Anyone in Vegas listen to the Gilmore speakers???

Sorry to disappoint you folks. First off, we were in the back room when that dude showed up and played the system at such a volume. However, For the record, temporary exposure to 115 db does not damage hearing unless your ears have some previous damage. I hope that you will re-read my previous post and see that 115 sound pressures were NOT used during my consideration of the speaker.

For your money, you could get a cooktop but I don't see how you would be able to play music with that :)

Some people don't think of the speaker as a planar speaker, but it most definately is. The way you can tell is that it really makes no difference how close to the speaker you are- the volume you get from it seems the same at any distance in the room. The only speakers I have seen do that are planars.

As for 'standing to profit': for the record, although I have known Mark for close to ten years, and found him to be one of the nicer, straight-shooting guys you could hope to meet in this hobby, I have no interests in the speaker whatsoever. Ya know, all you have to do is ask either me or Mark by email rather then have to drag this stuff out ad nauseum just to find out something that a simple question on the email would answer. I have to say (again) I have seen all sorts of stuff said about Mark on this and other forums, and from talking to him, I know that not one of those individuals *ever* called or emailed Mark to ask him *anything*. Sorry to say this, but if you want to be a troll, go ahead and repeat the same behaviour. If not, call him or email him and bring this stuff up with him. You will find him to be a fine gentleman.

Over the years, a lot of people have told me that they 'don't care what it looks like as long as it sounds good'. I have found that generally that is not actually the case, but I have also found that, at least in the case of the gear I make, that when the form follows the function it is easier to build a higher performing product.

Its been about a week and a half since CES ended and we had to pack up. In the meantime, it occurred to me that a lot of people have asked me what I thought about the speaker and how it sounded. It seemed appropriate to put my thoughts down on paper, so to speak, as most people have no idea what the Gilmore is like. I have to say I was very curious as well. Although disappointing on the first two days as I mentioned previously, this was the result if inadequate break-in. Afterwords the speaker did the job right.Anyway, since I had been thinking about all the people that asked my opinion I thought I would offer it. I hope that I have not offended anyone by making these points.

Not at allm Atmasphere. Although some hear are suspicious of anonymous shilling, no way could you be considered anonymous. Also some pretty heavy hype from the marketing dept came through here, as well. But all viewpoints are welcome IMO, and you are right. Ask the man if you have a question. Unfortunately, some initial questions seem to have been answered in a less than accurate fashion. And I think the point about the cooktop comments is that at the asking prices, you can buy a universally admired more conventional speaker (Vandy 5As) and a pro stove. If Corian is the key in terms of its performance, than I for one am OK with that, but what about using solid colors?

What Mark tells me is that there are dozens of colors to choose from. They way I understand it, the infamous ad that has been so effective and controversial is a photo of a prototype, hence the blue color. If you look at some of the photos that Albert Porter took, you will see one photo of the equipment stand in the Glacier room. In front of the stand are 5 Golden Ear Awards, which are sitting on square blocks of Corian, which are some of the color samples Mark brought to the show. I figured they would make handy bases...

I'm getting mine in black.

Mark of course tried wood and wood products, but none of them would control resonace properly. The Corian allowed for resonace control to 8Hz (an octave below the passband of the speaker) and one of the country's largest Corian machining plants is very close by so it seemed a simple choice. He explored other options but from what I understand the costs went out of sight. Ask any one who's remodeled a kitchen recently how much machined Corian costs and you have a good idea of the cost of this speaker. There's enough Corian in them to easily build a complete counter array in a modern kitchen (the speaker is two slabs laminated together in a vacuum pressure press and then machined- none of which is cheap, its not like you can use SealAll to hold this stuff together...). All this information was easily obtained by asking Mark himself (as you can imagine I have been very curious as I have been hearing about this speaker for a long time).

I find the stovetop comments amusing as obviously no stovetop is made with Corian as it would be damaged by the operation of the burners :) So I think we can regard the stovetop comments as a wee bit of the troll influence...

I was also very curious about the woofers, which initially look very pedestrian. A closeup look at the actual diaphram reveals, especially after questioning Mark, that the diaphrams are composed of an metallic honeycomb structure- at once very rigid, lightweight and sturdy. Mark studied several different diaphram structures but all the others failed either due to the materials being inadequate or else costing more for one woofer array then the total cost of the speaker. As Mark obviously took great inspiration from the Carver (and knows the man personally), he knew that the Q of the woofer was important for getting an open baffle design to work (IOW, building an operational planar speaker). The comments of the speaker being a Carver ripoff are thus no less amusing, as the actual woofers, baffle, crossover and ribbon ribbon designs (IOW: the entire speaker) are quite unique. The ribbon and woofers are both made in house. The baffle material, size and shape were modeled by computor to insure the proper bandwidth (17Hz cutoff) and the actual real-world speaker conforms to the design.

Mark sent me a plot of the impedance curve. Other then a bump at the 200Hz crossover point, the plot is ruler flat- 8.1 ohms at any point other then the crossover point. The resonance plots are equally impressive: essentially the speaker exhibits resonaces an order of magnitude less then any other speaker measured.

That is quite a statement, and frankly I believe that some 'audiophiles' were disappointed *because* the speaker lacked the typical resonant signatures that they have become so used to. I have always maintained that electronic reproducers are just that - and *not* musical intruments (which should have resonaces). Colored speakers and amplification built with intentional coloration (don't get me started...) fall into the latter category.

So Ralph, does that mean you like them?

Hi Albert, What, is Kenny G the Antichrist??

Yes, I'm alright with them. It helps that the speaker handled my recording of Salubrious Invertebrae without bottoming out. Of course, like everything else in this sport, the final test will be how they do here at home.

I was talking to a friend of mine who is an interior decorator, and she was pleased, even after seeing photos of the speaker, that there is finally a speaker like the Gilmore, because in her business, it is now finally possible to hide the speaker in the decor, as Corian is available in so many colors. She says that way it does not have to be the central focus of the room. Something *I'd* not thought of before... (she says its nearly impossible to hide most speakers in the room decor as the wood and black grills attract the eye so easily) so now I might be doing the speaker in the same tones as my room is done in now.

The way these things go, I expect it'll be May before I can get my hands on a set.