Ironically made in the same little town as the ATC speakers.

So I reopened it and merged threads, odd that so will keep an eye out.

Back to the speakers, have heard a couple of Magico systems, great timing involvement could easily live with a pair

Edited by user 11 April 2012 22:25:45(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi folks. Just thought I'd join in the chat as I'm intrigued why having Scan Speak drivers could be seen as a negative as, in my opinion, they are one of the best driver manufacturers in the world. Maybe assumptions are being made that the drivers used are standard stock components..... They’re not. They are tuned in-house to hit certain target performance characteristics for our speakers that enable us to keep the crossover component count down to a minimum.

As well as wearing my SP Acoustics hat I also hold the challenging position as development engineer for Kurt Mueller in the UK so tuning driver cones and suspension parts is a speciality.

We are proud that Scan Speak manufacture the drivers in our speakers. They have a team of very talented designers and to be able to have them behind our products is a real bonus for us and our customers. I get to work with a lot of transducer designs and designers so it should say something if I’m willing to put my companies cash in to someone else’s pocket. Those of you who are familiar with Scan Speak will know that they are not a budget brand.

It is hard to pin point exactly who designs what in this business. Don't be fooled by someone accrediting designs to themselves (or someone else). It is rarely the case that one person is responsible for a complete design of anything these days no matter what claims are made - most things are variations on a theme and have teams of designers behind them. Sometimes component parts within a product carry the brand name, not because they designed the part but because they order enough parts to have them OEM badged as theirs. If we ordered 10,000 woofers from Scan we could probably have them badged as original SP Acoustics parts, but would we want to? Probably not.

Steve,

Many thanks for taking the time to reply and correction of any errors. My apologies if I have said anything incorrect.

I didn't intend to put down Scanspeak drivers or your use of them, it was more the emphasis that it wasn't such a ground up exercise as the AE1s. Of course you could argue why invent the wheel. Without wishing to sound wise after the event I thought of putting comments about tuning/rebuild/OEM specing the units but this being the internet fairness to all doesnt always happen mainly driven by being called an audiofool despite being being paid to work in audio.....I was reporting my conversation with evangelical users/listeners and I am happy to report their keeness.

there is just a hint that we might get a mid range , whatever that is

Magico sealed box, mid this year , for review

the only worry is how to pick it up and place

it they are very dense indeed

MartinC

how can you know this ?

I do think Laurence Dickie has done great work with the Vivids

but your assertion must be just that unless you have a good argument assembled.

I will wait to find out

MartinC

what you need is a strong friend.

I remember that in the 60s AUDIO magazine had a feature article on some concrete horns that an audiophile had constructed on his lawn for outdoor listening. They weighed a couple of tons each. A harbinger of the future? Perhaps our hobby will be known a HEAVY-FI rather than HI-FI. Personally I am giving my gear a weight reduction program having just sold my Duetta Signatures and putting my Basis Exclusive up for sale. Even my CJ 350 is not entirely safe. I like to shuffle my gear and like lifting heavy objects less and less. Perhaps I should sell it all and buy a 25 lb. MP3 player?

They are still breaking in (less than a hundred hours on them), so you need to keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that I've lived with Magnepans for 14 years, so I am quite willing to forego heavy bass for a realistic and transparent performance everywhere else. Others may not want to do that compromise. My listening is mostly jazz of the acoustic variety (anything from big band to solo instrument and vocals) and I never listen to death metal/punk/eletronica/ hiphop/drum'n'bass and other stuff of that sort.

The Q5s have a similar sound to the Mini 2 (if you've heard that speaker) but with a lot more bass, and as a result is much more fleshed out from the midrange down. It is also more dynamic, goes louder, has a much bigger and deeper soundstage. The speaker is planar like in the mid and highs (with a lesser enveloping sound than bipoles can throw) in that it is extremely transparent and unbelievably detailed. The heroic cabinet construction makes it so easy to hear every instrument or voice in a brass section or choir perfectly; there is no smearing at all. Unlike planars, it has a fantastic bass reproduction that goes down to mid 20s (I believe), BUT this is not headbanger bass. Some people may therefore find its bass restricted, though for my ears, there is more than enough of it. As per the rest, there is no smearing whatsoever and you can follow and hear each note in a double bass line clearly and distinctly, even at the deepest registers.

At very high volumes, I find the treble a bit aggressive on some material, though, as I have mentioned, they are not broken in yet and therefore I have not yet finely set them up. Toeing out a bit more might help - the Mini 2 had a hot treble on axis. Also, I might be oversensitive to highs - I had dropped the level of the Maggies' ribbon tweeter by a couple of dBs as I found it too 'hot'. Finally, these speakers perform their best on vinyl, and open up a bigger gap between CD and vinyl reproduction!

Will write more after I have another 100 hours or so on them, and fine tune their position/toeing.

I have paid more than lip service to bass timing, though looking back , partly out of necessity, my timing emphasis has been low mid to treble based, particularly for sound sources and amplification.

Over the course of loudspeaker reviews, low frequency timing has an issue but few speakers really nail it and there is a tendency to go with the general status quo if only to avoid condemning most of the field for a few that trade bass extension and efficiency for timing.

When large enough, speakers such as Wilson Maxx3 with extended low frequency bandwidth, greatly resolve the question while for a smaller scale design such as the DSP active model Meridian 7200, with on board group delay compensation, nailed the issue showing that extended bass with excellent timing and extension was possible from a relative compact bass reflex design.

Recently I have experimented with a three way with the facility for adjustable bass, mid and treble alignments and in particular reflex and sealed box. With the latter the bass is quite well damped so some loss of extension/level is inevitable from 25 to 35Hz in-room but in practice is not too disconcerting.

Familiar music , classical jazz and pop, with good bas pattern timing, as judged on the Denon Reference AH 7000 headphones was not well resolved with the reflex alignment and the usual mental adjustment was required to make sense of the extreme low frequency timing and syncopation.

Regardless, this standard was quite high in a review context.

However the realigned IB version though 1.5dB less sensitive overall showed an unexpected turn of speed in the bass and the timing precision and resolution of complex syncopation was substantially closer to that heard on the reference cans.

In addition I concede that I have historically underestimated the high level of listener satisfaction such ability engenders.

In addition it is as if an important level of time smear and information masking has been stripped from the low range reproduction, from about 300 Hz to 30Hz

It would be useful to have listening reports from those few sealed box users out there.


Martin Colloms