Rockport Arrakis (fully-upgraded by Andy) For Sale on Audiogon
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
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Their damm stiff enclosure is a combination of cast aluminium casings and a Resonance absorbant material in between .
Aluminium is all the hype these days with audiophiles so rockport might just be giving people /audiophiles what they think is best with this particular model ( and what magazines think its best
)I d take the " resin? "based cabinets of the arrakis anyday over an aluminium one because aluminium rings and needs to be braced intensively ,its not the most dead inert material to start with, afaik rockport has its own composite material and pours it into a mould
I played with the idea myself in search of a reliable HPL producing/constructing company , it would be my second choice of material .
iso by andromeda61, on Flickr
speaker prototype by andromeda61, on Flickr
speaker prototype by andromeda61, on Flickr
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I wouldn't be surprised, if Andy sold a pair or two since those speakers had been listed.
In my experience, people who buy $200.000 speakers rarely visit forums, much less AudiogoN classified section. They are special kind of customers, who value their free time and the service they get from the dealer much more, than the money itself.
Their damm stiff enclosure is a combination of cast aluminium casings and a Resonance absorbant material in between .
Aluminium is all the hype these days with audiophiles so rockport might just be giving people /audiophiles what they think is best with this particular model ( and what magazines think its best
I d take the " resin? "based cabinets of the arrakis anyday over an aluminium one because aluminium rings and needs to be braced intensively ,its not the most dead inert material to start with, afaik rockport has its own composite material and pours it into a mould
I played with the idea myself in search of a reliable HPL producing/constructing company , it would be my second choice of material .
I am an Ex Rockport owner--and I was told Andy uses/used a Coffin Maker for his cabinets--I did not know of Aluminium inclusion--Interesting
Excellent Speakers still one of my Favs
--sadly had to downsize when forced to move to small Apartment.BruceD
The new Lyra enclosure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-TjOCuFZcU
Quite sophisticated, but imo its the same with housings /membrane material , no matter how high the design /material /technical / X over claims are , you are not listening to a laboratory device ,but to reproduced sound so its still a matter of trusting ones ears in the end, you can measure a lot but not everything.
Ps secondly the molded enclosures of the Arrakis /altair give more design/shape freedom then for example this Lyra design magicos or yg s (or my own )
It would be very hard to produce a curved speaker like the Altair/ Arrakis from aluminium, so you end up with a speaker with different dispersion/cabinet diffraction characteristics then those .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-TjOCuFZcU
Quite sophisticated, but imo its the same with housings /membrane material , no matter how high the design /material /technical / X over claims are , you are not listening to a laboratory device ,but to reproduced sound so its still a matter of trusting ones ears in the end, you can measure a lot but not everything.
Ps secondly the molded enclosures of the Arrakis /altair give more design/shape freedom then for example this Lyra design magicos or yg s (or my own )
It would be very hard to produce a curved speaker like the Altair/ Arrakis from aluminium, so you end up with a speaker with different dispersion/cabinet diffraction characteristics then those .
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Well that seems to work then
, just as a coffin maker seems to do wonders on dead cabinets.
Well, there are all those sayings: that these could be the last ever pair you'll own, go to your maker in, will outlast you LOL
If I had a $ for every time I have heard "this it the last piece of equipment I will ever buy/own" I could have bought the speakers many times over...
Rodney, I was actually trying to make the connection to the coffin maker fact
LAST pair you'll ever own, get it?
They're certainly big enough to be buried in
LAST pair you'll ever own, get it?
They're certainly big enough to be buried in
It's funny because when I asked Andy a couple of years ago why don't you use aluminum, he said his cabinets are quieter than any out there. He was referring to Magico, YBA, and Wilson's. Yet, now he is going to aluminum. I really think he should have stuck with composites and not caved in to the media on the aluminum thing.
Why are you accusing him of caving into media thing? Any facts to back that one up? He's still using resin, just the shells are no longer composites. Apparently the new Rockport Lyra is quite excellent and exceeds my Altiar's soundwise. My dealer has heard them and is ordering a pair...I'll be able to listen soon...
Although I do not have significant experience with Rockport speakers IMHO your comment is overlooking the situation. As far as I read elsewhere Andy uses aluminum precisely machined in a well though design as rigid skeleton to cast custom polymers around. Combining materials is a key point in speaker design - probably only now he felt he could get the proper materials with the acoustic properties, adhesion and longevity needed for his speaker ideas. IMHO we should congratulate him for being able to use the best of today technology in high-end speaker development.
Fom TAS : http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/heroics-in-maine/
For the Lyra, which has a price tag of $149,500, the entire enclosure is comprised of just two parts, a main outer housing and a baffle/inner housing. Both are fabricated from aluminum, which is significantly denser than either fiberglass or the carbon-fiber material used for Arrakis’s baffle. This isn’t the first time Payor has used aluminum parts in his cabinets, but the fabrication of the shells from the metal is new. Ribs, grooves, and braces that are cast into the two hefty parts further improve the mechanical/acoustic properties of the enclosure, and a new formulation of the polymer core material (the result of a lot of experimentation with the ratio of the urethane resin to various sorts of filler) is employed, around 11 gallons of the stuff, which contributes over 150 pounds to the weight of the loudspeaker. The enclosure’s construction—the two aluminum shells plus the intervening polymer—has been designated DAMSTIF by Payor, who is in the process of getting the name trademarked. (He’d better hurry before the pharmaceutical industry gets wind of the term and uses it for a men’s health product.)
That is true, but please note that his design is different than both YG's and Magico's designs, neither of which is using polymer core material to dampen the enclosure.
Good points, as usual, Micro. During the few times I have spoken with Andy Payor, he has always struck me as someone who marches to his own tune...designing his own drivers, doing these monocoque, poured resin super-dense shells (Arrakis/Altair)...and now essentially pouring super-dense stuff into an aluminum clam shell from what little i can see. No screws it looks like...just a seamless sandwich of two cast aluminum clam shells with a huge thick inner layer of this super-dense polymer that acts as a glue but probably also as a dense elastomer.
Regarding the advantage of the smooth curves he gets in the Arrakis and Altair...i have to admit, he got pretty darned cool curves out of the aluminum Lyra too.
Just out of curiosity, why do you say there is no market for big speakers at the present time??
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