Can diy'ers make speaker with magical sound?

[andy2]

Can any speaker that you've made able to emulate the magical sound of the Living Voice speakers?

I once had a pair of Living Voice Avatar and the sound was very special. I am not sure how whether because of the driver they use or the general response curve but none of my speakers able to reproduce the midrange of those LV.

[sreten]

Hi,

In strict accuracy terms the Avatars are not correct, but they have
been engineered and voiced to work well with valve amplifiers.

IMO there is nothing "magical" in any speaker design once
you understand whats going on and the design choices made.

You can certainly knock up something that perhaps doesn't
reach the same level of quality but has similar qualities for
very much less than the cost of the Avatars.

If you like the Avatars so much possibly the main difficulty
is the "voicing", not many published designs stray from
what is regarded as neutral, The Avatars have a decidedly
laidback treble end, and a midrange blended to that.

possible interest :

http://murphyblaster.com/content.php...ifa_Tower.html

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Diy_Lou...r_Projects.htm
some stuff on the merits of paper drivers and designs here

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/News.html
1) may be interesting when published

http://seas.no/kit/Njord.pdf

/sreten.

[andy2]

What's so special about this kit:
http://seas.no/kit/Njord.pdf

[AJinFLA]

Nothing.

cheers,

AJ

[sreten]

Originally posted by andy2
What's so special about this kit:
http://seas.no/kit/Njord.pdf

Hi,

It is in the paper cone simple crossover school of thought.
Some people swear by them, Audionote, Snell, etc...

Also relatively easy to modify, i.e. L-pad back the tweeter and
increase the inductor somewhat for an Avatar-u-like balance.

/sreten.

[horus]

Can we obtain a sound similar to the Living Voice?

[Zarathu]

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to my system playing some Wynton Marsalis(trumpet) in a small baroque orchestra, and thinking about how the 12 inch woofers are cramped in too small boxes. So I was musing about putting them in a box that was between 6 and 8.5 cu ft in size.

......And then I said to myself, "No....but I can'tdo that. They would be big enough to obstruct the sound of the harpsichord which is about ten feet back!" And then I realized there was no harpsichord, they were just speakers.

Is that Magical enough?

Zarathu

[cotdt]

you can modify the frequency response to match those Avatars (which I never heard) and do it for pretty cheap. You probably want to use a paper cone driver. i'm not sure what you mean by "magical" sound though. you mean a wide soundstage? rolled-off treble? better terms would help.

[andy2]

Originally posted by horus
Can we obtain a sound similar to the Living Voice?

As was pointed out, I guess you can come close. Some of the "magical" sound of the LV comes from the drivers they use. If I had time, I would try out this:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/C17mk4.htm.

Relative inexpensive drivers and construction is rather straight forward.

[andy2]

Originally posted by cotdt
you can modify the frequency response to match those Avatars (which I never heard) and do it for pretty cheap. You probably want to use a paper cone driver. i'm not sure what you mean by "magical" sound though. you mean a wide soundstage? rolled-off treble? better terms would help.

Most of the magic comes from its midrange. The mid is like "butter" soft and the treble so very sweet. I am using the 95000 tweeter also in my construction but in my design, the treble sounds sort of dry.

I think its how the mid and treble blended so well together in the LV. The xover in the LV does not use any series resister on the tweeter. All caps are Hovlands. The cabinets are designed so they vibrate with the sound... I think it's the combination of all the above.

After hearing the LV for the first time, I knew it was good but I wasn't sure at the time why so many reviewers thought it was special. Only after listening to other speakers including a few ones that I've made, I then come to realize how unique the sound was. I am not sure how to put it into words. There is something about the sound that is really sweet.

For example, Jewel song Foolish Game sounds so sweet with the LV. The Spendor comes close but doesn't quite have the LV clarity. The piano, Jewel sweet vocal ...