Munich HighEnd 2024
- Thread starter redandgold
- Start date
Thank you David.
Off the topic but I was reading about your uncle giving you that Tandberg receiver and Nakamichi deck. It brought back memories as just prior to that time I was completing my undergrad degree and working at an audio retailer who sold Tandberg, McIntosh, Dynaco, JBL and the like. Not surprised to hear that the Tandberg receiver is a survivor.
If you see this:
You know you're basically going to listen to this:
While it lasts...
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disagree.
my twin tower Evolution Acoustics MM7's (12 years old now) have 7" Accuton Ceramic matrix mid range drivers, 2 per side. and 11" Accuton Ceramic matrix mid bass drivers, 4 per side. to my ears, and to the ears of my visitors, my system has excellent tonality.....balanced and full bodied. yet see thru transparency. i love the realism of ceramic matrix drivers in my speakers.
many excellent speakers use ceramic matrix drivers to good effect.
don't blame the messenger for the message. and speaker systems are part of 'systems'.
and Marten speakers i'm sure have their own character apart from just driver material.
20 years ago i owned Kharma Exquisite 1D speakers with a ceramic mid range drivers. my Tenor 75 watt OTL amps did explode regularly and destroy those drivers. later those drivers were redesigned, and ended up as ceramic matrix, and were part of the design of the first EA MM3 speakers. that was 2006. since then that is all i've owned and never seen or heard of a driver being blown up like that....over now 18 years.
i did also own Marten Dukes (small 2 way) for a couple of years and never had any issue. don't know exactly which ceramic driver those twin tower Marten speakers use.
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Yes i heard it .
The amps are a hybrid .
Russian
design .
I asked.
I can now immediately hear if there is a tube involved in the.power amp .
I m learning , it sounds a bit like absolare but better.
The only one that fooled me was Total Dac.
Sounded smooth soft on top with apparently only solid state.
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Regarding driver material.
I think its great there are many choices.
Pick and choose.
Better for the customer
I m more in the paper mid / softdome camp hence i liked Wilson sasha DAW and for example gershman acoustics.
Considering long term listening
And combine those drivers with a phenolic composite housing .
The area where i think stand out with my designs is in the bass.
The hexacone nomex kevlar woofers can produce the low end like no other when working in a large volume.
Ps And the Etons are in full production again luckily after the covid suppy problem issues
I think its great there are many choices.
Pick and choose.
Better for the customer
I m more in the paper mid / softdome camp hence i liked Wilson sasha DAW and for example gershman acoustics.
Considering long term listening
And combine those drivers with a phenolic composite housing .
The area where i think stand out with my designs is in the bass.
The hexacone nomex kevlar woofers can produce the low end like no other when working in a large volume.
Ps And the Etons are in full production again luckily after the covid suppy problem issues
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The amps are Ypsilon and they are from Greece, not Russia.
What a fantastically erudite and well thought out comment this is. By that same token do paper drivers come in A4 format, kevlar drivers stop bullets, and titanium drivers are actually tiny pieces of Superman's biceps?
The ceramic driver breakup modes are very large and nearly impossible to completely suppress. There will be some character from the driver…whether it’s a whisper or a shout is the discussion…not if it’s there…a 7 inch mid being asked play up to a ribbon tweeter will almost certainly be in the breakup region at the top of its range where it blends with the tweeters output. What that sounds like is probably subtle and just something you have gotten used to.
I was struck by the extreme clarity in the mids I heard in two speakers in Munich that used the biggest available Diamond mid with Diamond tweeter. One was the Tidal Contriva G3 and the other was a relative unknown brand Audiaz. Here the breakup is pushed far enough out of band to finally hear what a hard piston like driver can do. The problem was the bass drivers were not so perfect and the blend was therefore somewhat compromised…less so on the Tidal speakers, which are actually quite impressive but cold with their own electronics.
He is not wrong about materials contributing their own sound character. You have to remember the driver undergoes extreme acceleration when making music. Ceramic driver plots all show huge breakup modes at the top of their frequency range as a result of this acceleration and the ultimate bending modes all drivers will have. Take your A4 sheet hold it at each end and the start bending it rapidly…you will hear what a paper driver will ultimately do one it starts flexing. Same for aluminum foil or plastic etc. Now , you can’t really bend a China plate too much or it will break; however tapping on it hard will give you an idea of the sound it makes when it’s matrix is disturbed by an impact…the same thing will happen from extreme start/stop at high frequencies…like that tap.
This just physics and all drivers will adopt some characteristics of the material from which they are made. You can work to some extent around this but never completely.
Yes you re right .
Regarding driver material.
Piston like behaviour is fine but what about cone ringing/ internal dampening.
Paper has unsurpassed qualities in that area.
Cheap and good .
Those synthetic diamond drivers cost a fortune.
The only driver i ever blew up while playing music was a 20 mm diamond driver at 3000 euro a pair ex taxes.
Paper can work fine as a midrange driver when the surface is small.
The problem starts audibly in bass drivers with a large surface
That is absolutely fair and I agree with that. You can never completely compensate for the properties of each material used -- it's indeed physics. But you also don't compare speakers to a picture of pottery. Hence my comment. It's unfair and grossly oversimplified.
The big wilsons lost their charm afaic when they stepped away from the FOCAL audiom woofers and went paper pulp.
I think the last one was the Alexandria XLF
I think the last one was the Alexandria XLF
Focal has stopped production, the drivers are no longer available, the used prices are going through the roof... what a pity
I had the Marten Coltrane 2 speakers for a few years. Great speaker and you can use the drivers as plates if you run out during a dinner party. I wouldn't say no to having another pair.
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