Loudspeakers; what is your favourite system technology?

(driver technologies may follow)

In no particular order we have ( AND SUGGESTIONS WELCOMED)

1. Box n cone ( sealed, line and vented variations )

2. Open Panel ( magnetic and electrostatic )

3. Horn

4. Full range single driver

5. Omni directional box

6. Dipole / open baffle

7. Controlled directivity (Gradient)

8. Active, analogue and DSP

While I hear some good things from all of these technologies, so far I seem to rely on large reputable, vented box three way moving coils.

perhaps not the best of anything but avoiding the worst

Martin Colloms

Anything without a crossover where I can hear it

Currently use ML electrostatic hybrids, crossover at 250Hz. Much younger, used Robin Marshall's Eposes with the main driver driven full-range and the tweeter arriving at 5KHz or so - coloured as hell, and with significant limitations, but my word, they communicate! Especially at the price. Between the two I had a pair of more "conventional" speakers - ProAc Response 3.5s - and never quite got on with them. Chris Liaw's Etude design with the twin BMRs sounded good whe I heard it, if on a somewhat smaller scale than I'd need. Big box'n'cone machines, even quite good ones, just don't seem to do it for me. N802s, for example. Single-driver speakers that don't quack or shout I'M A HORN - I'm thinking the Voxativ room at the last Whittlebury show, for example - I generally love, provided that they either "do" bass or that it can be kludged on in a convincing manner.

It would appear that different listeners are sensitive to different aspects of reproduction. For me, it seems to be crossovers. My take on "what I like" is something that's dead coherent in the time domain, and I would appear to be willing to put up with significant aberrations in the frequency response, and/or colouration, in order to get it. But then the music that I like is predominantly non-orchestral - blues, rock, folk, jazz, etc - and relies on "timing" to communicate its meaning, rather than precise timbre. What does timbre mean in the context of an electric guitar recorded through a mixing desk, anyway?

I'd love to hear those - what are they called, Fujitsu thingies - Eclipse, that's it. Suspect I'd like them - if I could find a "fast" subwoofer - but have never heard them.

Edited by user 19 February 2012 21:58:17(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

And some more:

10. Voxativ field coil speakers
11. Planot speakers 3D diapraghm: http://www.planotspeaker.com/Planot/Home.html

Hope to listen to KEF Blades shortly , do they count as 1 or 4 in the list ?

1.

I had forgotten that I had used the Jordan-Watts full range. That was , I think, in the later 60s. I had both the aluminum and titanium ones if I remember correctly. A friend who was a professional cabinet maker made the boxes for them and was so taken that he bought them from me and was for a time the American agent for them. I think he entertained Mr Jordan when he came over to the Chicago CES about that time but I can't recall meeting him myself to my regret. My friend was displaying the drivers in cabinets he had made at the show that year; he continued to make custom speakers based on them for years afterward.

Thanks very much. Never heard of them, and Google has just failed to furnish me with an image, but I can guess the idea. Am not speaker shopping at the mo, though - no current job, and anyway I love my 'Logans; and with a 7-year-old child with a severe learning disability running around, they fulfil the #1 primary requirement, beyond sound quality, of being pretty much indestructible! That's why they were bought (second-hand, unseen and unheard, swapped for the ProAcs with their oh-so-vulnerable silk-dome tweeters...), the fact that they sound so good is a happy accident! Not the prettiest things in the world (my wife tells me :-) ), but you can't have everything...

I'm lucky enough, nowadays, to have a room that's 20ft (-ish) square with a higher-than-average ceiling, and I like punch and dynamics, so if I were speaker-shopping then small boxes are probably out of consideration, I need to shift some air... Anyway, we've gone off-topic...

At one time I had a pair of Totem Mani 2s which were vented isobariks. Amazing bass depth for what amounted to a relatively large volume stand mount.

Currently using Kharma Ceramique 3 way vented using a mix of Kevlar and ceramic diaphragms

A fundamental problem of the box speaker is that the ratio of reflected to direct energy is too low. Omni, and dipole both have a greater proportion of reflected energy to direct energy and hence can sound more natural in-room if set up correctly.

However the vented box speaker gives the most benefits for most people, and that is why it is the most popular. Comparatively: low cost, high spl, small size, good bandwidth, good dynamic range, good aesthetic appearance.

Horn speakers in free space have much less reflected energy, but more if they are placed in a corner, in fact probably more than box speaker, depending on listening position and radiation angle.

Of course your brain learns how to listen, and a speaker type other than what you are most used will probably sound wrong until you adjust to it.

mat.

He guys,

Did we forget the good old transmission line? When build like it should be you get a very even and deep bass response without the reflex bump. Listen to any PMC and you will see my point. I have used a pair of Rogers monitors with Kef B139 long, long time ago. Have been listening to many speakers later on, never got the bass really right. Have been using subwoofers in reversed phase to get rid of to much bass from reflex ports. Not optimal and most of the noise goes to the neighbours. Finally with PMC 90% of the room problems are gone.

Apart from that, the best speaker I ever heard is a Blumenhofer Wiki horn. Do not know anything that beats it, very costly, say 300.000 euro's a pair. If only I could afford them and have the space. Keep on dreaming.

No speaker is the best. I like panels like Magnepan, Horns like Avant Garde and Blumenhofer, sealed boxes from Harbeth, transmission lines and even some reflex systems. The best speaker is the one that makes you happy and fits (physical and most of all acoustical) in your listening room.

Regards,
Rene