Kharma's $1-Million Speakers Blow a Hole in Everything

[Nordic]

There is spending a lot of money on your sound system at home. And there are expensive speakers. And then there is Grand Enigma, from Kharma (I think the H signifies "H-H-H-How much?"). A million bucks-worth of high-end audio. So, let's get this straight. Some homeowner from Belgium has chosen to spunk $1,000,000.00 on his audio system (compared with around $1 on the fresco that adorns his walls) in order to show that he is considerably richer than youse. For that money, he might as well have funded an entire orchestra. – Ad Dugdale

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/..._dollar_1.html

[phase_accurate]

That's the largest point-source I've seen so far !

Regards

Charles

[bigwill]

Can those things even image?

Edit: Oh I see, they have a line source in the middle and woofers on the edge, they probably image quite well. At first I thought it was just a huge mess of drivers!

[Foxx510]

I wonder how they sound in that not quite dead room...... It looks like the room from my sound engineering nightmares........

[CeramicMan]

Ah yes...

So there appears to be a total of 18 sections, amounting to just over $50k each...

I'm sure someone's willing to do a clone costing about a thousand times less!

[Peter Daniel]

And here if you are interested what comes after Kharma in an expensive loudspeaker classification:

http://www.higherfi.com/spkrlist/speakerlist.htm

[DSP_Geek]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel
And here if you are interested what comes after Kharma in an expensive loudspeaker classification:

http://www.higherfi.com/spkrlist/speakerlist.htm

Holy crap. Most of those systems have major things wrong with them just by inspection.

Let's look at that million dollar Kharma, for example. Sure it's a line source, but the imaging will be trashed by the space between the mid/high cabinets and the woofer boxes causing a first reflection of the surface wave. The spacing between the three mid/high cabinets will also contribute a first reflection and serious comb filtering as a result.

Few very large systems are anywhere near time-coherent: usually stored energy and variable delay paths end up smearing the sound. Even the Wilson X-1, not in the very large class, had problems with tweeter reflections off the mid cabinets.

[adason]

And here if you are interested what comes after Kharma in an expensive loudspeaker classification:

my favourite, Genesis 1.1, seems quite a bargain after all...

[CeramicMan]

Most of those systems have major things wrong with them just by inspection.

And none of them appear to be selling a complete 'system'. The emphasis is on just the loudspeakers, which are all (except maybe the Cabasse) very fat and grandiose with nothing in the way of new technology, WAF or anything.

How about plasma tweeters that use solid state electronics and RF MOSFETs?

Multi-amping with digital crossovers? Microphone calibration?

Sleek box shapes without parallel edges or sharp corners? And what's with all the horizontal MTM designs? I thought HT designers did that as a compromise when there wasn't enough room between the floor and the tv for a vertical arrangement?

[chainenoble]

how about that audio note on the list.108k for a 8" 2way in a plywood box!!