Once upon a time I designed and built several different line-array speakers. I really like the kind of sound field a tall line source sets up in the listening room.
Here are the lessons I learned:
1. It's pretty much impossible to get a seamless blend between a line source array and a point source woofer or subwoofer - if possible, make the arrays capable of doing the bottom end.
2. The amount of money spent on all those drivers would probably be more effectively devoted to fewer, higher quality drivers.
3. Horizontal symmetry is desirable if you want the tonal balance to be uniform over a wide sweet spot.
I have three ideas for a DIY line-source speaker, but I haven't built any of them.
The simplest design would be a stack of about a dozen Jordan JX-92's per side. This driver wasn't available when I built my line source arrays years ago.
A bit more complex symmetrical array would be based on an MTM kit using say 6.5" woofers and a 1" dome tweeter, but with the drivers oriented horizontally instead of vertically. Basically, imagine stacking eight such sets of drivers per side, so you have sixteen woofers flanking eight tweeters per speaker.
My last symmetrical array idea array would be a large dipole panel about four feet wide. In the center you'd have a stack of ribbon tweeters, whatever your choice is. The ribbon tweets would be flanked by a pair Bohlender-Graebener planar-magnetic drivers. Sure you could use a single B-G and save quite a bit of money, but note that Genesis and VMPS both use ribbon tweets to do the top end instead of relying on the B-G drivers. The reason is that the relatively rugged B-G driver isn't as articulate and lively at high frequencies as it is in the midrange. Anyway, the bottom end is handled by eight 15" dipole woofers per speaker, flanking the B-G drivers in stacks of four, to maintain symmetry.
If you'd like to talk about any of these options, shoot me an e-mail.
Here are the lessons I learned:
1. It's pretty much impossible to get a seamless blend between a line source array and a point source woofer or subwoofer - if possible, make the arrays capable of doing the bottom end.
2. The amount of money spent on all those drivers would probably be more effectively devoted to fewer, higher quality drivers.
3. Horizontal symmetry is desirable if you want the tonal balance to be uniform over a wide sweet spot.
I have three ideas for a DIY line-source speaker, but I haven't built any of them.
The simplest design would be a stack of about a dozen Jordan JX-92's per side. This driver wasn't available when I built my line source arrays years ago.
A bit more complex symmetrical array would be based on an MTM kit using say 6.5" woofers and a 1" dome tweeter, but with the drivers oriented horizontally instead of vertically. Basically, imagine stacking eight such sets of drivers per side, so you have sixteen woofers flanking eight tweeters per speaker.
My last symmetrical array idea array would be a large dipole panel about four feet wide. In the center you'd have a stack of ribbon tweeters, whatever your choice is. The ribbon tweets would be flanked by a pair Bohlender-Graebener planar-magnetic drivers. Sure you could use a single B-G and save quite a bit of money, but note that Genesis and VMPS both use ribbon tweets to do the top end instead of relying on the B-G drivers. The reason is that the relatively rugged B-G driver isn't as articulate and lively at high frequencies as it is in the midrange. Anyway, the bottom end is handled by eight 15" dipole woofers per speaker, flanking the B-G drivers in stacks of four, to maintain symmetry.
If you'd like to talk about any of these options, shoot me an e-mail.