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Mega D'Appolito Speakers - The Holy Grail?

The engineer, scientist and author Dr. Joseph D'Appolito has a speaker arrangement named after him, a vertical array of mid-Woofer, Tweeter and mid-woofer. There is more to it than this, as the good Dr. has written quite a bit about crossover design needed to achieve good results.

I'm not necessarily talking about a true D'Appolito speaker though. I'm rather thinking of large speakers which have a central tweeter in between increasingly larger drivers. MBL, Dunlavy, Von Schweikert, Legacy, Gryphon all have built some version of this idea.

What do you listeners think? Is the dynamic range, detail, transparency, distortion and imaging consistently better than other type of designs?

Best,

E

erik_squires
kdude66
1,200 posts
 
Is the dynamic range, detail, transparency, distortion and imaging consistently better than other type of designs?

I would say not really so much,only tiny differences in presentation.


Kenny.
bo1972's avatar
bo1972
2,789 posts
 
Like Ricred I also own the Pl-500 from Monitor Audio. For this money you will never find this level in sound quality.

It outperforms in stage depth, width and especially in diversity in height the Magico speakers.

But the D’appolito system creates a level in physical appearance you seldom wil hear. It makes voices and instruments so much more physical tangible.

Beside this the level in grip and authority is of a different level compared to other speakers who have no d’appolito system. The ease and accuracy in grip is really impressive.
ricred1
2,001 posts
 
Bo1972,

There are no absolutes in audio, only preferences. There are many, many outstanding speakers to choose from.
timlub
2,039 posts
 
At SpeakerCraft/Marcof we were building MTM arrays before Joe came out with his well deserved praise for his development. Joe was trying to eliminate lobing error independent of inter-driver phase relationships.  Most of the time Joe used all 18db slopes and drivers that had a smooth transition in the mid band. I could speak extensively here,  but If I read the ops starting message, I think the main question by the op is... Are larger speakers that incorporate an MTM design, inherently better in some way than other methods. 
Done well,  I would normally rather listen to a very good MTM over the same drivers in a 2 way design.  However, when you step into large 3 way or 4 way well done speakers.  I cannot say this is the case.  Many large speakers sound quite good in dynamics, a large midrange transducer to have that extra air moving in the mid band,  shoot,  I've heard some pretty terrific 15 inch 2 ways. So for a direct answer, I would say no. The attributes that you mentioned are not necessarily better in an mtm over a non mtm in Large speakers.  Legacy Aeris comes to mind as a great example. 
erik_squires OP
16,021 posts
 
Hi @timlub
Thanks for your contributions, here and elsewhere.

I _really_ did a poor job of explaining myself. I'm really not thinking of D'Appolito 2-ways.

I'm thinking more of large expensive towers with drivers arranged vertically around a tweeter which are at least 3-way designs.

So it sounds generally that you agree, midrange surface area/dynamic range is a big deal, more so than the lobing and arrangement of the drivers?

Best,

E
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