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How come that when most audiophiles

follow the philosophy of "shorter, less complex signal path is better", they then wire their carefully chosen equipment to speaker cabinets filled with a boatload of transformers, capacitors, resistors, and drivers which exhibit gross non-linearities which are only compounded by adding them all together? I believe that the reason is the "specification game" again, where people believe that speakers must have a frequency response from DC to light +-3db, and as a result, speaker systems must have many drivers to cover the range. Notice the specs only show freq. response, and nothing about phase non-linearity induced by multiple crossover components. This seems to be a non-linearity in system philosophy where short signal path does not apply to speaker systems, but is paramount in all other aspects of the system. I use a direct input from source to OTL amp and DIY Fostex based 1-way speaker cabinets. The result is very natural, dynamic, phase-coherent,detailed, and revealing. The only non-linearities I have to deal with are the ones inherent in the driver/cabinet combo. With some careful design and impedence curve mods, I get a more musical sound than any "high end" speakers I have ever heard(and I've heard alot) as well as any of the multi-way speakers I've ever designed and built(also alot). Why do you think that there is this disconnect in thinking regarding short signal path as it relates to speakers?
twl
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drubin
3,274 posts
 
I'm waiting for Albert to deliver the punchline.
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onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,234 posts
 
Other than the reference the other Albert (Einstein's description on how complex the laws of physics have to be), who's exact comment escapes me, my earlier post was solely directed towards Twl's excellent post. To be referenced in the same sentence as Albert E. is no disparagement.

To Twl: it sounds like you are really happy with your setup. It seems to accomplish everything you are looking for in music reproduction. My point is that someone else may have a slightly different set of musical reproduction priorities which could be better met with a different type of system. For instance someone with a large room who likes pipe organs may not be happy with your system. To quote that great American composer S. Stewart - "Different strokes for different folks, and so on and so on..."
twl OP
3,251 posts
 
I agree Viridian, that the above mentioned non-linearities should not be minimized. However, driver/cabinet non-linearities are present in all dynamic speaker systems regardless of the number of drivers. So are speaker/room interface problems and amp/driver impedance matches/mismatches. In my above design description, I attempted to explain the methods used to overcome some of these problems the best I could. I have admitted to max. spl limitations, and, at higher volumes, the attendant dynamic range limitations. These are not conflicting with my normal listening volume requirements. Of course, as you mention, IM distortion is present inherently in any driver that produces more than one frequency simultaneously as is also the case in multi-way systems, although I will agree that it may be more problematic in single driver setups. However, if you have ever done any speaker design work, you are aware that the above problems are not solved by multi-way systems. In fact, crossover slope overlap, phase shift,signal loss, even more complex impedance mismatches at diverse frequency points, image shift, and sometimes efficiency level are added to the problems you mentioned. I am not claiming perfection for my speaker design, but am merely pointing out the benefits of short signal path/low complexity philosophy as regards speaker systems in a properly designed one way system.
twl OP
3,251 posts
 
And, I might add, that since I have no commercial expectations, and have only done these speakers for my own pleasure, I have selflessy divulged virtually all of the design parameters to all on this board so that if anyone is so inclined, they may have an easier time of DIY. My sweat can be their gain. I have found the people here to be knowledgable and genuine and I am happy to share any of my experience, designs, tweaks, etc. with any and all.
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