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Was the Snell Secret a Wide Baffle?

I often regret not buying old Snell A/III when I had the money and the space.

One of my all time favorite speakers. By now I'd have certainly had to throw it away. I'd not have the space, and those woofers with extra mass would long ago have pulled out of their frames.

One thing you don't realize unless you go looking for the pics, or owned one, was that the tweeter and midrange of these  speakers were, in my mind, very wide baffle designs. Yes, curved, but very wide.

Another Speaker I like, which I believe is based on a Snell design, is the Audio note AN/J, also has a relatively wide baffle, as do the Devore Orangutan. Of course, among my all time favorite speakers is the Sonus Faber Stradivari, a speaker I know can sound excellent even in acoustically challenged rooms.

What do you all think, have you heard the wide baffle magic?
erik_squires
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 

Let's not forget the Sonus Faber Stradivari and Cremona Elipsa.


@prof 

Both those speaker lines seem to produce a richer/fuller-than-usual sonic presentation, where instruments have more size and sense of body.

You put into better words exactly the impression that I was trying to name when I was listening to the Classic 100's.  For my own personal shorthand I came up with "music launch", in that somehow just more of the music seemed to be arriving at the listener. But I prefer your formulation.


erik_squires OP
16,021 posts
 
Let's not forget the Sonus Faber Stradivari and Cremona Elipsa.


I did in fact mention the Stradivari in my Op. :)

Also, Genesis IRS count!

jtgofish's avatar
jtgofish
513 posts
 
Also the Troels Gravesen Poor Mans Strad kit speaker.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
Anyone here ever hear the Trenner and Friedl Isis?
montaldo
187 posts
 
I have found that it is difficult to attribute a certain type of sound with a single design element like baffle width, material used in the drivers,  time algnment, etc. Its always about the overall execution that combines so many factors. But I am a huge fan of the Snell Type A. I have owned six pairs including the Type A Original, A-I, AII, and AIII. The AIII is remarkable in its superior dynamics and bass extension, but I found (IMO  of course) that it lost some of the midrange magic and "realness" of previous models. I found the midrange to be thinner, the treble to be a little much (even with the rear tweeter switched off), and the bass to be too much in some rooms. But boy could it blow a room away!

The AI and AII are very similar to one another in sound but after years of listening to them I decided the A Original is the most real sounding of them all. I totally agree with Prof about how most speakers sound too thin... chasing this notion of "neutrality" we have had pushed at us for years. Somehow Peter Snell delievered tonal balance that sounds meaty and real to me. Part of it I believe is reducing floor bounce with the midrange driver height and the thick padding bocking radiation downward from the midrange driver. Ironically he prioritized anechoic flat response in the design. But then hand tuned each reference pair with the crossover in his lap, winding by hand and listening. Or so goes the legend. Maybe someone here haw firsthand knowledge of this.

After owning all the Type A variations I chose to keep only a pair of A-originals and had the woofers rebuilt with new spiders and surrounds. Midranges are resurrounded. Wire was upgraded by the factory way back when. They put most other speakers to shame. I had to buy Verity Parsifals to beat them while retaining the magic in the midrange. Peter Snell was a genius.

Funny aside... at 2018 Axpona I talked to a reviewer who said PeterQ is planning an Audio Note Type A speaker, and in anticipation of its introduction (or maybe for R&D purposes?) has been buying up every used pair of Type A's on the market. Anyone else heard that?
Stu

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