I just saw this in the news. Very cool article featuring people we know.
Markaudio-Sota Launches in the U.S. with Audiophile Speakers | Sound & Vision
Markaudio-Sota Launches in the U.S. with Audiophile Speakers | Sound & Vision
Yup - very cool. Would love to hear them. I see we have a new term - "all-range drivers". What do you think, more or less confusing? I'd vote more.
Cool indeed - long overdue for some of us to put faces to the names
Now, in true irreverent DIY fashion, let's try to second-guess, RE and clone those designs 😉
Now, in true irreverent DIY fashion, let's try to second-guess, RE and clone those designs 😉
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Kind of ironic that a fullrange maker put out a higher end line SOTA speaker using "multiple" drivers with conventional crossover at 2.4k.
That is odd, I thought that myself. And the crossover point, I would've guessed much higher...
Interesting news. Meanwhile I still I have a pair of A12P drivers in box, bought 4 years ago but since I stayed on unexpectedly in Asia (marriage!) they are still not in a proper box - not fun to make speakers in an apartment.
I did hear them in Hong Kong in the Superpensil and found them excellent.
Coming back to the crossovers - I have become much more accepting towards 2 way speakers since I heard several different Harbeth speakers on a few occasions - all were excellent and esp the HL5Plus was amazing - it had the perfect clarity of my friends lovely Quad ESL57, with dynamics and bass on top. I may eventually buy a pair to replace my current pretty ok diy speakers.
I did hear them in Hong Kong in the Superpensil and found them excellent.
Coming back to the crossovers - I have become much more accepting towards 2 way speakers since I heard several different Harbeth speakers on a few occasions - all were excellent and esp the HL5Plus was amazing - it had the perfect clarity of my friends lovely Quad ESL57, with dynamics and bass on top. I may eventually buy a pair to replace my current pretty ok diy speakers.
Reading OUR DIFFERENCE - MarkAudio-SOTA Loudspeakers , I certainly interpret that the systems are indeed using full range drivers (described as "All-Range") - the pictured units certainly look very familiar - and as for the crossover, unless he dreads endless second-guessing / armchair quarterbacking, our esteemed member Scott might like to explain his reasoning.
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Scott is neither esteemed nor wishes to be. Unfortunately my health isn't currently great so I'm not able to post much, although my own heart issues don't even approach the severity of what Dave is going through, so I'm not complaining. Ye gods, I'm not complaining.
Briefly:
-They're custom wideband (my preferred term) drive units not available to the DIY market.
-There are actually multiway and single driver models in the overall range. For those confused about why a company (sister company actually) best known for producing wideband drive units should also produce multiways, the answer is simple. Single driver speakers are a very small niche in the commercial hi-fi market, and many buyers shy away from them. Multiway speakers also have a number of features single-driver types cannot provide. So both are produced. What is unusual of course is that the multiway speakers use closely related wideband drivers for all legs.
-The crossover frequency is where it is because that's what Mark wanted. All speaker design is a matter of balancing a number of different attributes and compromises. Filters are what and where they are for a variety of reasons related to driver characteristics, desired voicing etc. Aspects will reflect a [nominal] designer's personal preferences, others will not, since they are working within a wider set of criteria already laid down; that is the reality of commercial design. Importers and retailers often have an especially important role to play in voicing product, since they know what their clients want better than anyone else. So whatever the names attached, the reality is that the product is a co-production containing the input of a much larger number of people than might be apparent. Very interesting actually.
Briefly:
-They're custom wideband (my preferred term) drive units not available to the DIY market.
-There are actually multiway and single driver models in the overall range. For those confused about why a company (sister company actually) best known for producing wideband drive units should also produce multiways, the answer is simple. Single driver speakers are a very small niche in the commercial hi-fi market, and many buyers shy away from them. Multiway speakers also have a number of features single-driver types cannot provide. So both are produced. What is unusual of course is that the multiway speakers use closely related wideband drivers for all legs.
-The crossover frequency is where it is because that's what Mark wanted. All speaker design is a matter of balancing a number of different attributes and compromises. Filters are what and where they are for a variety of reasons related to driver characteristics, desired voicing etc. Aspects will reflect a [nominal] designer's personal preferences, others will not, since they are working within a wider set of criteria already laid down; that is the reality of commercial design. Importers and retailers often have an especially important role to play in voicing product, since they know what their clients want better than anyone else. So whatever the names attached, the reality is that the product is a co-production containing the input of a much larger number of people than might be apparent. Very interesting actually.
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rare post, so please forgive me...
but having worked with mark before, I read this thread with interest... I hope he is doing well...
I think I know what he did... second order wants a polarity flip, right? so perhaps the driver depth difference is a half wave of 2400? ~2 inches? then he does not have to flip polarity?
just an idea...
peace,
me
but having worked with mark before, I read this thread with interest... I hope he is doing well...
I think I know what he did... second order wants a polarity flip, right? so perhaps the driver depth difference is a half wave of 2400? ~2 inches? then he does not have to flip polarity?
just an idea...
peace,
me
One interesting thing is since Mark uses two very wide brand driver (or even full range if he wants to), that means he can cross anywhere between 200hz to 10khz (ok, maybe 200hz might be a bit low), yet he choose the almost de facto standard of around 2.4khz, so this is pretty much saying the 2.4k XO region is fairly optimal for most of the drivers. At least according to Markaudio SOTA.
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