Anyone familiar with the Manger driver?

7 years ago I built an active DSP based Manger system with a custom Scanspeak driver (not the paper one manger uses, yech). And it was righteous. Imagine Sound Labs U-1's with clarity and bass...you get the idea.

Manger driver is like a formula one racecar, the average guy can't drive it at all, a really good driver can keep it on the road and only the best can get the best from it.

Being speaker designer isn't enough to make a Manger speaker, and as Pass proved an o.d. on amp experience won't get you over the hump either

Gotta be able to do all three Speaker, Amp and DSP or you're not going to be good enough.

Kudos to Overkill for surpassing all the wannabee failures with the Manger. (70K? I'm still buying a Rocket Chassis 358 WOO late model for that money) Get much prettier girls from the same investment. :)

Manger with DSP is easily one of the ultimate home speakers, with Warner Imaging amplification on my original project and finding the right midbass driver can be brilliant. Sweet lightning.

Shame on me for never building another Manger Project...the allure of Diamond midranges from Accuton are very irresisteable and sucking up all my project money.

D_edwards, I neither understand nor agree with your remark, "Imagine Sound Labs U-1's with clarity and bass...you get the idea." Have you ever heard Sound Lab Ultimate-1s? And if so, under what conditions and how long ago? I purchased U-1s several years ago, later to become a Sound Lab dealer, and I can assure you clarity and bass have never been lacking, in fact they are some of the strong points. I suggest anyone who has heard U-1s properly set up would say the same. That is not to say the Manger drivers do not have their merits, but your argument citing U-1s as an example doesn't hold water, in my estimation.

Well EssentialAudio I have to ask based on this comment, cause I am assuming you actually know something technical about audio gear not just brand names.

"That is not to say the Manger drivers do not have their merits"

Like what? What are their "merits"? You should be able to rattle 5-6 things that make the Manger unique.

I cannot write an experience for you but no SoundLab is ever going to win an award for clarity, not with the reverb off the back wall (100% distortion), and when you can get 110db out of your speakers at 30hz call me, cause that is bass output performance commiserate with a $30,000 speaker system in my estimation. Just don't break anything trying, its not that important. :)

D_edwards, can you describe your Manger application -- the speaker part, the dsp part is obvious? BTW, that 10' paper scan is not a bad driver in & of itself.
What did you use?
Cheers

Hey Greg,

My Manger project utilize 2 dual voice coil Scan speak 8" Kevlar (100watts per driver perside) and twin tower 2x15" JBL woofers (total of 4).

Manger and paper allow for an easier passive crossover but the paper is a distortion liability in higher performance systems, and with Accuton and Seas using very rigid cones and better motors today, the speaker could be significantly better than what I built, waaaaaayyyy better.

That's not to dump on a Zerobox 109, 107, there are many speakers inferior to it, but in my opinion if you're not using advanced DSP methods, then you cannot get the best from the Manger driver.

The Manger driver today looks to perform about 70% better than the one I used, the DSP was used to control dispersion in the high frequencies and flatten the response to with +/- .5db throught the mids, with todays computing power the transparency of the DACs, the Manger can be realized to its fullest potential. I know why I stopped using the Mangers, but it appears those issues have been smoothed out and have become stabilized.

BTW, there's is nothing obvious about using the Manger, it was not like I bought the parts and the next day I had a speaker that was good and was on the U-1 level, more like 2-3 years later. You don't slip this driver in and suddenly you're a speaker design genius, infact its quite the opposite. All sorts of little nasty surprises that on other speakers could be ignored but are revealed by the superior performance of the Manger, simply cannot be overlooked. The Overkill guys would likely have even better stories and maybe some measurements. I have no records of my early projects and I can't even remember who I sold the system too. Some guy in Frederick Md.

BTW, you better have the "right" amplifiers, Nelson Pass does not make the "right" amplifiers for the Manger which is why he couldn't get it to fly. Manger is a tricky beasty that on paper looks like a plug and play miracle.

it is a trap. :)