Ok, I see lots of folks here are striking out here on the 'what-the-heck-are-we-even-looking-at' element of the Wavetouch technology and how it may relate to maker claims, hype, what have you. Having lived with the GT's now since June I'm sure I've had the advantage over you guys of being able to audition them under controlled enough conditions. When you do that you realize right away that something about the technology is in fact uniquely special, but it still may be a trick identifying from there exactly how they do what they do. Only recently I think I've begun to confidently get a handle on what I suspect is at work.
I know the diagrams on his website look pretty confusing, or pretty confused, if that's your take. But, if you look at his descriptions you can begin to tell that all he's really describing in the area immediately in front of each driver (say, the first 6-8" out or possibly a little farther) is the phenomenon of air turbulence. This is what you want to focus on. It is really the key to unlocking everything about the design. Yes, the numbers do at first appear to be too good to be true. But, if you can wrap your mind around this one phenomenon he is trying to describe, then the numbers do in fact add up very well, indeed. But, it will help a great deal with your understanding if you do your best to visualize in 3D what is really going on with turbulence. Think of turbulence as wave cancellation, which it is, but it just may not be as orderly or symmetrical as we may typically think of it in regard to, say, the front-to-back wave cancellation of a bass driver on an open baffle. Turbulence in this case is responsible for degrading the integrity of the newly launched sound wave from the driver. In every speaker design. Normally the turbulence is caused by the very act of the diaphragm launching the waveform...creation and destruction at the same moment. The more turbulence the more degradation of the waveform and therefore of the sound quality in all sonic categories. This is the problem that the Mihorns solve. It isn't that the GT's are creating sensitivity where there was none before. It's that the Mihorns are allowing very much more of the Inherent sensitivity of each driver to pass through them minus that level of degradation. IOW, the inherent sensitivity is being preserved. So, no, the laws of physics have neither been broken nor reinvented. The Iron Law is still very much in effect. The only things that have been removed from the equation are these purely physical (not electro-mechanical) losses that traditionally we have always had to put up with. It may not be so easy to grasp this from the numbers because we are so accustomed to seeing the rules, like the Iron Law, dictate less impressive performance compromises for cabinets of this size, but overcoming turbulence in this way can evidently be quite the game changer. Realize that the implication is that essentially our traditional measurements of driver or speaker sensitivity can now be thought of, in a rather real sense, as 'skewed' in light of this new information. Make no mistake, this is by definition altogether something new in the world. To my knowledge nothing like it has ever been done before. This is a genuinely innovative approach and I believe (at whatever point it begins to happen) that other companies and other audiophiles or reviewers are going to be talking about this technology...and probably for a long time to come.
But, this effect of smoothing out the airflow so that it both speeds up (apparently) the wave launch into the room while allowing those waves to be more intact and coherent upon reaching the lp, is evidently a significantly large one, large enough to do a number of things here all at once. Note that the radically improved Efficiency (not sensitivity) of this speaker system, the noticeably improved sound quality (again, waveforms that are more stable, accelerated and more coherent which in turn is improving the sound quality across the board) and the bass extension and dynamics in such a small cabinet (and yes, BTW, I can in fact confirm for you that the rolloff point for the GT is between 40-45Hz and no higher) are actually all directly related to each other...! It may be a bit of a Rubik's cube to think of it that way, but that appears to me to be what Alex has done. The entire design and all the innovation that goes with it hinges on the successful amelioration of the problem of air turbulence in front of the drivers. And there are no noticeable drawbacks with the sound to speak of, with the Mihorns installed.
If you've been to the website, you've probably seen the videos there of the GT's that have been set up and are playing outdoors. This is not to demonstrate that GT's make swell poolside speakers, but that they can do something pretty remarkable - they can actually sound pretty decent in a nearly anechoic environment. This is where perhaps every other design will fall flat on its face. It is the Mihorn's ability to deliver a fully fleshed out, fast, clean, dynamic, coherent, direct sound that is what is being displayed here.
Whether or not the GT's are your cuppa is up to you, of course, but I'm just outlaying here what I think may be going on with them.
I know the diagrams on his website look pretty confusing, or pretty confused, if that's your take. But, if you look at his descriptions you can begin to tell that all he's really describing in the area immediately in front of each driver (say, the first 6-8" out or possibly a little farther) is the phenomenon of air turbulence. This is what you want to focus on. It is really the key to unlocking everything about the design. Yes, the numbers do at first appear to be too good to be true. But, if you can wrap your mind around this one phenomenon he is trying to describe, then the numbers do in fact add up very well, indeed. But, it will help a great deal with your understanding if you do your best to visualize in 3D what is really going on with turbulence. Think of turbulence as wave cancellation, which it is, but it just may not be as orderly or symmetrical as we may typically think of it in regard to, say, the front-to-back wave cancellation of a bass driver on an open baffle. Turbulence in this case is responsible for degrading the integrity of the newly launched sound wave from the driver. In every speaker design. Normally the turbulence is caused by the very act of the diaphragm launching the waveform...creation and destruction at the same moment. The more turbulence the more degradation of the waveform and therefore of the sound quality in all sonic categories. This is the problem that the Mihorns solve. It isn't that the GT's are creating sensitivity where there was none before. It's that the Mihorns are allowing very much more of the Inherent sensitivity of each driver to pass through them minus that level of degradation. IOW, the inherent sensitivity is being preserved. So, no, the laws of physics have neither been broken nor reinvented. The Iron Law is still very much in effect. The only things that have been removed from the equation are these purely physical (not electro-mechanical) losses that traditionally we have always had to put up with. It may not be so easy to grasp this from the numbers because we are so accustomed to seeing the rules, like the Iron Law, dictate less impressive performance compromises for cabinets of this size, but overcoming turbulence in this way can evidently be quite the game changer. Realize that the implication is that essentially our traditional measurements of driver or speaker sensitivity can now be thought of, in a rather real sense, as 'skewed' in light of this new information. Make no mistake, this is by definition altogether something new in the world. To my knowledge nothing like it has ever been done before. This is a genuinely innovative approach and I believe (at whatever point it begins to happen) that other companies and other audiophiles or reviewers are going to be talking about this technology...and probably for a long time to come.
But, this effect of smoothing out the airflow so that it both speeds up (apparently) the wave launch into the room while allowing those waves to be more intact and coherent upon reaching the lp, is evidently a significantly large one, large enough to do a number of things here all at once. Note that the radically improved Efficiency (not sensitivity) of this speaker system, the noticeably improved sound quality (again, waveforms that are more stable, accelerated and more coherent which in turn is improving the sound quality across the board) and the bass extension and dynamics in such a small cabinet (and yes, BTW, I can in fact confirm for you that the rolloff point for the GT is between 40-45Hz and no higher) are actually all directly related to each other...! It may be a bit of a Rubik's cube to think of it that way, but that appears to me to be what Alex has done. The entire design and all the innovation that goes with it hinges on the successful amelioration of the problem of air turbulence in front of the drivers. And there are no noticeable drawbacks with the sound to speak of, with the Mihorns installed.
If you've been to the website, you've probably seen the videos there of the GT's that have been set up and are playing outdoors. This is not to demonstrate that GT's make swell poolside speakers, but that they can do something pretty remarkable - they can actually sound pretty decent in a nearly anechoic environment. This is where perhaps every other design will fall flat on its face. It is the Mihorn's ability to deliver a fully fleshed out, fast, clean, dynamic, coherent, direct sound that is what is being displayed here.
Whether or not the GT's are your cuppa is up to you, of course, but I'm just outlaying here what I think may be going on with them.