Replicate super high end... which one?

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Æquo Audio Ensis

6moons audioreviews: Æquo Audio Ensis
(Don't read too seriously as it's sprinkled with Srajan's mumbo-jumbo technical mish-mosh.)

Summary:
Narrow and short cabinet made from curved inert materials
1 inch special SB29RDC ring tweeter and 6 inch cone in sealed cabinet, passively crossed-over w 100Hz high pass, easy load for your amp
10 inch woofer (with 50mm! xmax p-p?) in sealed cabinet, with built-in active xo, 500W class D nCore (Bruno Putzeys) amp and analog bass control

Small is in...
 

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I was offered a restoration job infinity RS-1b set back in 1997. I turned it down when I realised that, as soon as I moved back to UK I would never have a big enough room for them. shame as they really did look the biz and were cheap as the previous owner had been an idiot and modified them with no understanding.
 
It's just so damn hard to clone a top shelf speaker system. How do you get the drivers for starters?

Where do you get the infomation to exactly replicate the crossovers?

Then there is the cabinet work. I have a pair of Everest DD6700 cabinets and there are very few shops that would be capable of truly recreating them. They are very very complex.

I am a DIY guy through and through but at some point one must realize there is only so far one can really go because if you can't exactly clone them, you don't really have them.

I have several DIY speaker systems but, none do so much as well as my real SH50's or my 4365's.

Don't think I am trying to rain on DIY, I am not but I would bet there is only a small fraction of a percent of the most serious enthusiasts capable of approaching the work of the big guys. As an example it would take an new engineer years at a facility like Harman working full time to just catch up to the likes of Timbers, Olive and Morro and longer before he/she were to advance the state of the art.

I thought I was getting somewhere and then I brought home the 1400 Arrays and I realized where I really was. Even the 4365's are not top shelf but they are way out in front of my abilities and I susspect the DD6700's are going to drive the education fully home. I have much to learn.

I get a laugh when I see the posts saying "I can beat the big guys at a fraction of the price! Sorry, no you can't, not their top teir work. You might get close, maybe.

Barry.
 
I get a laugh when I see the posts saying "I can beat the big guys at a fraction of the price! Sorry, no you can't, not their top teir work. You might get close, maybe.

Barry.

I agree that an average DIYer can't beat the craftmanship of a multi million dollar company that employs dozens of people but there is far greater chance of beating them sound wise. Remember, companies make their own drive units not because these are better than off the shelf ones, it's simple economics, and secondly companies really fancy not the idea that DIY market niche has the potential to significantly reduce their income. Proof, Dynaudio stopped selling drive units to DIYers (8 ohm) in year 2000, after that Focal did the same.

@ Erik: Thanks for the kind words.
 
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I have several DIY speaker systems but, none do so much as well as my real SH50's or my 4365's.

Dunno list on the Danley's (BTW kudos for heaving them into the living room). but the 4365s are in the region of what I would call affordable. You can probably by the parts and build your own active 4365s if you were good at the woodwork, but if you had to pay a cabinet maker the $15k a pair is probably good value for the performance. Certainly compared to shiny shiny at 10x that price. Likewise the M2.

Would agree most of us (one or two on here are exceptions) cannot design a horn that would work as well as JBL can.

But if you can get to 90% of SOTA with $1000 investment you will still cream anything commercial in the 5-7k range if you know what you are going. its that last bit that is the killer!
 
but the 4365s are in the region of what I would call affordable. You can probably by the parts and build your own active 4365s if you were good at the woodwork...

...But if you can get to 90% of SOTA with $1000 investment you will still cream anything commercial in the 5-7k range if you know what you are going. its that last bit that is the killer!

I wouldn't bet that you could buy any of the parts used in the 4365, and if you could, they would run you a lot more than $1000.
 
I agree that an average DIYer can't beat the craftmanship of a multi million dollar company that employs dozens of people...
Funny that is the one area I think DIY has a chance.

...but there is far greater chance of beating them sound wise. [\QUOTE]

Not in a real ABX test situation.

Remember, companies make their own drive units not because these are better than off the shelf ones, it's simple economics, [\QUOTE]

For many companies that may be true however with that comment I think I can say with some certainty that you have never personally compared JBL 1500Al-1 or -2 to any other 15". Even step down to the 1500Fe in the 4365 or the 2216Nd in the M2 with its several new art patents. Remember JBL started life as a transducer company.

There is a common phenomenon that I have heard of and took at face value of "over powering a room". With nearly any capable system as the volume is brought up the mid bass grows disproportionately louder and less clear. This I now credit to harmonic distortion of the LF drivers as this phenomenon is entirely absent in my sytems with low and ultra low distortion woofers. For reference the HD of a 1500Al-1 is a fraction of one percent at 100 Watts. Basically a full order of magnitude less than some of the very best woofers the world has to offer.

Most DIY people have experience built around pro drivers because that is pretty much whats available to us. A 2226 sounds dreadful when compared to any of the above mentioned woofers, in a system designed for home listening levels


...and secondly companies really fancy not the idea that DIY market niche has the potential to significantly reduce their income. Proof, Dynaudio stopped selling drive units to DIYers (8 ohm) in year 2000, after that Focal did the same.


JBL says they bailed on the raw driver DIYer sales due to the staff requirements for all the technical hand holding and miss applied wrecked speaker warranty repairs.

As you may have guessed I bleed JBL orange and that is because of my appreciation of great product. I have lots of other stuff though too.

Again I am not picking on anybody. But when it comes to top tier systems and I mean world review systems, we can't beat them.

If any person had the full budget to copy an F1 car and the time to build it, do you think you could get it on the podium?

All the best, seriously,
Barry.
 
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