I take delight in the fact that there are so many different approaches to speakers, all of which have their fans. Rooms, music types and listening levels are so varied there cannot be one right answer. When a speaker gets larger than my wife's car I have admiration for the dedication to build and house such a beast.
Who would have thought loudspeakers could get that big? I will have to see if I can find some pictures of my idea of large loudspeakers. You know the ones that require a crane to move! Lately more of the bigger systems use line arrays composed of many smaller boxes. Unfortunately most of those systems don't meet seismic standards for permanent installation, something some folks installing them don't seem to know.
BTW you might want to look at some movie theater loudspeakers. The oldest one I have seen used custom molded walls to make the bass horn. Mono of course and roughly the size of an elephant, almost as large as some audio "expert's" egos!
BTW you might want to look at some movie theater loudspeakers. The oldest one I have seen used custom molded walls to make the bass horn. Mono of course and roughly the size of an elephant, almost as large as some audio "expert's" egos!
Then there's Dick Burwen's horns. Dick Burwen's Sound System I missed an invite to Dick's house by a couple of years, but I was told when he turned it up hands over the ears were required to prevent permanent hearing damage.
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There are some very unusual and impractical designs out there.
Some people have the money and other resources to do unusual things, just "to see" and have fun.
NP's big speakers are an example. It's a good example of "let's see".
Hopefully, he learned something from it, and won't do it again.
Some people have the money and other resources to do unusual things, just "to see" and have fun.
NP's big speakers are an example. It's a good example of "let's see".
Hopefully, he learned something from it, and won't do it again.
Yeah, 17 phase linear 400's all playing at once will do that, particularly when driving an efficient horn system - that's indoors to boot.
Hard to imagine killing the output transistors in those amps due to "thermal cycling" - that guy must've killed his ear drums in the process too.
Dick is one of my heroes. Engineered excess in persuit of audio excellence that is unlikely to be equalled.
Strange comment. I'd personally be worried if Nelson stopped doing things differently.
Jean Hiraga once told me he was working on a mono LF horn in his house. The horn would start at his house's first floor, then curve through the floor to end up with the mouth in the living room. The listening position would actually be in the mouth.
Never found out whether it ever materialized, but he's crazy enough for it.
Jan
Never found out whether it ever materialized, but he's crazy enough for it.
Jan
the original site hosting the creation of this speaker system seems to have joined up with the mad cousins of the electric universe:
Horn Subwoofer Takes Up Crazy Man's Entire Basement
but that is dedication to over the top music playing.
Horn Subwoofer Takes Up Crazy Man's Entire Basement
but that is dedication to over the top music playing.
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You misunderstood my comment and generalized it. I was speaking specifically about the horn speakers pictured. If you re-read my comment, that should be clear.
An issue with this and other long horns is delaying the mains to coincide with the wavefront of the sub as it emerges from the horn mouth.
I built a concrete aperiodic sub cabinet in one LEDE mastering room which worked OK, but the room's walls, although designed correctly geometrically, were no match for the JBL 2245H driven by a KW and exhibited diaphragmatic resonance at several frequencies. As a result the response had some large irregularities.
Achieving flat LF response in an enclosed space with a dimension less than 1/2λ of the lowest frequency you are trying to reproduce is not trivial, regardless of how the energy is generated.
Cheers!
Howie
Hi Jan!
We attempted to reduce them by mass-loading the wall sections with additional GWB and green-glue and this reduced the resonances somewhat, but an 18" woofer & 1KW can move significant masses...
The room ended up sounding very good, we mastered thousands of titles there. It was a LEDE Nearfield room with Genelecs crossed over at 80 Hz to the sub IIRC.
More RHC I'm afraid.....lolol
Cheers!
Howie
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Howie,
A bit of research I am doing is on recording studio and mastering control rooms. Specifically if being used for stereo, how far apart are the main monitor loudspeakers and the distance to the decision makers ears. AKA the angle ears to monitors!
Seems to me to be a bit of importance in considering reproduction of pseudo stereo imaging.
ES
A bit of research I am doing is on recording studio and mastering control rooms. Specifically if being used for stereo, how far apart are the main monitor loudspeakers and the distance to the decision makers ears. AKA the angle ears to monitors!
Seems to me to be a bit of importance in considering reproduction of pseudo stereo imaging.
ES