When a speaker has "speed" it's approaching the sound of real, life like, sound Designing speaker is a compromise - some are optimized for speed (dynamic), or soundstage, or musicality. Some $80K speakers can have a huge soundstage but lack musicality. Some are optimized for speed but soundstage may lack bloom. And so on ... |
I do not put electrostatic and planer speakers in the same category as push-pull standard types of speakersThat may be true, but conventional drivers are transducers nevertheless - they convert electrical energy to mechanical energy hence by definition they are transducers. And fundamentally there’s not much difference between electrostatic panels and conventional drivers. They might be different but not fundamentally. |
The issue of loudspeaker speed (like almost everything else about loudspeakers) seems to be endlessly complex. Here's an interesting interview with Allan Hendry of Monopulse loudspeakers. https://www.monopulse.co.uk/quest.htm If what he's saying is correct, and I don't have enough knowledge to know any better, then many (if not all!) two way designs could be seriously flawed when it comes to speed, phase and integration issues. |
Transient response, certainly, as has been pointed out by others, sonically perceived as a lack of smear/crispness, unforced clarity and liquidity. Usually, not least through quality all-horns, I find it linked to uninhibited dynamics as well (or: ease of "explosivity," felt as a startling experience), coupled to (at least as a partially responsible aspect) a pronounced degree of low volume level "ignition," whereby music comes alive quite easily at lower SPL's. |
Hold on Andy. That is a mistake. Yes they are all transducers but their ability to function in air is quite different. ESLs and horns are a better impedance match to air and transmit sound waves more efficiently. Dynamic drivers have to work harder to get the same results. ESLs work entirely differently than conventional speakers. First, there are no magnets. ESLs are capacitors conventional drivers are not and represent an entirely different load to the amplifier. Designed correctly their transient response is superior to conventional drivers because the moving system has far less inertia and is a better impedance match to air. Planar speakers are somewhere in between. IMHO in spite of the compromises you have to make ESLs rule as long as you can make them. I have personally not heard a conventional speaker sound as convincing. Some say well designed horns can do it. But I am still waiting to hear one that does. |
