ok. people who know a little my attitude to hi-fi know that I'm no too much fond of box speakers with dynamic drivers. this is not some illogical, emotionally driven, "just because" kind of way hatred. as I was gaining more and more knowledge on how it all works together I came to conclusion that in order to reach my audio nirvana I have to try out other available technologies of sound reproduction. and since speakers are traditionally "the weakest link" I believe the search and research is a worthwhile endeavour. so, I couple of days ago I stumbled upon this thing here:
this rectangular steel frame doesn't look much like a speaker but it is a speaker nonetheless. it resembles nothing that's been invented so far. quite rightly so, it's not working like anything invented so far. I confess that I read the whole part describing how it works and still can't quite comprehend how it actually can reproduce music! I can acknowledge it can make some sounds on its own, but reproduce recorded sounds? but apparently it make quite good job. in fact, if it's as good as it's claimed on the web site this thing may be a bigger step in quality of reproducing music than Western Electric cinema horns from ca. 1930 were over phonograph's sound tube (note that those WE speakers can easily compete with modern designs in terms of SQ)!
there's not much details about its performance know to me yet, but they do attach freq response and phase graph on their web site. I wish they had some more usual speaker performance measurements in order to draw any meaningful conclusions. but this measurement alone inspires some optimism:
freq response from 20 to 20K Hz is simply put flat. and it's flat in good amps' performance terms, not good speakers terms. also there's essentially no phase shift from around 100 Hz to 10K Hz. and even phase shift for the full spectrum is still commendably low compared to most multiway speaker designs. this is always a good sign for perfect spacial resolution - i.e. imaging.
what's the list of strengths? here goes:
- this is a true full range speaker, so no need for any detrimental crossovers networks
- true omnidirectional principle for truer spacial reproduction (no need to spend $$$$$$$ for MBL omins any more)
- no box, so no box colouration nor any box reflections nor any baffle related freq response irregularities
- inherent phase coherence, as noted above an asset for better imaging
- the driver is incomparably stiffer compared to other materials drivers are made of (well it's essentially a steel rod with triangle cross section) so no problems traditionally related with finite driver stiffness like break-up modes or non-linearities at high x-max. this should translate to very good THD performance but let's wait for proofs.
cons? none. well, maybe, for some, the looks. but it's only the prototype so production version may look more WAF friendly.
I encourage you to take a look at the web site (I left the link at the top of the post). and if you don't fancy reading through all that techy flavoured blurb read testimonials at least. very interesting reading indeed...
there's not much details about its performance know to me yet, but they do attach freq response and phase graph on their web site. I wish they had some more usual speaker performance measurements in order to draw any meaningful conclusions. but this measurement alone inspires some optimism:
what's the list of strengths? here goes:
- this is a true full range speaker, so no need for any detrimental crossovers networks
- true omnidirectional principle for truer spacial reproduction (no need to spend $$$$$$$ for MBL omins any more)
- no box, so no box colouration nor any box reflections nor any baffle related freq response irregularities
- inherent phase coherence, as noted above an asset for better imaging
- the driver is incomparably stiffer compared to other materials drivers are made of (well it's essentially a steel rod with triangle cross section) so no problems traditionally related with finite driver stiffness like break-up modes or non-linearities at high x-max. this should translate to very good THD performance but let's wait for proofs.
cons? none. well, maybe, for some, the looks. but it's only the prototype so production version may look more WAF friendly.
I encourage you to take a look at the web site (I left the link at the top of the post). and if you don't fancy reading through all that techy flavoured blurb read testimonials at least. very interesting reading indeed...
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