Speakers: Anything really new under the sun?

Line arrays have appeared several times over the years and most have been very interesting and very good. Pipedreams come to mind.

But the latest and most interesting are Arions. I have a Mundorf AMT in my Tetra 606s. Dipole, they produce open and clear trebles. In the YouTube from the Florida Audio Show, the sound I heard from the Arion/Audio Research room was beyond any of the others from this show. This was especially evident in a drum solo on a LP. The presence and impact was unlike any I have heard. This lead me to exchange several emails with Arion and brought me to the point of almost going to Charlotte. If I ever wanted to change speakers, Arion would be on the top of my list.

Even only hearing a MP4 YouTube!

Very true. Nothing really new at any price point tho I still like a standard Brit Box as much as anything. All else is window dressing.

@strawj 

Very true. Nothing really new at any price point tho I still like a standard Brit Box as much as anything. All else is window dressing.

 

Absolutely. To think out of the decades old box is fairly easy, I'm sure we could all do it, but to bring it to the market takes an awful lot of ingenuity and guts.

The usual obstacles of price and consumer expectations are always there obstructing your way.

The biggest one, however, may be that undefeatable foe, domestic acceptability.

It's so formidable, that it's even more or less seen off most of those large loudspeakers that previous generations got to enjoy.

I was at lecture where I heard a prominent designer unabashedly declare that he began his new design from the premise that it must be domestically acceptable.

That is to say, a slim cabinet.

Of course, there are always constraints in anything you do, but to see sound quality demoted in such a way is always disappointing.

Therefore we should always give credit to designers like Hiroshi Kowaki who bring us products like the TD712z, or Lawrence Dickey with his dynamic Vivid Audio speakers. 

Neither of these designs can be called your typical box, but alas neither also seemed destined to be commonly found either.

The TD712z mark 2 is certainly the speaker I'd most want to hear.

It's already well over a decade old and still no sign of a mk3. I guess when your working at the periphery of what is possible, time moves slowly.

 

Another way to look at speakers and design is to study the company.  Companies have cultures and some are in for profit (the big ones) and have a quarterly report that drives everything, including engineering budget to invent or build new things.  They hire the top engineers and have the brain power to develop new ideas.  These engineers might have a revolutionary idea but whether they can pursue it depends on if it will make more money.  These companies have a board, have an owner(s) who are not engineers, a larger staff with a CFO and very formal company structure.   They move forward new ideas that improve income- period. 

 The small companies are more often Engineering driven, and they will develop a new idea even if it puts them out of business (engineers are often not good business people).  They may struggle with staying around, but they are constantly developing new new new.   We can all think of companies like this.  I think of PS Audio, Cardas, ATC, Kii, etc. people like that.  They have an engineer at the helm and he calls the shots, win or lose.   We may not always agree with them, but they break new ground.  They will not be cheap products and are often the most expensive. 

So if you want new tech, look to the engineering based companies.  If you want a deal, look to the manufacturing based companies.  And stay aware of brands that change hands, as the brand value may have arisen through engineering, but the new owners see that brand as a way to grow the business through manufacturing.  This has happened quite a few times lately with major Danish and English brands.  

Brad

Thank you for weighing in. This is why I suspected the claim by @holmz (that there has been very little advances in materials since the 80's or 90's) might need checking.

@hilde45 sure, at the upper end there have been advances, but at the that higher end, they were doing good work 20 years ago. That link with the video up the page would be an example… but who exactly is running those drivers? We do not see them on any $2000 pair of speakers. Do they sound good, yeah they are great.

Take the OP’s speakers, or say the Moabs, and I doubt that we find anything earth shattering in terms of the driver technology. I doubt that the drivers would more than $10-$30 each. Maybe they are better than the $20 drivers 20 years ago… but how would we know?

There are still lots of speakers that have cabinet resonances these days, and they are using the same MDF and glues that they were using 2 decades ago. So something with bracing design and dampening is lacking… and that knowledge and material existed decades ago.

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The AMTs that @arion described are a bit of a different beast… They might cost a lot more than the $20 drivers that I have been referencing.

Sure technology trickles down, But I am not sure it trickles down to $2000 range? It might.

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The Monitor web site shows only minimum impedance, and sensitivity, and not impedance versus frequency, nor much else. So we are sort of assuming that the rest is OK.

But we really have no way of know much about them from the web site, other than the basics.

@jaybird5619 if you are in the SE, then maybe consider contacting Erin at Erins Audio Corner and have those Monitor speakers put onto his Klippel. Then we will know what they do, and whether new drivers and crossovers would be worthwhile.
He is in Alabama…