , CD players that are preamps and active speakers how will a hi-fi rack look in the future ?

James

 

[CJSF]

Sorry I may have you mixed up , I know you "tweak" alot, with your existing kit , I think I've seen pics of a chair you turned into a TT support and I thought about a month ago you where getting a new car and where looking for a pod type player for it .

My point was no one knows how stuff will change , you are looking at a home project right now making a speaker , it maybe the norm in 20 years .

Right now we have PC's , NAS drives , CD players that are preamps and active speakers how will a hi-fi rack look in the future ?

James

Yes you are right James, my left leg has given up, so its a new auto car with gizmoes in it I simply do not understand? Tweaking has reduces a lot this year, there is only so much one can do meanigfully? Yes, I did turn an open backed cottage arm chair into a TT shelf.

Making ones own speakers, the norm in 20 years? The present speaker project has spawned verious other 'projects' that are linked to the new speakers. Reduceing the clutter in the study/music room to improve the sound? . . . the clutter constitutes music storage racks, all going into the living/TV room. That has lead to a new cube rack being purchased, and other furniture is out, redundent. So while the living room is clear, its a decorating job.

The music room has a larg'ish desk, thats going, finding something suitable of the right reduced size is proving a problem . . . and so it goes on.

But I'm still enjoying my music, It was a pleasure to come in from the garden at lunch time, the satisfaction of mowing the lawn, doing a bit of weeding around the flowers and digging a bucket full of potatoes. Then sitting down with Dwain Eddy and Jeff Beck. I sat there thinking, how suitable is this type of musick to the full range Jordans that I'm proposing . . . ?

At my age, I'm not realy to worried about 20 years on . . . *pardon*

CJSF

 

[Al ears]

Sorry I may have you mixed up , I know you "tweak" alot, with your existing kit , I think I've seen pics of a chair you turned into a TT support and I thought about a month ago you where getting a new car and where looking for a pod type player for it .

My point was no one knows how stuff will change , you are looking at a home project right now making a speaker , it maybe the norm in 20 years .

Right now we have PC's , NAS drives , CD players that are preamps and active speakers how will a hi-fi rack look in the future ?

James

Yes you are right James, my left leg has given up, so its a new auto car with gizmoes in it I simply do not understand? Tweaking has reduces a lot this year, there is only so much one can do meanigfully? Yes, I did turn an open backed cottage arm chair into a TT shelf.

Making ones own speakers, the norm in 20 years? The present speaker project has spawned verious other 'projects' that are linked to the new speakers. Reduceing the clutter in the study/music room to improve the sound? . . . the clutter constitutes music storage racks, all going into the living/TV room. That has lead to a new cube rack being purchased, and other furniture is out, redundent. So while the living room is clear, its a decorating job.

The music room has a larg'ish desk, thats going, finding something suitable of the right reduced size is proving a problem . . . and so it goes on.

But I'm still enjoying my music, It was a pleasure to come in from the garden at lunch time, the satisfaction of mowing the lawn, doing a bit of weeding around the flowers and digging a bucket full of potatoes. Then sitting down with Dwain Eddy and Jeff Beck. I sat there thinking, how suitable is this type of musick to the full range Jordans that I'm proposing . . . ?

At my age, I'm not realy to worried about 20 years on . . . *pardon*

CJSF

Reckon the Jordan's will be more than able to cope with Duane Eddy...... Jeff Beck, however, might be another matter. *stop*

 

[MajorFubar]

My point was no one knows how stuff will change , you are looking at a home project right now making a speaker , it maybe the norm in 20 years .

Making your own speakers was more the norm 40-50 years ago. Back then in your average HiFi mag's adverts pages it was as common to see speaker kits (drivers + crossovers, you make the cabs) as fully-made units. Maybe more-so, even. Some models were available as both kit and fully made. I doubt the interest will ever return in a big way. To the modern generation of consumers who are used to being spoon-fed pre-made and pre-packaged disposable products, the notion of doing something like that is horrific, because it requires far too much considered and constructive input. I'm not even sure the average Joe is confident putting up a pair of wall-shelf brackets straight anymore, let alone building his own speakers.

 

[CJSF]

Reckon the Jordan's will be more than able to cope with Duane Eddy...... Jeff Beck, however, might be another matter. *stop*

I do wonder, however, I've always pushed the bounderies, and tried before I would accept defeet. My pushing often working, classic, the ST40's are running in triode mode, 20w into 87db sensativity speakers, most would question the match and the fact the speakers are 15" from the back wall . . . They are sounding superb and go loud!!! Probably the small room helps.

I did all sorts of off the wall things in my previous life, the classic there, proved heavy, mass loaded stands did work, when all around were saying; 'mass loading does not work' . . . a well know major speaker manufacturer had published a paper to that effect a couple of years ealier. It depends how you go about it . . . I discovered, I tried filling the vertical stem with molten lead, took the two days to cool!!! Total desaster in the base, but the mid and top were magic, sidways thinking kicked in . . . *dash1*

I learned very early to keep an open mind, but once proved, stick to ones guns.

Must not forget to take Jeff to Wilmslow Acoustics when I go and audition in September.

CJSF