GR Research & New Record Day

Michaels HiFi

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The guys from GR Research and New Record Day invited me out to their places for a day of music, exchanging ideas, Texas BBQ and fun.

It was a blast!

He's a quick 1 minute video they just posted of our thoughts on the day:

 
The guys from GR Research and New Record Day invited me out to their places for a day of music, exchanging ideas, Texas BBQ and fun.

It was a blast!

He's a quick 1 minute video they just posted of our thoughts on the day:


Very cool! Really glad you got to meet Danny and Ron and had such a great time. I've learned a ton of useful info regarding loudspeaker and speaker crossover design from Danny's videos, as well as enjoying watching Ron build out the Sound Shed. I really like how Ron described and characterized the importance of room acoustics in his series of videos for the Sound Shed.

I also built up a pair of Danny's XL-S Encores a few years back and really had fun with that project. These speakers sound superb and for the money it cost to build them, they are an amazing value proposition.

Here's a pic of the crossover for my Encores: No cheap-*ss iron core inductors or sandcast resistors here, but rather Mills resistors, Miflex and Sonicap capacitors and large-gauge air-core inductors. This is the way to properly spec and build a crossover. (y)

Crossover%20Rev.jpg


Here's my XL-S Encores in the system powered by my Nelson-Pass designed Amp Camp amps (down on the floor), configured as bridged monoblocks.
DIY-Stereo.jpg


Danny's speakers powered by Class-A amps designed by Nelson Pass make for an amazing-sounding system for ~$1500. Pair this with an Eversolo DMP-A6 Master Edition streamer/DAC/Preamp, and you'd be good to for less than $3K. What's not to like?

Glad you had such a good time, Michael. Cheers.
 
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Air core inductors provide better functional response loudspeaker crossover circuits because they generally offer lower distortion and a wider frequency response compared to iron core inductors.

Iron core inductors can introduce distortion due to core saturation, hysteresis, and eddy currents, which can affect the audio signal negatively. These effects are particularly noticeable at higher current levels, potentially leading to a less clear and detailed sound.

Air core inductors, being free from these core-related distortions,, are cleaner and more transparent sounding.. They are also more efficient at higher frequencies, making them better suited for wider FR crossover designs.

In essence, the absence of an iron core in air core inductors eliminates the potential for core saturation and other distortion-inducing factors. This provides more accurate and linear reproduction of the audio signal, resulting in a perceived improvement in sound quality.
 
I assume that iron core are smaller, and cheaper, for similar values? Lower cost, and easier to fit into a speaker.
 
Air core inductors provide better functional response loudspeaker crossover circuits because they generally offer lower distortion and a wider frequency response compared to iron core inductors.

Iron core inductors can introduce distortion due to core saturation, hysteresis, and eddy currents, which can affect the audio signal negatively. These effects are particularly noticeable at higher current levels, potentially leading to a less clear and detailed sound.

Air core inductors, being free from these core-related distortions,, are cleaner and more transparent sounding.. They are also more efficient at higher frequencies, making them better suited for wider FR crossover designs.

In essence, the absence of an iron core in air core inductors eliminates the potential for core saturation and other distortion-inducing factors. This provides more accurate and linear reproduction of the audio signal, resulting in a perceived improvement in sound quality.
This is correct and accurate on many fronts but there’s a flip side.

Air core are way less Linear and suffer from insertion loss distortion when using large values.

Iron core or more specifically laminate steel core are way more linear and superior to air core when using really large values making them superior in the bass regions where large values are necessary.

As to power handling you have to make sure they are sized right for the power levels being used .

Aircore superiority is really in the midrange on midrange drivers , steel laminate for large bass values ..!

2 way Designs:

when doing a 2 way system you want to use an Air-core inductor , as the crossover point will be in the sweet spot region where they are most linear and not so large in value , as to say , in a large 3-4 way with the necessity of a complex x-over..

All of this can be confirmed easily by measuring their values vs frequency, best linearity for aircore is in the 1K region and values below 5mh-6mh..

Steel core tend to be very linear across the bandwidth 20-20K and is not a disadvantage when used correctly , meaning .?

For a really top notch crossover it’s not unusual to see both being deployed ..!

My 2cents..
 
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I assume that iron core are smaller, and cheaper, for similar values? Lower cost, and easier to fit into a speaker.
Yes , some designers do use them for those purposes and some for design reasons due to their better linearity across the audio bandwidth..!

So it’s not a case of just being cheaper , as good steel core inductors are not really all cheap ..
 
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