Super Speaker Shootout - which design wins?

annapolis Raider said:
Further thoughts,

First a clarification, line sources and line arrays are NOT the same thing. True line sources have NO vertical dispersion. So they would not use conventional cones and domes. Scaena and Audio Artistry are NOT line sources. For those interested in more of the pluses of line source vs point source speakers. Gary Koh of Genesis is a far better spokesman than I, he talks about these things in detail both on his website and at WBF.

As far as my experience with "super speakers", I've come to a few conclusions.

You simply must have a 4 piece system. The benefits are beyond question. Small room physics simply can't be cheated. The best place for bass is almost never the best place for soundstaging, ,timbre and all the other qualities we value.

There are good designers working in all speaker types Regardless of how you may feel about a specific product, ,I think we can all agree that in general things are improving and even established brands, like a Wilson Audio, understand that they have to step up their game in this hyper competitive market.

DSP changes everthing. Right now I use Trinnov. I have experience with other products as well. I think there is little doubt that in the future. DSP will be a standard part of any super speaker system. Step response, Impulse response, Room correction, speaker correction, etc. Its simply too good to be ignored for too much longer. If accuracy is truly the goal of high performance audio, then DSP will be part of it.......
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We must have missed your sideways Top 5 AR ..... i see only one ...:)
 
a.wayne said:
Consensus MikeL ,

Give us a list , top 5 is OK unless you feel their's a top 10 and not necessary asking for a winner list , Top 5 can be in any order , only means your list would represent your sideways top 5 ...


Regards ...
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I'm traveling today and will try and contribute as I can....

right now i'll list 2;

Evolution Acoustics MM7's
Genesis 1.2 of various versions.

I agree completely with AR that it takes 4 towers to get all the way to ultimate performance with true full range. it's just driver real estate going on. and those 4 towers have to be truly integrated and designed to be cohesive from the ground up. tacked on bass eventually sounds like tacked on bass when all types of music gets played at all levels of realism. again; it's about zero compromises.
 
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I guess I would vote Trios w/ Basshorns if I had the room - still the best demo I've ever experienced. Trios also look better than most of these superspeakers - the WAMM to me looks like its out of Aliens :)

I've had trouble with the big Scaenas, Pipedreams, etc. but have only heard them at shows which is totally not ideal for that design.

On the cone and dome side, YG's Sonya XV sounded excellent when I heard it at the factory - despite being on amps I don't prefer.
 
Von Schweikert Audio ULTRA 11
Rockport Arrakis
Kharma Enigma Veyron EV1
Nola Grand Reference VI Gold
Wilson Audio WAMM

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KeithR said:
I guess I would vote Trios w/ Basshorns if I had the room - still the best demo I've ever experienced. Trios also look better than most of these superspeakers - the WAMM to me looks like its out of Aliens :)

I've had trouble with the big Scaenas, Pipedreams, etc. but have only heard them at shows which is totally not ideal for that design.

On the cone and dome side, YG's Sonya XV sounded excellent when I heard it at the factory - despite being on amps I don't prefer.
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OK your sideways top 5 .......

Trios with bass Horn .....




:roflmao:

Trio's leading the pack and JAP bring's forth new contenders .....
 
Horns, especially older horns, get a rap for coherence between the woofer and horns. Is that handoff smooth at 150hz? I've heard some old horns and it was clearly not. The woofers lagged woefully behind the horns. Today, DSP combined with very fast and power amps for the woofers have made this argument against much weaker, if not taken it off the table in some cases. But on the issue of coherence, when a line source has not only a different driver type for woofer, midrange and tweeter, but different materials within each driver type too, can this also not affect coherence?

For those who were on the Magico tour last summer, you may recall Alon's fascinating discussion on the topic of driver types and materials and how they affect coherence.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I’ve heard many cone and horn driven speakers sounding very good but I still prefer panels driven by high powered Class A mono blocks. To me they have better imaging, greater transparency, exceptional wide stage, outstanding dynamics without being over driven and excellent coherency. IMO
 
The Panel and Horn guys actually have a race going on out front , the domey Tweeter guys are lagging ..



:)

No longer in production Super Speaker ................


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Active DRC speaker wins, but is no "fun". Cant tweak anything.

Passive? My money here:
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