Quite an interesting Transmission Line design article on the THOR by Joe d'Appolito. Uses an MTM configuration with the SEAS W18EX001 magnesium units. I am wondering if anyone else out there is considering building the units.
I've built a couple of his designs (one now residing with #3 son in college) but this looks to be the keeper. The review By Denis Colin is absolutely fawning, which worries me a bit.
There is an article on the Thor at the SEAS website: www.seas.no/thor.html
I've built a couple of his designs (one now residing with #3 son in college) but this looks to be the keeper. The review By Denis Colin is absolutely fawning, which worries me a bit.
There is an article on the Thor at the SEAS website: www.seas.no/thor.html
THOR -- correct llink
they must use MSFrontpage, the correct link is www.seas.no/thor.htm Sorry for the confusion
they must use MSFrontpage, the correct link is www.seas.no/thor.htm Sorry for the confusion
Hello,
I built mine last August and have been quite happy with them.
They are very smooth, musical and have a great soundstage.
I can and have listened to them morning till night with no fatigue
or desire to turn the down or off. Previously I was using maggies but prefer the Thors in every area. I just read the article in AudioXpress and while I think Mr Colin's rateing might seem a little enthusiastic I would not rate any category less than a nine. Over all they seem to be well worth the time and money. I had a ton of fun building mine. I have a picture posted at the link below.
The picture is not very good but will give you an idea of what they look like in black lacquer.
http://community.webshots.com/user/mike2114
I built mine last August and have been quite happy with them.
They are very smooth, musical and have a great soundstage.
I can and have listened to them morning till night with no fatigue
or desire to turn the down or off. Previously I was using maggies but prefer the Thors in every area. I just read the article in AudioXpress and while I think Mr Colin's rateing might seem a little enthusiastic I would not rate any category less than a nine. Over all they seem to be well worth the time and money. I had a ton of fun building mine. I have a picture posted at the link below.
The picture is not very good but will give you an idea of what they look like in black lacquer.
http://community.webshots.com/user/mike2114
Digi,
If you go to Zalytron.com you can get the drivers and X-overs for $885. Also Solen has a more complete kit for $839. Both less cabinet.
I built mine with the original metric plans from SEAS which used 1" for the entire cabinet. So mine is smaller internally by 1/2"W x 1/4"D x 1/2"H. I spoke with a rep. from SEAS about this. He said the difference is minor and can be adjust for in the stuffing density if need be. I think the design in AudioXpress is the correct one and if I were to build agian would use them. Although mine sound fine I did decrease the stuffing slightly to get the sound I liked.
As for the bass extension. Yes it will go to 25 hz. In my room I can feel and hear a 20 hz test tone. It's not very loud but you can hear it. Actual usefull bass in my room starts to drop off fairly fast after about 35 hz. There seems to be alot of concern out there about the bass response with these. Which I think might come from a missunderstanding of the response chart that SEAS has on the web site. That chart was made in their anechoic chamber which has no bass response after 100 Hz. The response charts you see in AudioXpress are more inline with what you will see in room. They don't throw as much bass as a 12- 15" driver will, but they are quite amazing for thier size. Several times I got up to see if my sub was on. I never use the sub with music, only for movies.
Hope this helps.
If you go to Zalytron.com you can get the drivers and X-overs for $885. Also Solen has a more complete kit for $839. Both less cabinet.
I built mine with the original metric plans from SEAS which used 1" for the entire cabinet. So mine is smaller internally by 1/2"W x 1/4"D x 1/2"H. I spoke with a rep. from SEAS about this. He said the difference is minor and can be adjust for in the stuffing density if need be. I think the design in AudioXpress is the correct one and if I were to build agian would use them. Although mine sound fine I did decrease the stuffing slightly to get the sound I liked.
As for the bass extension. Yes it will go to 25 hz. In my room I can feel and hear a 20 hz test tone. It's not very loud but you can hear it. Actual usefull bass in my room starts to drop off fairly fast after about 35 hz. There seems to be alot of concern out there about the bass response with these. Which I think might come from a missunderstanding of the response chart that SEAS has on the web site. That chart was made in their anechoic chamber which has no bass response after 100 Hz. The response charts you see in AudioXpress are more inline with what you will see in room. They don't throw as much bass as a 12- 15" driver will, but they are quite amazing for thier size. Several times I got up to see if my sub was on. I never use the sub with music, only for movies.
Hope this helps.
This is my next speaker project "on the table". I am going to build the THOR, but with my favorite tweeter the Raven R1. I just cannot go back to soft domes after living with the Raven! I have SoundEasy and CLIO for redesign of the high-pass section of the crossover for the R1. I will give up a bit of vertical directivity in the crossover region, but I am willing to accept that. I am not worried about the distortion of using the R1 @ 2500Hz 4th order, as I now cross it @ 2900Hz 4th order padded to 88Db. The distortion even @ 100Db level is very low in the crossover region as measured with CLIO. I am really looking forward to building these speakers. I just need the $$ to buy the W18's!
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