Mr. Bates, your focused arrays...

[Frank40]

Hey Frank - yes, I have. Rising response is your friend when it comes to line arrays. These drivers are so cheap that you can afford to try them out yourself.

My recommendation is the glassfiber cone. It justifies the price difference. It does not sound shouty, it does not exaggerate anything. But, and this is just MY opinion which I know is not commonly shared, it has not good enough high treble extension. Maybe the Fostex ff85k really is the ideal driver here.

Then again - I might be wrong.

/Pontus

Thanks for you comments on the vifa unit's and I agree with you, at this price level I rather pay double to get a bit more. But to tell you the Thurs I am even more confused regarding the choice of units now, but due to the low Xmax on fostex units thy are a no go for me. I would like the Finnish speaker to go down to 40-50Hz and the cut them at 80Hz, so I am looking at 4-5" units in a large box.

But man.... how do you choose

 

[Melo theory]

Frank, if you are going to spend more money, the daytons are the way to go.
Or, the TB titanium used in this build.

The fiberglass vifa's will not get you much more than the paper, if any.
First of all, these 2 vifa models do not have a rising response.
You don't want a rising response with a FA anyway.

 

[CLS]

Well, Jon answered your first question.
As far as the second....that doesn't look like a J shape to me.
But, you know how a focussed would compare to J or convex array.....
It's common sense. Are you messing with us?
(isn't Radugazon's listening room awesome? And he always goes big with his designs....much respect!)

Please, I wasn't messing with anyone. If it's common sense, alright, but I didn't know and still don't know that. (I mean real knowing. In this topic, up to now, I can only imagine or guess... )

Radugazon's array is indeed a J, just not very curvy at the bottom, with the bending towards the opposite direction of those PA arrays. Or it might be seen as a half-focused array Probably good for reducing floor bounce (?)

Back to the (perfectly) focussed arrays and their extraordinary character, do you guys really live with the day and night performances in the "in or out of focus" situations ?

 

[Melo theory]

Oh, I hope that didn't offend you....I was totally joking.
I don't have a J array but I've heard them at concerts.
I'm building a straight array right now.
With a focussed array if you leave the sweet spot, that's it. No good.
But I don't really see a problem with that.
I don't do jumping jacks during a listening session.
I have different types of speakers for different situations.
I have nearfield single drivers.
I have point source open baffle FRA's
I have stereo omni's for casual listening.
I have "the event horizon" open baffle focussed ambiopole.
And I will have "the supernova" soon, the straight array.

I don't believe that there is an ultimate speaker. I used to, but through experience I have become less idealistic. I used to drive myself crazy obsessing over theory, then I realized .....I wasn't building anything!
No speaker will be perfect. Different situations call for different necessities.

 

[CLS]

Never mind.

And lucky you to have all those different animals in your own zoo.

What's "the event horizon"? I missed it somewhere? (er... you need a black hole to get that. Is that common sense, too? LOL ! )

 

[Melo theory]

hahaha! Yes, now your gettin' it!
Be careful reading this thread, all physics as you know it will cease to exist
You may not come back! Ooooohhhhhh.......
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/217096-event-horizon-ambiopole.html

 

[xrk971]

Very cool. Individual ported BR's are a neat idea.

 

[Melo theory]

No, they are aperiodic vents.