John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part II

[SY]

They have some rudimentary specs- as you'd imagine, the bandwidth and dynamic range are limited. They only have one model that makes it to 20kHz and it's only for close miking mouths. The rest are either noise-limited or dynamic range limited (high self noise or low max SPL), as well as bandwidth-limited.

It's a neat idea, one assumes that they're doing it interferometrically, but has a long way to go before it displaces more conventional mike technologies. Nothing there will outperform a decent condenser or ribbon. As Brad pointed out, you still have to have a moving diaphragm, and that's the limiting factor independent of how you transduce the energy.

edit: here's some spec sheets:
http://www.optoacoustics.com/sites/d...-datasheet.pdf
http://www.optoacoustics.com/sites/d...-datasheet.pdf
http://www.optoacoustics.com/sites/d...-datasheet.pdf

[Esperado]

We have been build with separate senses, eyes and ears.
Our ears use a mechanical captor, witch is not good at all and very subject to aging.
It is stupid, while our eyes would be able to record pressure variations as well.
An other advantage would be that, sleeping with our eyes closed, it would provide sound attenuation, good during air flights...
Six days, you said ? Go for one more reviewing your copy.
Oh, while you are on this, have a look on this little bug named death, please.

[morinix]

Originally Posted by Esperado

We have been build with separate senses, eyes and ears.
Our ears use a mechanical captor, witch is not good at all and very subject to aging.
It is stupid, while our eyes would be able to record pressure variations as well.
An other advantage would be that, sleeping with our eyes closed, it would provide sound attenuation, good during air flights...
Six days, you said ? Go for one more reviewing your copy.
Oh, while you are on this, have a look on this little bug named death, please.

[Wavebourn]

Originally Posted by RNMarsh

The microphone is not for any one appl. These are low distortion, wide bandwith mics.... not any less suitable than "measurement" mics cannot be used for recording music. Try them and learn. -RNM

They are not popular yet. My friend from Israel worked with guys who designed that mikes. They invested and want to return, that's why industrial applications where absence of electric wires can be critical.

[Esperado]

Originally Posted by Wavebourn

They invested and want to return, that's why industrial applications where absence of electric wires can be critical.

Did-you mean that no return can be expected from audio business, selling a mike on the market ?
Or prices are too high, regarding pure audio performance ?

[Wavebourn]

Originally Posted by Esperado

Did-you mean that no return can be expected from audio business, selling a mike on the market ?
Or prices is too high, regarding pure audio performance ?

Audio performance is excellent, but customers are not ready to pay for them money they pay for rusted German microphones of WW-II era.

You can hear a sample on their site: http://www.optoacoustics.com/pro-audio/crystal

Edit: I will probably have some soon to play with, with photo diode and LED inside, to try for audio.

[jan.didden]

Slightly OT (again...),

Just had a chat with Mauro Biggio the boss from Clio (his booth is nextdoor) noting that while his product gets better and better diy-interest seems to get less and lesss - could that be related to the price that gets higher and higher? Uhhh, maybe a good point.

Would there be interest in a lower cost version for diy'ers and small business? Definitely I would think!
Opinions?

jan

[Wavebourn]

Who is Clio? I mean Optoacoustics.

[TerryO]

Originally Posted by jan.didden

Slightly OT (again...),

Just had a chat with Mauro Biggio the boss from Clio (his booth is nextdoor) noting that while his product gets better and better diy-interest seems to get less and lesss - could that be related to the price that gets higher and higher? Uhhh, maybe a good point.

Would there be interest in a lower cost version for diy'ers and small business? Definitely I would think!
Opinions?

jan

Jan,

The price of decent modelling and measurement software has gotten to the point that even some of the freeware can give excellent results. I don't know what CLIO goes for today, but it was very pricey some years back. It may be that your idea might work, but there would have to be generous tech support for a home version.

Best Regards,
TerryO

[Kindhornman]

Jan,
I happen to have a Clio system and couldn't imagine being without it. I do want to upgrade my unit to one of the newer units that now has full waterfall functions, but I do still think that the unit was worth the money. I originally used an older system that did all of these things called Sys-ID that was originally developed by Bell Labs but it has long been out of the market and the software updates were far between updates. I would gladly recommend this system for anyone who is serious about doing loudspeaker development work. This is a good product and I don't think that it will be disappearing any time soon.

Steven