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Coaxials - Reality vs. Experience?

Should say "hype vs. reality" in the headline. 

 

Coaxial speaker design has been around in one way or another for a long time. I often think I’ll be absolutely blown away by them, but in practice traditional vertical layout speakers often have sound as good, or have other features that make them sound better.

Thiel, KEF, Monitor Audio, Tekton, Seas are among the many players attempting such designs, but none has, by the coaxial drivers alone, dominated a segment of the market.

What are your listening experiences? Is it 1 coaxial speaker that won you over, or have you always preferred them?

erik_squires
nationalbar
50 posts
 

@johnah5 

We built our own using same values as the stock x-over, but way-upgraded parts quality- Goertz inductors, V-cap ODAMs and Miflex caps, Path audio resistors, we went nuts- would not fit inside the speaker so we mounted it in outboard box. Also lined the inside panels with "No-Rez". Driver is hard-wired to the x-over.  It's amazing, a real diamond in the rough!

johnah5
235 posts
 

Got it and did it make a significant diff?  Did you modify the cabinets?

 

Thanks

 

james633
1,023 posts
 

I have owned both types and time aligned speakers. It think it is all hype. I think it matters a bit but frequency response, dispersion, port noise etc are all more important. 

nationalbar
50 posts
 

@johnah5 

Really big improvement, openness, refinement, clarity, tonal specificity. 

As I said the inside panels got covered in No-Rez.

Removed the binding posts and filled the holes with small rubber grommets and ran the wires through to the crossovers.

Placement is six feet out from the front wall, about 22 inches from the side walls, and sharp toe-in, so they cross a couple of feet in front of listening position. So, around 15 degrees off-axis.

johnah5
235 posts
 

Thank you.  It's eye opening how good and how not good equipment can sound depending on the synergy of all the components.  The guy who sold these to me didn't know they were a coax driver!  As I think I said they don't sound good on my DK Design amp with tube preamp in it. They sound crazy good on the other system.  This has been the best $300 lesson I ever learned!

jh

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