Commercial "Tribute" to the Frugel-Horn?

[klykx]

This thread a split-off from Frugal horn build

If you do't want to build them it seems that there is a price for a pair of frugal horns and a tapped horn sub at this place....6moons industry features: Ring Audio's FGH 1.4

the resemblance is remarkable! Is ring audio somebody on diyaudio?

[Scottmoose]

Ah, the plot thickens; that's much longer than the previous ad. on 6moons. I've dug out their site too: ring-audio

For reference, to the best of my knowledge neither Dave nor Chris (the prime Frugel-horn movers & shakers), let alone Ron or myself (peripheral involvement in the FH cabinet) have in any way been contacted about this Ring-Audio design. To be plain, if it is indeed a copy, or heavily based upon the FH (which seems almost 100% certain), then unless they have contacted Dave, Chris or Ron & they forgot to tell me about it, this Ring-Audio box is completely unauthorised and they are not abiding by even the minimal 'use of designs' conditions set out on the Frugal-horn site.

I see that on both their 6moons ad., and their web-pages, Ring-Audio are employing the term 'suprabaffle'; a word I believe that Dave was 'responsible' for popularising, particularly on this forum, thus lending further credence to the idea that this box is at the very least heavily based on the Frugel-Horn. Furthermore, in the 6moons ad, the graphs displaying different baffle responses have clearly been lifted from page 23 of Olson's seminal text 'Acoustical Engineering' which I believe is still under copyright for commercial considerations. That is -if they even bothered to aquire a copy: those self-same graphs are to be found (legally, I hasten to add, as it's non-commercial), on page 17 of the Frugel-horn pdf.

I'll end this little clarification (which I'm sure Dave will delete if I am misinformed. Which I don't believe I am) with a quote from the Ring-Audio website: 'After 20 years of research, we developed speakers of top quality, due to their sound quality as well as their design.'

Yeah. Other people's research, and other people's design.

[chrisb]

Scott, et al - a few thoughts

- Model name FGH? I mean, WTF - no matter what else you might want to say, these guys have big brass ones

- Spherical supra-baffle as shown, isn't that a bit of a misnomer?

- you're quite right that no conversations or negotiations preceded the co-opting of the design by the Croats.

-are these not the same folks who recently published photos of internal details that looked liked they could have been lifted from the FrugalHorn assembly manual? (gallery pics from the frugal-horn site)



- Has anyone relayed this matter to Srajan's attention? He's been more than a bit sensitive to these types of shenanigans in the past.

[Scottmoose]

- Model name FGH? I mean, WTF - no matter what else you might want to say, these guys have big brass ones.

To suggest it's 'blatant' would be an understatement.

- Spherical supra-baffle as shown, isn't that a bit of a misnomer?

Spherical = good. Providing it's big enough. Which it certainly does not appear to be. They appear to have mistaken ripple caused by edge diffraction for step-loss, or at least, need to clarify their terminology. To say nothing of clarifying where their design came from.

- you're quite right that no conversations or negotiations preceded the co-opting of the design by the Croats.

There you go, guys...

-are these not the same folks who recently published photos of internal details that looked liked they could have been lifted from the FrugalHorn assembly manual?

I might have missed that one, but it doesn't sound unlikely. Got a link? Every little extra bit of evidence will help.

- Has anyone relayed this matter to Srajan's attention? He's been more than a bit sensitive to these types of shenanigans in the past.

Not AFAIK; I certainly haven't -yet. But I'm fairly certain Srajan will have a short way of dealing with the ad. etc. & may even make some investigations of his own -he's a decent bloke.

Oh well, methinks it's time for Scott to get on the blower to him.

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by Scottmoose

Not AFAIK; I certainly haven't -yet. But I'm fairly certain Srajan will have a short way of dealing with the ad. etc. & may even make some investigations of his own -he's a decent bloke.

Oh well, methinks it's time for Scott to get on the blower to him.

well, it might be no surprise that this got me exercised enough to e-mail him directly myself, along of course with links to the FH site

as you say, "Sir John" as his compatriots affectionately call him, has dealt with similar situations recently - the next few days should be interesting

cheers


as for the

-are these not the same folks who recently published photos of internal details that looked liked they could have been lifted from the FrugalHorn assembly manual?

I might have missed that one, but it doesn't sound unlikely. Got a link? Every little extra bit of evidence will help.


I was probably thinking of:

The Frugel-Horn Project

perhaps it's just a coincidence that the rather slickly produced photo in the Frugel-horn DIY builder's gallery was of Croatian origin?


perhaps a senior's moment on my part - and not to be the last!

[Scottmoose]

Ahhh. I wondered if it might be that one.

Well, that's two of us; I've just emailed Srajan myself. OK -no proof yet. And I'd dearly love us to be wrong. But I fear the likelihood isn't high.

You have mail BTW Chris (& Dave)

[italynstylion]

Wow, I don't understand how they thought this might go under the radar.

However, it must be at least somewhat flattering right Scott? €9.500/pr

[badman]

Different places, different respect of I.P., but it's dishonest to say the least. There is 0 chance that those aren't frugel-derived. What lowlifes.

[planet10]

Did anyone include the link back to thid thread in their email to Srajan?

The price makes the Gemme version of the Fostex factory horn look positively good value (the high price of the Gemme was one of the things that drove the FH Project)

dave

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by planet10

Did anyone include the link back to thid thread in their email to Srajan?

now, yes - he's been inundated this morning