Audience A3

[inrank]

Just out of interest, anyone know much about it?



Looks like a high end competitor for Jordan/Bandor... ($170/ea)

http://www.audience-av.com/press_rel...s_releases.php

used in these speakers -

[norman bates]

I get severe combing with my dual 4" tang band bamboo speaker.
I sit 12' away, get your ear 3" above sweet spot and highs start fading.

Those audience speakers are beautiful though............

I'd like to see some reviews...................

Since 1 driver has 13cm2, it would take 8 of them to move the same area as my dual 4" tang band bamboos, or 16 of them to move as much air as an 8" driver..............

(from clairaudient site) "The 50 mm drivers are made of hand spun aluminum alloy. The total moving mass of each driver is 1.5 grams."

LSA8 (8 driver) = $21k pair (us)
LSA16 = $35k pair (us)

Um, any baffle step ???????????????

"Positive Feedback Online/Greg Weaver - THE Show '08 Report

"The boys from Audience, John McDonald, Roger Sheker, and Dan (sorry, never caught the last name) were in rare form with a room that looked as gorgeous as it sounded. Pairing with the Navison $21,800/pr NVS-211PSE amps with wooden panels that serendipitously matched the finish on their new ClairAudient cabinets, the NVS- 211PSE is a parallel, single ended triode monoblock (based on the 211 power tube) serving up 40-watts of class A power.

The $22,000 Audience ClairAudient Line Source Array 8 uses eight Bandor 50 drivers (2" diameter) per side in a crossover-less line source. Highly efficient (94dB), the LSA 8 is said to be ruler flat from 70Hz to 22kHz. Paired with the $7000 ClairAudient 12 subwoofer, this system was able to produce some of the most glorious midrange I've ever heard. Space was reach-out-and-touch real, micro dynamic events were breath taking, and the overall tonal balance was scary. Though I would have liked to hear them with a little more power to see how these thoroughbreds handled dynamics and life-like orchestral crescendos, I have to hand it to them; they have brought this speaker to exquisite fruition. A must hear, in my opinion."

and

"THE Show '08 Report by Jim Merod

No room at CES this year sounded better than the Audience set up. No room sounded as sonically accurate, as emotionally and aesthetically beguiling, as musically truthful and flat out startling with dynamic rightness of weight and timbre—as melodically, angelically charismatic. "

Someone needs to build a 4 mini array of either..........

2" peerless 830970 (anodized aluminum) 1.5 gram on sale $14.25
http://www.madisound.com/catalog/pro...oducts_id=8267

or

2" Tang band w2-803sm (poly) 1 gram $14.83 in 4+
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=264-805

or maybe

2"x3" tang band poly (1.53 gram) $23.07 in 4+
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=264-830

maybe an 8 array..........

I'd imagine it would need eq to add some highs if one stock driver measures flat. Maybe this newer driver has a rising response like the small jordan 2" that really helps offset combing............

Norman

[inrank]

i had though there might be a link with them and bandor, as i know (for some time) that bandor have been making a neo version of their 50mm driver.

[norman bates]

From that link you had listed..........

"San Marcos, CA, January 19, 2009 – Audience, LLC, an award-winning designer and manufacturer of high and ultra high resolution audio system products, today announced the release of a 3� full range loudspeaker driver. The Audience A3 is a breakthrough full range loudspeaker driver design comprised of a patented motor structure, patent-pending suspension and patent pending basket. The A3 has an exceptionally flat response from 40Hz to 22Khz, and -20 at 20Hz with very high power handling and dynamic range. The A3 is built like a high power sub woofer
driver using a large neodymium motor structure, big voice coil and suspension venting. The A3 is ultra responsive at 2.5 grams total moving mass providing state of the art resolution and dynamic range. The A3 sports 12mm of usable excursion with less than 1 dB compression at levels up to 95 dB SPL. The A3 is currently available in 16ohm and soon to be available in 4ohm and 8ohms and is being offered to dealers, OEM users and DIY enthusiasts.
$170 MSRP"

Maybe it is a bandor custom made for them exclusively.


Strange how on their website, they have pictures of current model speakers with this dark a3 driver (2.5 gram cone) yet they list it as a 1.5 gram cone. Probably a mistake or hasn't been updated...........

Norman

[chrisb]

As a wild a$$ed guess, I'd be inclined to think OEM engineering by Dan Wiggins' & crew. (the provenance of fabrication is probably less important than the design and QC)

I think it's the excursion and sensitivity numbers that give it away.

[CSS/XBL]

Right on Chris; totally custom but had to fit into the Bandor form factor. I have some coming to test. Next version will be dual voice coil.

Bob

[mfishmike]

Yes, Audience has had a major improvement with their A3 driver over the Bandor. It now has licensed the XBL2 technology.

The Audience A3 is a breakthrough full range loudspeaker driver design comprised of the patented XBL motor, patent-pending suspension and patent pending basket. The A3 has an exceptionally flat response from 40Hz to 22Khz and -20 at 20Hz with very high power handling and dynamic range. The A3 is built like a high power sub woofer driver using a large neodymium motor structure, big voice coil and suspension venting. The A3 is ultra responsive at 2.5 grams total moving mass providing state of the art resolution and dynamic range. The A3 sports 12mm of usable excursion with less than 1 dB compression at levels up to 95 dB SPL.

I've got four of them here and am working on a cabinet design and have four more in route. I'm matching them up the with Auric wire. I'll try to remember to post some results when I've got the first one finished. It's about done.

[jackfish]

starting here, another Audience A3 thread has been merged in

Is it likely one can get an F3 of 35 Hz out of a single Audience A3 in a transmission line enclosure? The claim for this driver is a flat frequency response from 40Hz to 22KHz. But with a an Fs of 70 Hz I don't know how it is possible to get this in an application for this driver. Any ideas?

http://www.audience-av.com/parts/spe...StatsGraph.pdf

[Henkjan]

I think this could be done... in the desktop TL's I made, the TL extends also down to approx an octave below fs

btw: this is a first that I see a BL vs X curve and a THD vs X curve published. but somehow those curves don't match the spec'd Xlin on the 1st page of that datasheet... wrong curve printed?

[ScottG]

looking at the graph..

This driver is almost perfectly suited to an array of 8 drivers. (..a pricey design though.)

The "trough" between 280 Hz to 2.3 kHz should be "lifted" in spl to match the rest of the driver's response.

Considering Baffle step loss and the driver's impedance, a "current" type amplifier like Nelson designs (.."first watt"), should work out rather well with the drivers in a *sealed* chamber. (..aperiodic venting could alter the lower freq. response to suit the system/listener.)

..if you prefer tubes this would also work:

http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/t...nequest&m=5167