"Search for perfection is all very well, but to look for heaven is to live here in hell'...
Sting.
I noticed that when I get stoned everything sounds fantastic, especially bass. It may be a clue to quality of recordings produced by industry. Having met a few audio "engineers" (deaf like a door knobs) I would not be surprised.
Sting.
I noticed that when I get stoned everything sounds fantastic, especially bass. It may be a clue to quality of recordings produced by industry. Having met a few audio "engineers" (deaf like a door knobs) I would not be surprised.
Not sure what “aphoniac”. There is no best really, application and execution is just as critical. There is no best, just most suitable for the application. When budget and availabilty factor in we see people using MDF which isn’t really that good.
dave
All sound engineers I know (and I studied that stuff, I know a few ;-)) are also musicians. You need to understand and feel music and have an idea of the need and vision of a musician to do a good job.
(But there are also plenty who don't do a good job, esp live venue engineers ...)
That's an absolutely beginners mistake! No serious speaker developer does that. That was also a problem with early room correction programms. And hobby people who start with EQing.
Nowerdays we have great material and speaker chassis like never before - just chose the good stuff.
These are underhung designs - otherwise you wouldn't get that sensitivity.
Not often 3" midranges are used in desktop PC speakers
. During recording your material has WAY more dynamic as after mastering. And when you track directly what is normal today you need quite some level and the dynamics so you feel good during recording. That's way more demanding as listening to music at 85dBSpl in your living room.p.s.: Sound engineers never attend these HiFi/HighEnd trading shows. Why should we - it's not about music. It's not about tools you can use or which help. It's about selling stuff. The quick impression of a customer who has no knowledge about music/instruments/listening/creation.
Go to an AES convention when you are interested in the music production industry, not the hobby people. Attend a recording conpetition and listen to the stuff there.
(But be careful, thy often use big PMCs for that to fill these big rooms
.)
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Well enough said right there………..another informative thread that will die the sad death of invariability. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose."Search for perfection is all very well, but to look for heaven is to live here in hell'...
Sting.
I noticed that when I get stoned everything sounds fantastic, especially bass. It may be a clue to quality of recordings produced by industry. Having met a few audio "engineers" (deaf like a door knobs) I would not be surprised.
Audio Technology cones used in Kaiser Kawero speaker sounded very seductive in midrange on girl with guitar kind of material and jazz vocals. If you don't crank up it may be a good choice .Better Lowther and alike can be absolutely spectacular the way almost nothing else is. Volt drivers used in Graham speakers may be a choice simply based on my listening to classic Spendors and thinking that hardly anything can touch them in the reproduction of human voice.
You have to define your expectations in respect to type of music . If you're eclectic omnivore you're pretty much fu...ed . That's the naked truth.
You can take home cobbled tube amp and and certain vintage cone and it will do things which will make you cry and $500k system won't be able to match in a small restricted range. You can't have it all for any money.
You have to define your expectations in respect to type of music . If you're eclectic omnivore you're pretty much fu...ed . That's the naked truth.
You can take home cobbled tube amp and and certain vintage cone and it will do things which will make you cry and $500k system won't be able to match in a small restricted range. You can't have it all for any money.
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Sometimes it would be cool to have different systems (and maybe even different listening rooms) for different recordings and moods.
Sometimes it would be nice if they would also distribute special versions that suffered less dynamic compression during mastering.
A former workmate once made a recording (he has done more than just that one, but it is the one that I own a copy of) of his brother's (who is a pro musician) band in a event venue of a restaurant. The recording was done with an OSS disk and two microphones. Yes, the tonal balance is what it is and also the reverb was givn by the room. But both still no so bad. But what can be noticed immediately is the darn cool dynamics of this untampered recording !
Regards
Charles
Back to the original question, one of the better midranges which i use often is AurumCantus AC130f1. Its lightweight membrane has almost no breakups. I use it up to 5kHz. In some cases, small bookshelfs, even without any filter at all. Sounds very good to me right now. I have been experimenting with small hamptone preamps, for pure 2nd harmonic sweetness, together with one of small lineup classA amps fills the room nicely with sound i adore. Amplification is very important part of the quest.
I remember when steve deckert said, he would rather listen to bose speakers with sweet tube amp than hiend speakers with crappy receiver.
I remember when steve deckert said, he would rather listen to bose speakers with sweet tube amp than hiend speakers with crappy receiver.
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Another midrange i use a lot is betsy. I never use it as fullrange, since i dislike whizzers, maybe from my lowther era, so i either order betsy wow, or i simply cut the whizzer out.
Again, its lightweight cone, fast, can be used from 100Hz to all the way up to 5kHz. It has some breakups, but not too severe, crossover can easily handle that.
I use betsy wow on open baffle, off course, but it can be used in bookshelf too. Its no woofer. Midrange is rater good and with higher sensitivity, does not need much power. Highly recommended.
Again, its lightweight cone, fast, can be used from 100Hz to all the way up to 5kHz. It has some breakups, but not too severe, crossover can easily handle that.
I use betsy wow on open baffle, off course, but it can be used in bookshelf too. Its no woofer. Midrange is rater good and with higher sensitivity, does not need much power. Highly recommended.
Yes……..a 2 channel active system with selectable EQ presets/profiles………make some of those presets user defined. As tech gets cheaper and smaller, this becomes more likely. A 2.1 channel integrated amp could do this is well, having the ability to work with any speaker system. 7 selectable points of dynamic parametric EQ and 2 shelf’s would work wonders.
I bought a kit pair of Bromo's with the sale cabinets and the ESA caps from the nice folks in Wisconsin to have a listen to the ceramic drivers. After 3 months or so of putzing around with them, I think they have a euphoric midrange.
I am listening in a 12 x 16 x 10' high, basement room, with a wool area rug over a 1/2" felt pad, 8' of book shelves, 5' of CD shelves, several hundred Vinyl records, 6 of the ATS bare cotton felt 8'x4'x2" pads stacked 3 deep in a couple corners, 4 moving boxes stuffed old pillows and comforters in a couple corners, 2 queen comforters and work bench on the wall behind the listening chair, a Project S2 dac into a Warp-1 amp, some newly upgraded wiring that doesn't sound different from the old wires. Broke them in for a while, thought they were too bright, spent many days moving them and the listening chair around. Better but still too bright and base was too prominent. Put a 2'x4'x2" piece of egg crate foam on the wall behind the speaker, and a couple of smaller pieces of foam on the side walls at reflection points, huge improvement, still a bit too bright. Put a pair of socks in each port and added an XLS-1500 amp to the Tarkus woofers crossed at about 74, put a Schiit LOKI in line adjusted to not touch the bass, -30 degrees on the next 2 knobs, -60 degrees on the HF knob, added some wool felt around the tweeter. Now, a great euphoric high-end midrange. You may not really need the absolute best perfect driver. Pick one of the many good ones mentioned and work with it. Now, I am off to add a few new ATS 4" panels and see if I still need the LOKI. Enjoy the journey.
Don
I am listening in a 12 x 16 x 10' high, basement room, with a wool area rug over a 1/2" felt pad, 8' of book shelves, 5' of CD shelves, several hundred Vinyl records, 6 of the ATS bare cotton felt 8'x4'x2" pads stacked 3 deep in a couple corners, 4 moving boxes stuffed old pillows and comforters in a couple corners, 2 queen comforters and work bench on the wall behind the listening chair, a Project S2 dac into a Warp-1 amp, some newly upgraded wiring that doesn't sound different from the old wires. Broke them in for a while, thought they were too bright, spent many days moving them and the listening chair around. Better but still too bright and base was too prominent. Put a 2'x4'x2" piece of egg crate foam on the wall behind the speaker, and a couple of smaller pieces of foam on the side walls at reflection points, huge improvement, still a bit too bright. Put a pair of socks in each port and added an XLS-1500 amp to the Tarkus woofers crossed at about 74, put a Schiit LOKI in line adjusted to not touch the bass, -30 degrees on the next 2 knobs, -60 degrees on the HF knob, added some wool felt around the tweeter. Now, a great euphoric high-end midrange. You may not really need the absolute best perfect driver. Pick one of the many good ones mentioned and work with it. Now, I am off to add a few new ATS 4" panels and see if I still need the LOKI. Enjoy the journey.
Don
For me, euphoric correlates quite well with being able to resolve lots of detail and dynamics in the music, with low distortion.
That therefore means drivers that specifically 'do not' impose a sound of their own over the music. I listen to a reasonable variety of music, which might include the euphoric but might also be melancholy or raw or edgy etc. This is perhaps at odds with some approaches, where people look for drivers and amps etc that impose a distorted (e.g. smooth) flavour over everything played through them.
Lately I'm finding good success with pro drivers, for their sensitivity and dynamics. Then using flexible DSP or computer-based options for dealing with the smoothness, frequency response etc. - rather than using mechanically tamed hi-fi drivers. I'm early on the journey, so feel ill-placed to be making specific recommendations, but by this point I doubt that I'll ever go back, so feel I should suggest it as an approach for consideration.
That therefore means drivers that specifically 'do not' impose a sound of their own over the music. I listen to a reasonable variety of music, which might include the euphoric but might also be melancholy or raw or edgy etc. This is perhaps at odds with some approaches, where people look for drivers and amps etc that impose a distorted (e.g. smooth) flavour over everything played through them.
Lately I'm finding good success with pro drivers, for their sensitivity and dynamics. Then using flexible DSP or computer-based options for dealing with the smoothness, frequency response etc. - rather than using mechanically tamed hi-fi drivers. I'm early on the journey, so feel ill-placed to be making specific recommendations, but by this point I doubt that I'll ever go back, so feel I should suggest it as an approach for consideration.
It should be here already and cheap as chips coming with a mic like HT systems. Built in at least 3 variants. To hang on the wall , bookshelf and floorstander. One position the mic in the desirable place and speakers calibrate itself to the room. You hook up the source or source selector and off you go.
Those systems are available but simply ridiculously priced considering what D class amplifying modules and DSP cost these days.
I was listening today to Vapor Audio speaker with Accuton mids and Raal tweeter / Acoustic Elegance 15" woofer. It was a peculiar setup. 80's turntable and humongous 80's Jap receiver with gazillion controls and lights. Expensive cables and that's it. I remember the speaker from Chicago audio show. It was so bright it was painful to listen to back then several years ago. It wasn't so bad with vintage tech. Tight and fast with jazz and properly squeaky with Starker solo cello recordings. Midrange sounded specific , hard to say when listening to such unusual combination
The owner is bored on retirement and wants to build Altec based system so I delivered empty Valencia Cabs , 515B woofers and Jabo KH-55 horns as a starter kit to monkey around.
The owner is bored on retirement and wants to build Altec based system so I delivered empty Valencia Cabs , 515B woofers and Jabo KH-55 horns as a starter kit to monkey around.
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Aren't we all ? That clip sounds better on my phone than on the system so maybe there is something to it Vapor sounded like a new car. Tight, smooth. comfortable and with lots of perceived power it can pump into air. What's not to like ? I can sympathize with studio guys having it under the palm of the hand.
Vapor sounded like a new car. Tight, smooth. comfortable and with lots of perceived power it can pump into air. What's not to like ? I can sympathize with studio guys having it under the palm of the hand.