Anyone in Vegas listen to the Gilmore speakers???

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.

However, For the record, temporary exposure to 115 db does not damage hearing unless your ears have some previous damage.

OSHA Noise Exposure Limits show the maximum time periods allowable for various noise exposures: 15 minutes at 115 dB and so on. The acceptable sound level (limit) is a time weighted average value. Continuous/intermittent noise exposures above 115 decibels (dBA) are not allowed by OSHA. Most audiophiles would consider it prudent to stay well below the prescribed maximum limits to avoid hearing loss.

Masking of detail occurs with increasing levels. For example, when you have the music cranking at 100 dB, you might feel the beat more but your ears will try to protect themselves. You should be able to hear more information at 80 dB, for example. How this works in the real world depends upon the source, in this case the playback system's ability to reveal low level details and respond uniformly at various levels.

Some people don't think of the speaker as a planar speaker, but it most definately is.

Your definition is different from mine, but then I'm biased.

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.

Assuming an anechoic environment, the sound from a point source decays at a rate of 6 dB for every doubling of distance, related to the area of a sphere, i.e. the square of the ratio of the distances, 10*LOG10((R1/R2)^2), where R1 is the original distance and R2 is the new distance. The decay from a line source is more related to the area of a cylinder, i.e. the ratio of the distances, 10*LOG10(R1/R2), or 3 dB for every doubling of distance. Factoring in some room reflections the differences will vary, but the loudness will be reduced with increasing distance from the source regardless.

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...

Perhaps, but there is a consistency of public reactions. Whether Gilmore chooses to accept them is his prerogative.

I heard the Gilmores at both venues and found them interesting and yes, dynamic. There's been a lot of controversy stirred, surely not a bad thing. It'll be interesting to see how things go. It all depends upon what people are looking for. Exciting times.

Brian Walsh

Dude, I have no idea what that guy was thinking, playing the stereo so loud. However its nice to know that with a reasonably powered amp that one cannot clip it.

>Assuming an anechoic environment, the sound from a point >source decays at a rate of 6 dB for every doubling of >distance...

Of course, as we all know, no-one lives in an anechic chamber :) As a result, my previous statement stands, unless one has a very large room. At any rate, were it a point source, there would be a sizable increase in volume as one approached the drivers (square of the distance, blah blah) and this obviously does not happen.

With regards to the stovetop comments, there is indeed a consistancy of troll reactions. My girlfriend, on seeing the photo of the speaker, commented that it was nice to see a speaker that had some curves and was not the same-old same-old. Mark reports that the marketing studies show that women accept the speaker easier then men. Obviously there will be exceptions. Mark also points out that the shape of the speaker is such that it prevents comb-filter effects that it would have if it were rectangular.

Mark also explored grill cloth materials and tried every type that is in use on other planars. They all had a sonic artifact. As a result there is no grill. The ribbon is available in several colors so there are choices to allow for the lack of ye old black.