I think it's mostly the room > lots of reverberation.
Noam Geller posted a video of the Lansing Iconics.
From the first notes onwards... I think he's right. This sounds natural.
I built pelnty PA speaker with BMS drivers (1", 1,4" and Coax). I think I know what you are speaking about.
The BMS tend to sound "soft" - at least at pretty high power levels (so not in the living room - 1000pax room). Not weak - but a great 2" shows you more precise what's going on on the stage. The BMS sounds more "HiFi" - which is often pretty nice. I thought the very high K2 at high frequencies is probably a reason for that.
My last project was with the B&C DE360 - 1" ring radiator which goes without resonance to 20kHz (but starts right after there). It's membrane is way harder as what BMS is using and I also had the impression of a more detailed, "realistic" sound. But still without metal dome "ringing" and a relaxed presentation.
But I didn't A/B them so this is really just a guess! Don't take it to serious.
There are some conflicting aspects to PA design compared to Hi-Fi though. For example the lower efficiency could be due to increased use of disipative surrounds and back chamber absorption which would improve fidelity. Also a Hi-Fi design could use a smaller gap between the phase plug and dome and a larger back chamber as it doesn't have to be designed to be thermaly limited rather than excursion limited over its full range as a PA driver normally is. TBH I also think classical compression driver design is that complicated, especialy if you accept less than the maximum possible output in the form factor.
One reason for the not-so-high efficiency of the Kartesian driver is probably the low compression ratio. With a 1.4" throat and a 2.56" voice-coil this will probably be below 4. And that would definitely not be a bad thing for HiFi.
Regards
Charles
Regards
Charles
I'll give you three current products that would qualify as "cream of the crop" out of the box:
TAD TD-2002 (1" throat)
TAD TD-4001 (2" throat)
GT SOUND GSU-D04R (2" throat)
Horns:
Yamamoto SS-500 (1" throat)
Yamamoto SS-300 (2" throat)
I'll let others summarise on the "reasonably priced" options (none of which I can guarantee will be as good as the above).
is it the Kartesian CMP45 ?
https://www.toutlehautparleur.com/u...rtesian-cmp45-vtlhp-8-ohm-sortie-1-pouce.html
Anyone tried ND3ST?
Distortion test from Voice Coil is so low, maybe the lowest I've seen at 104dB.
https://audioxpress.com/article/test-bench-eighteen-sound-nd3st-1-4-compression-driver
CSD plot shows a bit resonance though.
Distortion test from Voice Coil is so low, maybe the lowest I've seen at 104dB.
https://audioxpress.com/article/test-bench-eighteen-sound-nd3st-1-4-compression-driver
CSD plot shows a bit resonance though.
I'm doing 500-20kHz in my own system and it sounds superb... ;-)
i had the NSD3N ( nitrided titanium version) with a JABO KH53 horn very good combo from 800Hz flat without correction but needed a tweeter from 10K with this large horn.
JBL 2450J with Truextent beryllium diaphragms + Yamamoto SS-300 horns
Attachments
Yap. It is really the only reason to go back to Munich next year, kind of pathetic.
very nice!
BTW should I dare ask what you thought of the Klipsch Jubilees?
You go first... 🤣
The two systems were physically identical except that the crossover component values were tweaked to yield as close a FR as possible.
These two systems were then rated virtually identical. Both of these systems were rated higher than two other non-identical systems.
These results are what led me to the belief that drivers make little to no difference - it's all in the system design, not the drivers.
The worst sound of the show. Embarassingly bad.