Anyone else excited for this Borresen subwoofer?!!!

@mijostyn Are all your sources digitized? 

@phusis I had one of Tom's tinnitus inducing Tech 7 ServoDrive belt drive horns with the band for a few weeks. Brought it in the house and ran the source through the Velodyne's Rap EQ preset, OMG!

I hate to criticize anything I haven't actually listened to at home or at least on a familiar system. On the other hand there were some phrases coming from Mr. Borresen that triggered my yada whada? too. 

As a Double Bassist a single or 6 pack of -6dB sub-bass systems just don't go low. 

Correction: presumably I was incorrect about the Borresen sub principle and it only utilizing the front wave of the woofer cones. They look to be mounted in a folded-baffle design (a so-called "RiPol" after Alex Ridtahler, short for Ridtahler Dipole) that radiates both front and aft in a directional pattern - i.e.: the backside of the cones "shoot" into the open-to-the-back dual chambers - and thus necessitates a free-standing position. Inherently low efficient, but by all accounts (very much dependent it seems on accurate positioning) delivering a very clean "coming from nowhere" bass, also very suitable it appears in conjunction with planar/ESL main speakers. Interesting principle for a number of reasons, but less so for my requirements in particular. Sorry about the confusion.

@deep_333 wrote:

All technical and sensationalist jargon aside...the simple ability to delay the mains, very easily accommodated in the multichannel or pro world to make life a whole lot easier...but, a freaking rarity in purist hifi.

The buzzwords here are "purist hifi" and "analog," but as poster @mijostyn points to delay can be done in the digital domain (the non-purist approach, god forbid), even more accurately and expansively with a separate, quality DSP unit that can also be more sonically transparent than most analog solutions (not least omitting the passive crossover), and if the same DSP section affects the whole frequency range actively the inherent delay of the unit affects the different driver sections equally.

What’s considered "purist" in the Borresen way or general sense of audiophilia is usually only so in a limited context (i.e.: analog vs. digital), and so I’ll glad incorporate quality digital where it makes a lot of sense, apply a purist oriented approach elsewhere and try and see the forest for the trees more clearly.

@m-db wrote:

I had one of Tom’s tinnitus inducing Tech 7 ServoDrive belt drive horns with the band for a few weeks. Brought it in the house and ran the source through the Velodyne’s Rap EQ preset, OMG!

I read of those, allegedly they were SPL-beast (and then some) but according to sources also somewhat unreliable?

I hate to criticize anything I haven’t actually listened to at home or at least on a familiar system.

Good point.

On the other hand there were some phrases coming from Mr. Borresen that triggered my yada whada? too.

Yeah, the sub principle at hand at its core certainly isn’t unique, it appears, though hardly widespread in use either. I’ve heard similar rhetorics from Borresen and others with more or less grandstanding notions, and yet the physical framework where speakers go, as usual, is stunted. One can only do so much from a restricted outset.

As a Double Bassist a single or 6 pack of -6dB sub-bass systems just don’t go low.

Perhaps a physically more all-out open baffle tower sub system would be the way to go (multiple 12" woofers or bigger), albeit taking up more space into the heights and without being SPL- or extension-monsters all the same..

@m-db Yes, every last one. The phono stage is run balanced into a Lynx Hilo, a studio ADC/DAC/switcher/digital gain controller type thing. The Hilo is then connected to a DEQX Pre8 by an AES EBU cable. The DEQX is a new digital processor/preamp with a 4 way digital crossover, bass management, parametric EQ, room control and streaming via a Volumio processor. I use Qobuz. 

@phusis If you want accurate bass open baffle subwoofers are the last thing you want to do. You do need multiple drivers to get anywhere, but in a sealed system preferable arrayed as a line source. Line sources project power and minimize room interaction. The problem as always with subwoofers is putting the drivers into enclosures that are not musical instruments.

The Rythmik Audio plate amps include a ’Delay/Phase" control, providing continuously-variable adjustment of from zero milliseconds delay / zero degrees phase rotation up to 16 milliseconds delay / 180 degrees phase rotation. Such a control makes aligning a sub with a loudspeaker far easier than moving the sub physically. Increasing the amount of time delay / phase rotation does exactly the same thing as does physically moving the sub further away from the loudspeaker. So you can find a good location for a sub in terms of room modes, then use the delay/phase control to align the outputs of the sub and loudspeaker.