The personal planars

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I made them. The physical principle is so neat I had to try them. Greatly amused some of the engineers at work.

They were surprisingly good. Steve is right that they're very revealing of small detail. The replaced the satelites on my Cambridge Soundworks so I was using a cheap sub with them.

There are a few posts about them on the Decware board (some from me)

They've since been superceded by Jordan JX92's as my computer speakers.
 
Dave D.,
Could you elaborate on the sound of the Monsoons? The distributed mode thing is interesting, but i figured if it was good it would have caught on by now, since there is a couple "high enders" using it.
Perhaps a new thread, or is this old hat (site search)?
Regards, Jason
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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diypole said:
Could you elaborate on the sound of the Monsoons? The distributed mode thing is interesting, but i figured if it was good it would have caught on by now, since there is a couple "high enders" using it.

Monsoons aren't distributed mode. They are push-pull magnetostats. Monsoon licensed the tech from Bruce Thingpen (Emminent Techology IIRC) and figured out how to manufacture them for almost nothing. Bruce's hi-end versions start at somewhere on the far side of $1.5k.

Like any planar they get kind of beamy, and they have some resonances (taken care of in the built-in amps) from cavity resonances that keep them from being S-of-T-A. And the amps & sub boxes can be cleaned up alot. But if someone wanted a budget home setup, two pair of these stacked with stereo woofers aren't bad -- even a single pr beats a similarily budgeted shelf-system. Each set comes with what is essentially a passive-pre so you just need to add a serious source and away you go.

dave
 
Hey DrDave,

If you can, i was wondering if you could give a estimate of how much it cost to make a pair of these. I"m a broke college student :) and am really interested in these but dont' want to waste $20 for a password if its gonna cost a couple hundred dollars to build a pair that i can't afford to build. i woudl appreciate it

thanks
 
i would actually be interested in building a pair of these for fun. maybe a bigger pair, like the size of a bookshelf speaker too....

but before i get the plans, it would be nice to now average time and cost to build them...

planet10 said:


Monsoons aren't distributed mode. They are push-pull magnetostats. Monsoon licensed the tech from Bruce Thingpen (Emminent Techology IIRC) and figured out how to manufacture them for almost nothing. Bruce's hi-end versions start at somewhere on the far side of $1.5k.

Like any planar they get kind of beamy, and they have some resonances (taken care of in the built-in amps) from cavity resonances that keep them from being S-of-T-A. And the amps & sub boxes can be cleaned up alot. But if someone wanted a budget home setup, two pair of these stacked with stereo woofers aren't bad -- even a single pr beats a similarily budgeted shelf-system. Each set comes with what is essentially a passive-pre so you just need to add a serious source and away you go.

dave
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
Marmaduke said:
If you can, i was wondering if you could give a estimate of how much it cost to make a pair of these. I"m a broke college student :) and am really interested in these but dont' want to waste $20 for a password if its gonna cost a couple hundred dollars to build a pair that i can't afford to build. i woudl appreciate it

Come on guys. This is how Steve makes a living. This is not the kind of thing to be discussed on diyAudio.

dave :captain:
(in official capacity)
 
No one asked for the blueprints, I just wanted to know what the estimated cost would be and since I live in Sweden it would be nice to know if I can actually purrchase the materials here.
planet10 said:

Come on guys. This is how Steve makes a living. This is not the kind of thing to be discussed on diyAudio.

dave :captain:
(in official capacity)
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
haffe said:
No one asked for the blueprints, I just wanted to know what the estimated cost would be and since I live in Sweden it would be nice to know if I can actually purrchase the materials here.

My apologies, i was goin' to quick, didn't fully Grok your post and thot you were asking for a password.

IIRC it takes a speaker to provide drive and then most of the rest can be scavenged out of your kitchen. With creativity this could likely be an under $10 project (or even less).

dave

planet10/red with embarassment
 
Monsoon tech

Some interesting stuff about iaging, and some similar technologies to decrease distortion in atuos although not near as effective as Bose or Martin logan systems, the Monsoon system costs on average, less than Bose and Martin Logan. I picked up my MH-502s for 59.95 CDN! Onl problem is the puck breaks often, so farmine hasn't broken since the fourth replacement.

Their towers or, Home theatre speakers are relatively good, but if you want Martin Logan sound then purchase the FPF-1600, I wonder if you could buy replacement drivers for their FPF series and build your DIY tower. May not be that expensive either.
 
Apology accepted. I think I will whip out my credit card and purchase the drawings.
planet10 said:


My apologies, i was goin' to quick, didn't fully Grok your post and thot you were asking for a password.

IIRC it takes a speaker to provide drive and then most of the rest can be scavenged out of your kitchen. With creativity this could likely be an under $10 project (or even less).

dave

planet10/red with embarassment
 
Hold on,

The “Personal planars” from Decware are quite different from regular planars. On regular planars the sound from the front is in anti-phase with the sound from the back. On the Decware pneumatic driven planars sound emitted from both sides is IN phase. This is acting more like the Walsh bending wave speakers IMHO. So this will sound different than a regular planar.

Am I right :confused:

;)
 
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