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Omnidirectional speakers. The future?

I have been interested in hi-fi for about 25 years. I usually get the hankering to buy something if it knocks my socks off. Like most I started with a pair of box speakers. Then I heard a pair of Magnepans and was instantly hooked on planars. The next sock knocker was a pair of Soundlabs. I saved until I could afford a pair of Millenium 2's. Sock knocker number 3 was a pair of Shahinian Diapasons (Omnidirectional radiators utilizing multiple conventional drivers pointed in four directions). These sounded as much like real music as anything I had ever heard.
Duke from Audiokinesis seems to be onto the importance of loudspeaker radiation patterns. I don't see alot of other posts about the subject.
Sock knocker number four was a pair of Quad 988's. But wait, I'm back to planars. Or am I? It seems the Quads emmulate a point source by utilizing time delay in concentric rings in the diaphragms. At low volumes, the Quads might be better than my Shahinians. Unfortunately they lack deep bass and extreme dynamics so the Shahinians are still my # 1 choice. And what about the highly acclaimed (and rightly so) Soundlabs. These planars are actually constructed on a radius.
I agree with Richard Shahinian. Sound waves in nature propagate in a polyradial trajectory from their point of source. So then doesn't it seem logical that a loudspeaker should try to emmulate nature?

holzhauer
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Sean...with regard to percentage of reflected sound...I used to work as an usher (unpaid) at the Tanglewood summer music festival, and so I learned something of the acoustics of the huge shed in which the BSO performs.
Seats up front can hear well. Seats slightly further back, but still in the higher price range don't hear well at all. The very last few rows, way at the back, hear well again: almost as well as those expensive up-front seats. The reason is reflective panels that are suspended about 40 feet above and 30 feet behind the last row, and angled down. Reflected sound can be loud.
sean
6,231 posts
 
El: As sound travels further, it loses intensity. This is true whether it is a directly radiated signal or that of a reflected signal. The only time that one encounters increased intensity at a greater distance from the originating source would be in the following situation. The first is when one is stationed in an area where a node occurs in the listening environment. The other example is at the far end of some type of acoustic coupler i.e. the increased output at the far end of a horn throat. Otherwise, the shortest, most direct path will have the greatest acoustic intensity possible, especially at mid to high frequencies. Sean
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eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Sean...Come to Tanglewood and listen for yourself. The "last row" effect is well known.
sean
6,231 posts
 
El: I don't doubt your observation. The one point that i would make would be in question form to you. That is, "Is just one or both of the principles stated above coming into play in the last row?". Sean
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eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Sean...This is a truly huge pie shaped shed, but its acoustics have been taylored by various absorbing and reflective panels. Other than these panels, all surfaces are highly reflective wood and iron trusses. Of course the sound is constrained between the ceiling, about 60 feet, and the floor. There are no sidewalls from ground level to about 30 feet. Suspended over the stage there is a constelation of curved panels much like a band "shell". I think that the sound has an easy trip over the heads of all the people to the panels at the back, and then down to the last few rows. This is a most unusual performing space but I think that the proportion of reflected sound is very high, and just about 100 percent in those last rows. And it still sounds pretty good.
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