Do 1st Order XO's produce a smaller

A very interesting thread here. Regarding the 360 degree dispersion speaker types....There is a gentlemen in Toronto Canada, that makes a modern version of the original Hegeman 1a. His name is Don Morrison and I believe the man now owns the patent rights to the original Hegeman design. The original model-1 was truly remarkable at recreating a holographic soundscape, in proper scale, akin to a live instrument or live voice in room.I was also a big fan of the original Ohm-F speaker of the 70's, mainly because of it's superb imaging and tremendous bass speed.Unfortunately,one needed some serious horsepower and current to make the damned things really sing...and most amps from that era with big power reserves were downright dreadful sounding devices. I would love to hear a mint pair of original Ohm f's mated to some of the terrific sounding high powered amps of today. The original Hegeman 1a was a single hand-made aluminum driver firing straight up in a box with a lens type piece on the top just above the tweeter. The speaker acted as a true point source signal launch, an incredible image that was truly 3 dimensional from anywhere in the room. His newest speaker...the 1.7 [I think?]is basically the same speaker design in a modern computer designed cabinet that is braced and somewhat larger than the original. Like the original model one.... quarter wave tuning tunnels are employed with the same machine spun aluminum cone. The tweeter is now a modern Seas [magnesium I think?]with a modified lens above it. From what I have heard... it can play to much higher SPL's and has true 30 hz bass extension.The original Hegeman-1 had great and tuneful bass considering it's small and flimsy cabinet. They are all hand made by Don himself. Most true point source type speakers all seem to posses that inate ability to disappear in the room regardless of whether it is a planar,electrostatic panel or a cone. Unfortunately...most planar type point sources[e-stats and ribbons] are rather limited in dispersion both horizontally and vertically, therefore.... become very much a sweet spot challenged speaker. That said... when in that right spot, they can make for a mesmerizing illusion to be sure. I think it is really terrific that many new speaker designers have recognized and embraced the magic of a true point reproducer for music and voice, Kudos to the horn loaded designers working with modern high tech cones and cabinet designs,especially given their high efficiency and amplification reqirements. Have you ever heard a classic Tannoy 15 inch [dual concentric] speaker in a good box, powered with top shelf modern electronics? It becomes very obvious why vintage Tannoys enjoy the largest cult following of any speaker type ever made. Hell...15 inch Tannoy Gold,Red,or Silver drivers alone, command more money than many established high end speakers of today! Do you think these people are just collectors of antiques or nostagia? Think again! When these drivers are properly tuned in good cabinets and with good crossovers... they possess that abilty to diasappear in the room, whereby they image in proper scale and tone from most of the room boundaries whether sitting,standing, or lying down on the couch.Remember the late great Gizmo?He was a man of true vision and very much committed to the truest reproduction of the recorded arts. Hopefully....we will see much more modern "point source" speaker designers in the near future. And always remember...the world would be a very, very sad place without music!

Dawgbyte, have you heard either the mbl or the Duevel speakers? both are omnidirectional designs. I have heard the mbls--remarkable speakers, with a huge sweet spot (not the whole room in my experience, but very very wide and deep), great dynamics and transparency. Super expensive too.

I have not yet heard the Duevels, but they are more reasonably priced and have received some very good reviews.

Calantus... I concurr with your assessment of the MBL's. They through a huge stage act to be sure,but another design that requires giant sized amplification to energize. Now those Duevels are really intriuging... exotic wood options...with a real world sensitivty and impedence load. Do you know where one might audition these in North America?

Ecclectique - regarding the Duevel's and Tannoy's. With respect to the Duevel's I've read some reviews on the Bella Luna and they sound very promising, with some inherent limitations. You can probably get some dealer info. from this site:
http://www.cd-konzert.de/loudspeaker.htm

Another interesting speaker design concept worth noting is the Oskar Heil A.V.T. (Air Velocity Transformer). Oskar Heil Speakers has recently introduced a new model called the Kithara ($4,900). The A.V.T. uses a lightweight diaphragm, folded into a number of accordion-like pleats to which aluminium foil strips are bonded. The Diaphragm is mounted in an intense magnetic field and a music signal is applied to the aluminum strips. This causes the pleats to alternately expand and contract in a bellows-like manner in conformance with the music signal forcing air out of the pleats and sucking in on the other side, the air movement is 5 times bigger than the movement of the membrane, therefore also the velocity must be 5 times bigger. The benefit of this transducer design is better differentiate sounds.

Tannoys! I've worked in the multimedia industry for over 14 years and spent many hours in professional editing suites in NYC, Los Angeles and Atlanta, so you know I've heard a lot of Tannoy professional monitors. The Tannoy monitors I've heard are absolutely fantastic, practically an industry standard in the '90's. However, I didn't think their floorstanding speakers were able capture the same magic, especially when I listened to them next to Vandersteen 5's and Martin Logan's. I thought my Hales T-5's were far superior to any of the Tannoy's I listened to.

You're right this is a very interesting subject. Perhaps the ultimate speaker is a hybrid that includes an active sub and mid-range and a 360 degree tweeter design.

Someone mentioned 6moons reviewing the GMA's soon, but they already have a review of another 1st order design, the Gallo Reference III that is really quite a gushing review, even considering the normal gushy nature of speaker reviews. I guess it is time coherent too based on the driver placement but I could be wrong.
The CDT design sounds like it would somewhat address the narrow sweet spot issue. I plan to go listen to these speakers sometime this week, I'll let you know what I think.