2. misc-audio
  3. 194095-11297

There is no substitute for cubic inch or in this case surface area

After listening to quite a few speakers, my conclusion is that if you want large enveloping soundstage, you need a lot of drivers.  

I once had a speaker with two 12in. drivers and the soundstage is just floating in the air.  None of my other speakers could do that.

Currently I have a pair of Thiel CS2.4.  It is a very good speaker but with small drivers there is really limitation to what it can do in term of soundstage size.  I really miss that.

andy2
toddalin's avatar
toddalin
351 posts
 

Peter, I was there.  Was impressive, but I get better imaging in my living room and this would be unnecessary overkill.

But I don't need to fill that much volume and only use two JBL 18"ers, not 12.

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
464 posts
 

@jon_5912 

I also have an 18" Velodyne subwoofer.  The cone excursion is servo controlled in a real feedback loop, right where it matters.  The Velodyne blends in superbly so I only become aware of it when particularly low notes play!

@jsalemo277

Speakers like the KEF Reference series produce huge volumes for their size, in part because they use aluminium for the voice coils.  Aluminium is 4 times more conductive than copper, weight for weight.

I am convinced that to get a great soundstage, you cannot go past apparent single point speakers, like KEF, Fyne, later Quad electrostatics, Tannoy ...

larryi
4,269 posts
 

While this discussion has focused on woofers, the midrange driver(s) are key to the attributes we are discussing.  I particularly like compression drivers and horns, and I have found that the bigger the horn and the lower one can set the crossover point, the better the sound.  Truly large horns, with the right drivers deliver scale, impact, and authority at lower volume levels than any other kind of driver.

petaluman
187 posts
 

Most modern box speakers use reflex loading to handle the bass region.  The most obvious "violent" cone movement occurs at the port tuning frequency, where the box acoustically vanishes and the woofer is completely unloaded.

incorrigable
95 posts
 

My Yamaha NS-5000's have one 12 inch woofer each. You have to look carefully to see them move. It's a 6 ohm driver with a 3.5 pound woofer coil, which I think is key to its incredible bass texture and detail down to 26hz. I rarely hear my subwoofer. 

Midrange and tweeter (4 ohms both) are the identical (to the woofer) carbon fiber coated in Monel (copper nickel alloy). Hence it is virtually impossible to isolate a driver with your ears. 

The rub is this design is in its relative energy inefficiency. The user guide says 200 watts "nominal." I ran them on 250/500 8/4 ohm Ice Modules for a while. Now they are connected to 500/1000 watt Ice Modules which I think is about right. My wife noticed the difference immediately. We have a 13 foot listening distance in an open plan tract house. So no nearfield listening and no flea watt amplification. 

More to discover