Linkwitz tries the Pareto rule

[rick57]

Linkwitz Orion - six months pregnant?

News of a "baby brother" to the Linkwitz Orion from SL’s site:

PLUTO
“In Spring of 2005 I will describe on this website a new loudspeaker for DIY construction. It is targeted for smaller listening spaces and for lower budgets than would be required for the ORION. The speaker will be easy to build from readily available hardware. Each unit will have a built-in crossover/equalizer and two power amplifiers. I will provide printed circuit boards and construction plans.

PLUTO is omni-directional over most of its frequency range, because the two drivers are mounted at the ends of tubes. This type of enclosure provides path length to absorb the rear wave from the driver's cone and it eliminates secondary radiation of sound from the tubular walls due to their extreme stiffness. The crossover frequency is at a low 1 kHz.

In my listening tests PLUTO stands up respectably to the ORION. It delivers a highly satisfying musical experience. Overall I would estimate that it reaches 80% of the sonic performance of an ORION, yet it accomplishes that at only 20% of its cost. With built-in amplification PLUTO is well suited for multi-channel surround setups, or to be driven from portable music devices and computers.”

(Not very clear) photo at bottom of http://www.linkwitzlab.com/

omni, not dipole it seems
Only about three months away . .

[john k...]

(JPK) This has already been the topic of some emotional debate at MAD. Frankly, if anyone other than SL posted a design like this and made the performance claims SL is making, he would be laughed off the board. Since SL posted it I guess it will end up causing a run on Home Depot and a shortage of PVC pipe. Of course, if you prefer black you can go with the ABS option.

As I said at MAD, does Pluto refer to the planet or the cartoon character?

[Zaph]

Well, I just hope that top driver in the picture isn't the Aura NSW2. It has a ragged response, high linear distortion at 2kHz, and a severely drooping top octave. All of that was clearly audible in casual music listening.

Check out the mountain ridge in the CSD at 2kHz:

[thylantyr]

Not sure why the noise on this Pluto design. Just like any other
loudspeaker design, you will either like the sound or not, then
life goes on

[jmikes]

Originally posted by john k...
(JPK) This has already been the topic of some emotional debate at MAD. Frankly, if anyone other than SL posted a design like this and made the performance claims SL is making, he would be laughed off the board.

Since it dares go against the cumulative wisdom of so many speaker experts here and -- especially -- at the Madisound board, most of whom insist that the only good sound is narrow angle sound beamed at you from a narrowly defined soundstage, I suspect it will receive its share of snotty reviews. Those of us with open minds and ears will take it on its own merits.

[Davey]

John,

The snide remarks don't become you.

You and SL are two of the very few folks (in my book) who would earn a benefit-of-the-doubt on a new design. I would think it's prudent for everyone to withhold critisism until more information is known.

Cheers,

Davey.

Originally posted by john k...
(JPK) This has already been the topic of some emotional debate at MAD. Frankly, if anyone other than SL posted a design like this and made the performance claims SL is making, he would be laughed off the board. Since SL posted it I guess it will end up causing a run on Home Depot and a shortage of PVC pipe. Of course, if you prefer black you can go with the ABS option.

As I said at MAD, does Pluto refer to the planet or the cartoon character?

[john k...]

Originally posted by Davey
John,

The snide remarks don't become you.

You and SL are two of the very few folks (in my book) who would earn a benefit-of-the-doubt on a new design. I would think it's prudent for everyone to withhold critisism until more information is known.

Cheers,

Davey.

(JPK) I'll role with the punch and take the compliment Davey, even though I seem at odds with you on this one. By the way, I like your "econOpole" system with the CA18 mids.

The problem I have with the Pluto is it just isn''t anything even remotely close to new or inovative. Designs like this have been around since the 60's. And frankly SL's hype, "80% of the Orion for 20% of the cost. " Well, we all know the limitations of a 2-way with a 5" woofer, so what does that say about the Orion?

[amt]

Could it be a three driver two-way with a long-throw 5" at either end of the tube and connected out of phase, to be a dipole or maybe bipole/ in phase? Equalized and powered by LM3886s with a tweeter over 1k? If this was covered at MAD, sorry. I find that forum so slow to load that I have given up looking at it.


amt

[5th element]

It either says the orion is not up to much, or the pluto is one heck of a speaker. I have nothing to support the pluto being brilliant but id rather swing for the latter.

We all know the orion is a good speaker, top class drive units with a well implemented crossover and rave reviews from everyone who listens to them.

These are Linkwitz words describing a Linkwitz speaker so its bound to be good stuff he says about them.

But we will have to wait and see. Xover at 1khz, hmm he seems to push tweeters more and more everytime he uses one. I can see a scan 97 going down to 1k, its flat on my baffle to 500hz, but only at limited SPL because it would reach the end of its xmax fairly quickly. However a 5" midbass cannot produce much on its own anyway with respect to SPL.

Again we shall have to wait and see.

Next time I go to my DIY store ill by some PVC pipe then and throw some audax AP100ZO's in them and see what happens using the KX drivers as an xover. Watch this space!

[jmikes]

Originally posted by amt
I find that forum so slow to load that I have given up looking at it.

I tried to read the thread, but the site is so slow I figure it must run on an AT and DOS 1.2. As far as I could tell, the gist of it is that some object to SL satisfying his own curiosity with an experiment. Not dipole? Horrors!!!!!

Pretty humorous, actually. A couple of guys who couldn't carry Linkwitz' resume getting snippy about his projects.