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DIY Waveguide loudspeaker kit

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Earl

I have someone that will be (hopefully) making cabinets for me. If I buy the "Baffle/waveguide, drivers, crossover", that would get me everything BUT the cabinet, right?

Do you have any specifics on the cabinet (dimensions, etc.) that you can share so I can have him take a look ahead of receiving the front baffle?

Thanks!
Jim
 
Count me in as another who has heard Dr. Geddes system.

I was away from home for the July 4 weekend and Detroit was only a little bit out of the way on the trip home, so, wanting to take a trip to hear the system anyway, I had to jump at the chance for a listen. Earl was gracious enough to let me stop by for a quick listen even though it was quite late on a Monday evening- thanks.

When I arrived we chatted for a minute and then went down to the theater for a listen. We first listened to one or two stereo tracks, then several tracks+video from a Cream concert, and finally several tracks+video from an Eagles concert.

What can I say… the system doesn’t do anything wrong.

Let’s pick the low lying fruit first: dynamics. Bottom line: the system played without any noticeable change in sound quality up to the levels we wanted it to. That is more than can be said for almost every stereo out there, and certainly every dome system I’ve ever heard. I’ve heard a few horn/waveguide systems that sound “dome-like” up to levels where a dome runs out of steam, and they can certainly get louder, but they have always tended to get “spitty” or have the “horn sound” when pushed past that point… not here- the system sounded the same at all the levels we played it at. If I had to guess, I’d say our listening got up to around 105 dB A-weighted or 110 dB unweighted, both of those being RMS over a 1s time interval. I can’t say what the peaks hit, but I wouldn’t be surprised at 120+ dB. I would be interested to see how much more the system had in it, but it wasn’t really necessary for what we did. I will say that at times I like to listen to it a little louder, maybe another 5 dB or so, but that’s not very often.

Tonally, the system was neutral- no problems in any frequency ranges and the overall spectral tilt was flat to slightly downward-tilted. The bass and midbass, IMO one of the major challenges of a small room, was right on- articulate, smooth, and balanced… a lot like a good pair of headphones or a good system outside. I’ve only heard a few small room systems that get the bass this close to right, and I’ve never heard a system do this well through the bass and midbass. As a side note, I’m guessing this has to with having the subs and midbasses overlap, as I’ve always had a problem getting the midbass right when crossing it over to the subs around 70-80 Hz, even if having the bass good up to that point. The other tough area, the high end, was as clean as can be. The OS waveguide and foam do as advertised… at no point did I hear anything resembling the “horn sound.” As noted above, I’ve heard horn systems sound this good at low volume, but not when cranked up. The foam seems to take away that last little bit of harshness that I’ve never been able to do away with otherwise. I won’t say that it was an earth-shattering difference as some people (Geddes on WG thread) have claimed, but it certainly WAS a difference, and it’s certainly WORTH doing it, considering there’s no better (other?) way to get the job done.

I was most curious to hear the spatial characteristics of a system setup with the philosophy explained in the Summa paper, as the rest of the performance is fairly easy to quantify (does it screw stuff up?). I’m a bit hesitant to start describing this because it’s very subjective and difficult to reliably compare with other systems heard on other days, but I’ll give it a whirl; just be sure to take the description with a grain of salt. One of the first things I noticed was that the room seemed quite live at high frequencies. Usually that means listening fatigue, but over the 45 minutes or so of constant listening at high volumes I experienced none. A highly damped room can make a crappy speaker sound better, but with a good speaker this just seemed right. The sound stage and imaging was as good as I’ve heard… the stage was appropriately wide, high, and deep, and the images sounded real- not pinpoints and not vague, confused locations, but rather images of a definite direction that were appropriately sized and fuzzy, like a live performance. That’s about all I want to say on that… give it a shot and you’ll be a believer.

Overall, it’s about what I expected: a well-designed and executed system, certainly the best one I’ve ever experienced. All (or very close) aspects of system performance have been addressed, and, might I say, in as simple and economical way as possible. Many systems can get one aspect right (often an irrelevant one in high end audio!), but rarely do you hear something get it all right. I’ve heard a few AES conventions’ and CEDIAs’ worth of show demos, several companies’ listening rooms, several DIYers’ offerings, and messed around with quite a few setups myself, but I’ve never quite seen something put it all together the way this did. To put this in a bigger perspective, I also have friends who have or are working as audio engineers (systems and/or transducers) for Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, Legacy, DCM, Bose, EAW, Electrovoice, Eminence, Pioneer, MTX, Visteon, and Harman, and while I can’t speak directly for them, I have enough shared listening experience to say with some certainty that they’d all be very impressed.

This is one seriously good system; everyone who can give it a listen should jump at the opportunity.
 
gedlee said:


The entire line of ESP products are available in Thailand through www.AI-audio.com. However they are not the kits that I sell here, although the designs are identical - only the cabinet construction is different. But Ai has not agreed to make the kits. You need to contact Kenny at kenny.jackel@ai-audio.com and ask him if he will make kits available to you. If there is only one buyer in thailand then this probably won't occur, but enough customers might interest him.

Thanks. Already send him an e-mail.

In your opinion, is there some benefit for 12" over 10" for small room ( 5.5 meter x 7 meter).
 
WT said:


Thanks. Already send him an e-mail.

In your opinion, is there some benefit for 12" over 10" for small room ( 5.5 meter x 7 meter).


Yes, from what I have seen, and that is not a lot, the 12" is quite an advance over the 10". Its also bigger and more expensive. The 15" is a bit better than the 12", but again quite a bit bigger and more expensive. To me the sweet spot is the 12". The creme-de-la-creme is the Summa. Just makes sense doesn't it?
 
Thanks RYBaudio.

Its good to know that a life spent in creating a good audio system has not been wasted and that people can appreciate it. Science really will win out every time over subjectivism, but surely its going to be a very long time before people come to accept that. I've been saying this all my life, mostly to a disbelieving audience. When people do come to believe that science is a better tool for audio design than ears then they will also stop being tools of marketing and sensibilty will once again creep back into audio purchasing and hopefully audio value. What many fail to realize is how inexpensive my system is given its ratings. We are not talking about mega buck installations and electronics only a sensible approach to the allocation of the resources.
 
Dr. Gedlee,

do you have any recommendations on books, papers, etc on speaker and room integration?

I live in your typical California wood framed construction and I am actually listening to my neighbour's stereo system right now and she is now even playing that loud, but sounds just go stratight through the wall.
 
agent.5 said:
Dr. Gedlee,

do you have any recommendations on books, papers, etc on speaker and room integration?

I live in your typical California wood framed construction and I am actually listening to my neighbour's stereo system right now and she is now even playing that loud, but sounds just go stratight through the wall.


My book on Home Theater has a lot on noise control, but your situation is going to be a tough one. Good luck.
 
DrG, do you have a preference for finish that has worked well with the waveguides? Do you stop the paint some distance before the throat (plug hides it anyway)?

I figured I'd ask in public as those buying kits may have the same questions, or maybe not if they got instructions. (I bought just the waveguides and while their assembly is fairly self-explanatory, the finishing is worth asking about).
 
MartinQ said:
Earl, what is the status on the Abbey and Abbey+ waveguide/baffles?


I have the molds for the Abbey. The Abbey+ is still in the wings although I am having a batch of 15" waveguides made. I do not think that I can do an Abbey+ the same way that I make the Nathan and the Abbey. This will push the price up considerably since the new production method is turning out to be quite effective and efficient. The Abbey+ kit would be at least $1500 each. I think that this will limit its attractiveness quite a bit unless I can get tyhe price down with a better production technique.
 
JoshK said:
DrG, do you have a preference for finish that has worked well with the waveguides? Do you stop the paint some distance before the throat (plug hides it anyway)?

I figured I'd ask in public as those buying kits may have the same questions, or maybe not if they got instructions. (I bought just the waveguides and while their assembly is fairly self-explanatory, the finishing is worth asking about).


The material is irrelavent, but should not get too thick down at the throat. There isn't much point in painting all the way down the throat.

If when they are all assembled and before you glue in the plug, you should check the throat fit and smooth out any rough spots with clay or something like that. I always remove the screens from the drivers and there is usually a small gap after the waveguides are assembled. The B&C DE250 always has a gap as it is in the construction. Fill this with clay until it is perfectly smooth. There should also be some form of gasket in between the mouting plate and the driver and waveguide to make sure this is air tight.
 
Correct - I stated that poorly.

I can keep the price down on those products for which the new method works, but when I have to resort to the older fiberglass waveguides, which require a lot more work and have to be outsourced, I am unable to get the price down to a level comparable with the other two.

The 15" waveguides may be too large to cast, and even if they could be cast the molds more than double in price. But in the long run the waveguides cost a lot less. Hence it appears that initially an Abbey+ would have to have the fiberglass waveguides and hence will have to be more expensive. If things go well then I might be able to buy a mold and get the larger waveguides to work as the smaller ones do. This MAY bring the price down.

Hopefully is is clearer.
 
mike galusha said:


Are you ready to start accepting down payment on the Abbey kits?

Mike


Yes, I will take orders for the Abbey, but not the Abbey+. If, however, I get the Abbey+ developed for production then when your name comes up to the top of the queue I will allow you to use your deposit for the larger system.

I have started shipping Nathans this week.

I will be building a prototype Abbey early next week. Once the prototype is done, then the manufacturing process should go quickly because it is a just a small modification to that for the Nathans.

I am extremely pleased with the Nathans at this point. The cast waveguides are a real improvement over the fiberglass ones. Very rigid and well damped. And I have streamlined all aspects of the process to allow for rapid manufacturing of the parts. Here is a picture of the kit.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
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