omnidirectional test (Duevel on the cheap)

[Ang]

I've always wanted to hear some of Duevel's speakers - check out their omnidirectional designs... which have also won a lot of praise.

Their cheapest model The Planets got me wondering.

How hard would it be to flip over a speaker and hang a crystal ball over it? More to the point, how good/bad would it sound? I've only got open baffles here, but if someone wants to give this a shot or there's more info on it, I'd be interested.

[Pano]

Those things are cool! Thanks for the link. Should sound pretty wild. Might be fun to try.
I like the top horn on the bigger models.

I've got pair of 2 ways gathering dust. If only I could find some metal orbs like those. Or come up with a cone shape like on the ther models. Hmmm....

[angsuman]

Wow i've never seen those Duevels before. It looks really simple. I'd guess the ball has to be pretty reflective. Hmm what about about big marbles.

[Ang]

could probably use a cheap paperweight over the tweeter.... there seem to be some 4-5 inch "crystal" balls on ebay decently cheap... still was hoping for a little larger/cheaper.

If you have a lathe it wouldn't be too hard to simulate the kind of "hat" reflector on some of their more expensive stuff. How fine tuned it would have to be, don't know.

[quiet]

craft shops have styrofoam sphears of all sizes - just lay some resin or even paper machet

you can spear supports right through them also

i would think how ever to get the best sound - some of that complex math stuff would be needed -

chow

[Jaime]

The easy way
http://www.visaton.com/en/6/26/571/index.html

[Rudolf]

You should find a lot of hits when searching for "omnidirectional " in this forum.

Regarding the ball as reflector: Serious omni designs seem to prefer cones as reflectors, because they give a better radiation pattern.
Easiest way to give it a try would be to look for fullrange drivers with a rising frequency response (low qts). They could work without equalisation. I know of good results with the Ciare HX 132/160.

Rudolf

[radical]

You might want to look up information on other respected commercial loudspeakers that used a similar radiation/reflection technique for "omnidirectionality" such as morrison audio's http://www.morrisonaudio.com/
and Daniel Queen's (search US Patent database for #4134471).

[Kensai]

How about using a nice fullrange driver that can be phaseplug mounted but build a plug that is basically a dowel holding up the sphere or cone? Local craft stores I know have at least baseball sized spheres that have a small flattened area on them, so they would mount to a square cut dowels end with no trouble. Then a pair of counter sunk screws in the other end of the dowel to magnetically connect with the pole piece and you're set to try it out, maybe a $3-4 mod to any cheapy driver you might want (bicone "replacement" car drivers, Pio B20, etc).

Kensai