Cogent horns

Hello Paul,

There are several reasons why your experience with the Cogent's differed from 2006 to 2007.

The system in 2006 was set up as a Cogent system by Cogent. The system in 2007 was owned and operated by Teres, and Chris Brady made his own crossover, which was completely different from the Cogent, and added a plasma tweeter, and pretty much completely changed the sound of the system. Another thing that is important to understand- when you heard the system in 2006 it had adequate power, being in a small room. In 2007 an impressive looking amp built by Chris Brady nonetheless produced only 3 watts output and the system was not multiamped. If you want to produce adequate SPL without going into distortion in a 2000 square foot ballrom, 3 watts is not going to cut it.

If you want to hear the kind of sound you heard in the room at RMAF in 2006, OMA is producing a four way system using the Cogent driver, as well as a version of the AC1 with a Cogent driver.

As far as DIY- you heard the Cogent system in 2007. I don't think I need add anything.

Jonathan

John (K), you know, it is not much short of a miracle that you live an hour from me and I have never bought a speaker from you, given that I've owned about 30 others in the last 4-5 years, and I talk to so many who have your speakers. But you wouldn't let me come over - something about no demo visits - I woulda bought something that day, probably. :)

I have to disagree with you a bit re: field coil technology. There may not be any 'good' (measurable) reason while they sound different (but I think there is, actually), but such is the case with much in audio. They sound different.

Jonathan,

I have to say I like a man who tells it like it is (or as he sees it, at least) and also that what you say makes some sense.

FYI, my comments here (the thread) may have seemed rather out of the blue, but actually I was initially trying to respond to another (older) thread. After several tries, it just wouldn't 'take', so I started a new one.

And I am just posting out of curiosity: the Cogents and the Classic line with field coils are (or almost certainly are) beyond my reach. (As are the AC1s which I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing.)

It's just nice to know where the top of the heap is.

Well, Paul, you never know what is out of your reach until you ask....

There is a big thing (tempest in a tea cup) right now with people from LA to Germany and Japan taking Altec and JBL large and medium format vintage compression drivers and hot rodding them as field coils.

Several things are cogent (pun intended) to this driver transformation- the actual structure of the permanent magnet driver and whether it can properly be converted to a field coil motor given its pole piece and the room within the casework for an adequate FC motor. The other issue is the diaphragm design and compliance, phase plug, and how that sounds unto itself. In other words, if you never liked an Altec 288, no matter what diaphragm it had, do you really think you will like the field coil version?

These are issues I do not usually see addressed.

Jonathan

Many revered audio products were the result of DIY endeavors. Simple reasoning tells us this much. So I assessed my DIY potential vis a vis the sort of performance levels and product refinement I require and proceeded to shop for finished product. Each of us must make that determination for ourselves, however.

As for field coil drivers, I have no personal experience, but will speculate that they may well offer slightly better performance than the best of conventional drivers. In my case that didn't matter because I couldn't spend $15,000 for a pair of Cogents.

Given the vast price differential between field coils and the best conventional compression drivers, I had no choice but to choose conventional. They've worked out very well and only cost me $1000.