Pro vs hifi drivers - pros and cons?

[cbdb]

I still believe one should specify between pro sound reinforcement and pro studio speakers, ever see Genelecs at a concert or horns with a 60 degree dispersion in a studio? Check out Meyer Sounds products

Meyer Sound Sales

One big advantage (pun intended) is size, Ive never seen home speakers with 2 18" woofers per side (although they probably exsist), I have seen them in a studio control room.

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I have total 4 18" woofers in my living room (One per side plus 2 at the center).

In the "heyday", I got 6 in total, 2 per L-C-R or 3 per side Now I'm getting conservative...

As to the 'studio' vs 'sound reinforcement' things, I believe they are different in system design, but at the 'component' level, I think many things (if not all) should be the same.

ps. I live in relatively small apartment and don't listen very loud, but still prefer pro-stuff

[cbdb]

I still believe that higher end manufactures use different drivers in these 2 very different applications. Live sound needs extreme efficiency, ruggedness (electrically, pyhsically, and enviromentally), and directionality (ever see dome tweters at concerts?), studios want very low distortion, and flat extended freq resp. (sure they want spl, but thats not so hard to do these days in small rooms with large drivers). Go look at Meyer Sounds different products for these applications, they use different drivers.

And I dont work for Meyer but I have worked with the HD-1s for many years. They seem to be an inovative research based (using science and measurements) design and manufacturing company.

[kevinkr]

In my very limited experience designing my Onken/Ultraflex based system (see old Onken threads for details) I currently use I would have to say I would have to agree with Gedlees comments and observations as they seem to parallel mine. I' m using a mix of vintage and current pro sound drivers in my system, and the effortless quality of reproduction is something I never heard in any of the several commercial speaker systems I've owned or had on a long term loan. (AR58LS, MG1.4, MG1.6QR, Silverline Sonatinas, etc..)

In a former job I got to be well acquainted with the effects of dynamic compression due to voice coil heating and got to measure it. It could easily kill 3dB or more of dynamic range when the VC got hot.

Pro drivers can be very linear at the limited excursions and power levels encountered in home use. The combination of Iconic and JBL drivers in my system offers relatively decent FR flatness +/-2dB 100Hz - 10kHz and within -3dB limits from 35Hz - 16kHz (excluding a few peaks and dips below 100Hz) considering the lack of room treatment, no traps or EQ of any kind and my unsophisticated X-O design - not a bad result. As far as the sound goes, I got really lucky - this was my first speaker project and an extremely ambitious one.

Edit:
As a further comment, the systems of friends I most like are all cinema/large format horn (some reflex on the bottom end) based systems. You haven't heard "big" sound until you've heard a pair of RCA Ubangis in the right room..

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Originally Posted by kevinkr

... I' m using a mix of vintage and current pro sound drivers in my system, and the effortless quality of reproduction is something I never heard in any of the several commercial speaker systems I've owned or had on a long term loan. ....

Yes! Effortless is exactly the right word for describing the performance of pro-stuff in home use This is the key point I love them.

[Andre Visser]

Originally Posted by ChrisA

So if you go to a live show the music is not realistic and detailed? What if I haul my guitar and amp into your living room and play something through a proaudio speaker. How can you say it's not "detailed". On the contrary, it would be the very definition of "perfect".

To say that pro audio sound system can't make detailed sound is to say to live sound is not detailed

Comparing the two is silly.

This is what I've said:

but when realistic and detailed acoustical music reproduction are more important...

As soon as you talk about amplified instruments and amplified live shows, I guess almost anything will do because you don't have a reference to compare it with. I guess detailed sound is a very low priority in large amplified live shows anyway.

Originally Posted by ChrisA

The problem is the way the drivers are used. When you listen to live sound you might be hearing two dozen drivers. Each driver is only reproducing one instrument and each driver might have it's own amp. And the setup is custom built just for that one show

At home you need a speaker system that can play any kind of music you might happen to have.

Exactly, I can't see that it is possible to build one speaker that can do everything perfect, first one have to decide what is most important to you and then build speakers that are optimised for that use.

[Brett]

Originally Posted by Andre Visser

Exactly, I can't see that it is possible to build one speaker that can do everything perfect, first one have to decide what is most important to you and then build speakers that are optimised for that use.

Remind us exactly how much experience you have with designing with and measuring pro drivers for use in domestic systems. Drivers and application used would be a good start.

[smokinghot]

Originally Posted by Brett

Remind us exactly how much experience you have with designing with and measuring pro drivers for use in domestic systems. Drivers and application used would be a good start.

Rather than waste time waiting for that tidbit. Why don't you just link us to the "perfect" speaker, or what may be better described as the speaker using pro drivers that in your opinion does everything perfectly, and thereby contradicts Andre's opinion. Which in turn warrants an explaination of his hands on experiences.

I for one would love to know what you have in mind.

[Brett]

Originally Posted by smokinghot

Rather than waste time waiting for that tidbit. Why don't you just link us to the "perfect" speaker, or what may be better described as the speaker using pro drivers that in your opinion does everything perfectly, and thereby contradicts Andre's opinion. Which in turn warrants an explaination of his hands on experiences.

I for one would love to know what you have in mind.

Perhaps you should learn how to read. I have never asserted a perfect design. The assertion from Andre is that HE drivers are only suitable for high SPL. I want to see where his experience is ACTUALLY with HE drivers. Not premade PA systems, but actually working the designs with the drivers.

I am also willing to hear your experiences and see your measurements of pro drivers and indicate exactly why they are unsuitable for domestic reproduction.

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According to my own experiences, I think it doesn't need any sophisticated measure instrument or design skills to reveal the superiority of pro-drivers.

Just hook them up and play! Just drivers, aren't they? Why prejudice? Is it because they are bigger and uglier? They won't bite, don't worry!

Facing those so-called 'Hi-Fi' / 'Hi-end' drivers, pro-drivers just win, hands down, no contest. I don't know why I'm wasting time typing here....