KeithR's "Dream Speaker" Search

[Folsom]

Room size is a big problem. Larger speakers are rarely tuned for the room gain of a small room.

But the bad electricity can cause other issues. Very large transformers that are very low impedance could be ringing like crazy with everything else on the line. There’s lots of variables. There are solutions, often, but some might be fairly custom and not what you’d do elsewhere.

Think about this, the biggest gear is only using more than a handful of watts at the shows when they play some kind of demo that isn’t sustained power but maybe a giant 800w burp. That doesn’t mean large amps can’t have internal problems multiplying internally though. There are challenges not always addressed with super sized transformers and capacitors.

Not burning gear, or zero room treatment are two failures that happen when people also expect the “greatness” of such magnificent gear to overwhelm everything.

 

[ack]

Gentlemen, we have eclipsed 100 pages on my dream speaker hunt - I'm not sure if that's a good or sad thing

I think it's a good thing - lots of funny and entertaining comments keeping us busy, and the longer you take to make a decision the more entertaining it gets.

 

[Al M.]

I think it's a good thing - lots of funny and entertaining comments keeping us busy, and the longer you take to make a decision the more entertaining it gets.

Yeah, once Keith has made his decision it's going to be a big letdown for this thread .

I guess then we'll have to continue bickering elsewhere...

 

[Folsom]

100 pages proves Keith is indecisive!

 

[ack]

I guess then we'll have to continue bickering elsewhere...

Yeah; I am thinking of a new thread, "Ack Digs Transparent Wire Sh*t"

 

[bonzo75]

Yeah, once Keith has made his decision it's going to be a big letdown for this thread .

I guess then we'll have to continue bickering elsewhere...

He partially did make a decision he was sticking to his own speakers but that disappointed some. Like, we have to catch the bad guy at the end of the movie, else what's the point of the movie

 

[morricab]

Room size is a big problem. Larger speakers are rarely tuned for the room gain of a small room.

But the bad electricity can cause other issues. Very large transformers that are very low impedance could be ringing like crazy with everything else on the line. There’s lots of variables. There are solutions, often, but some might be fairly custom and not what you’d do elsewhere.

Think about this, the biggest gear is only using more than a handful of watts at the shows when they play some kind of demo that isn’t sustained power but maybe a giant 800w burp. That doesn’t mean large amps can’t have internal problems multiplying internally though. There are challenges not always addressed with super sized transformers and capacitors.

Not burning gear, or zero room treatment are two failures that happen when people also expect the “greatness” of such magnificent gear to overwhelm everything.

I too think it is more about power quality than quantity. This year we again used power regeneration in our room on the source (server and DAC). Made a huge difference even before the show started on setup day. Last year we went without and while good I think this year was clearly better. In 2017 we had a huge regenerator on all components and had great sound as well.

 

[bonzo75]

It's not that difficult to demo horns guys, these were all done last weekend. In the time it takes to go through a 100 pages a large number should be possible





And this is what this guy owned before that I didn't get to hear, but worth looking behind the curtains

 

[bonzo75]

 

[bonzo75]

 

[bonzo75]

 

[bonzo75]

 

[bonzo75]

 

[bonzo75]

 

[bonzo75]

With home cooked Hachis Parmentier and Gallette, a local Brittany dish, like crepes

 

[the sound of Tao]

Interesting mix of horns Francais. Much looking forward to the report Ked.

 

[morricab]

View attachment 58485

Lots of old school Altec derivatives and Onken bass boxes. The bass horns in the wall shows serious commitment!!

 

[KeithR]

this is a completely different subset of speakers - I'm not interested in diy horns and make belief crossovers. if I buy a horn, it will be Avantgarde Duo XDs. I wanted to demo Cessaro, but after hearing the Tunes with no bass am afraid only the 80k+ versions would satisfy and that is far above my budget.

btw, love the preamps on the coffee tables

 

[Duke LeJeune]

What blew me away at the show was the Thrax system.

I WISH I had made it to the Thrax room... they weren't on my radar screen at the time. Imo very intelligent configuration. Looks to me like the horn is probably pattern-matching with the two midwoofers in the crossover region, in both the horizontal and vertical planes, and it looks to me like a constant-directivity horn. And being a medium-efficiency system, it is far more compact and elegant than most hybrid horn systems.

... if I buy a horn, it will be Avantgarde Duo XDs.

Recalling your video of your new room (post 1693), your at-the-time intention to place speakers on the long wall where the chairs were (post 1695), and I think you said somewhere that you wanted good sound throughout the room... well, I don't really see the narrow-pattern Avantgardes accomplishing that, at least not on the long wall.

If you have since updated your speaker placement, I missed it. Where are your DeVores now? And, do they give good coverage throughout the room?

You see, I'm thinking the Thrax Lyras would have good coverage over a much wider angle than most horns, and they would also be more uniform across that wide arc than most direct radiator speakers. In other words, the Thrax system makes a lot of sense to me, assuming the goal posts are where I think they are.

 

[bonzo75]

I would be very surprised if they were wider than most horns. You can change horn dispersion very easily by the horn itself, for example an Altec 1505 (15 cell Altec) will be very wide compared to JMLC.