Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to connect a little bit and ask you what new technologies, ideas have caught your eye or sparked new projects. Have you found something worth the hype or things which you realized just weren't worth the money? I find myself in kind of a lull. After decades of being an audiophile and some, ahem, expensive lessons in speaker building I've become a little jaded. The one thing I still like is composite mid's and mid-woofers. That is, drivers made of multiple layers, as well as fiber/resin composite designs.
My other big discovery is the joy of doing DSP/Active speakers. OMG it's so much easier to do just what I want. Not wanting to say active or passive is better, but as a designer it's so much easier I can't see myself doing a passive speaker anymore.
What are your lessons and happy discoveries that have stood the test of time lately?
Best,
Erik
Just wanted to connect a little bit and ask you what new technologies, ideas have caught your eye or sparked new projects. Have you found something worth the hype or things which you realized just weren't worth the money? I find myself in kind of a lull. After decades of being an audiophile and some, ahem, expensive lessons in speaker building I've become a little jaded. The one thing I still like is composite mid's and mid-woofers. That is, drivers made of multiple layers, as well as fiber/resin composite designs.
My other big discovery is the joy of doing DSP/Active speakers. OMG it's so much easier to do just what I want. Not wanting to say active or passive is better, but as a designer it's so much easier I can't see myself doing a passive speaker anymore.
What are your lessons and happy discoveries that have stood the test of time lately?
Best,
Erik
+1 on active amplification.
The JBL 708p were a revelation. A fraction of what similar quality gear cost just ten years ago. Coupled with a cheapo WiiM streamer and Qobuz my DIY active COAX replacement bests anything I can afford, today.
The JBL 708p were a revelation. A fraction of what similar quality gear cost just ten years ago. Coupled with a cheapo WiiM streamer and Qobuz my DIY active COAX replacement bests anything I can afford, today.
Vintage alnico widerange; fiberglass-honeycomb; resin-coated carbon-fiber; AMT; automotive plast-tape for de-breakup-resonance or adding whizzer; cone-coating; R:1 tapered quarterwave transmission-line expansion factor R^1/4.75 for min volume; LX-configuration and aligned acoustic centers; series 1st-order passive filter and notch filter using mental math LPF~160hz*ohm/mH, HPF-160khz/ohm/uF, f-5khz/sqrt(mH*uF).
I wish I had that kind of space. Everything I do is so cramped I barely have space to work on watches. I miss the basement I had 20 years ago.
I dont have an abundance of space. With normal speaker I have around 1 meter free to nearest surface. On the small side but that will have to do. Or 2.4 meter from floor to ceiling.
Class D amps that sound like very good class AB e.g. Purifi and Hypex and/NCX
Purifi woofers
As has already been said Decnot Microphone/Interface + REW + VituixCad + optional table.
Purifi woofers
As has already been said Decnot Microphone/Interface + REW + VituixCad + optional table.
To answer topic title: the imagination itself!😀 and understanding that sound wavelength is part of everything, the fundamental. And that every decision has a trade-off, and quality of any aspect depends mainly on understanding what trade-offs to take. Which is just understanding what is more or less important for any particular project in given context, which means understanding context and goal is 100% important, which means any advice, or idea, could be just the right one fully aligned with the goal and context, while on some other case it could be exactly the wrong thing to do, a bad trade-off. Plenty of gray area in between as design freedom. Another important thing is t ounderstand there is no silverbullets that would fix everything, there is no magic in any one thing, but there is from combination of many small things.
Audio tech in itself hasn't evolved that much, except whats possible in digital realm, the sims and the processing, and streaming of course, huge game changer for the industry and AI is gonna really change all of it again.
Audio tech in itself hasn't evolved that much, except whats possible in digital realm, the sims and the processing, and streaming of course, huge game changer for the industry and AI is gonna really change all of it again.
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Najda 8 channel DSP and DAC. It is 12 years old and I had not find nothing close in functionality even for 2-4 times the price.
15 PEQ for inputs in stero pair, LPF+HPF+15PEQ for all channels, delays for all channels and analog volume control with remote.
15 PEQ for inputs in stero pair, LPF+HPF+15PEQ for all channels, delays for all channels and analog volume control with remote.
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The Najda has been my entrance door into the wonderful world of actve / DSP speaker systems at an affordable price not long before its creator's disappearance. The journey has been really great since then.
Also for me, the BMS dual concentric type coaxials with annular ring diaphragm instead of the regular domes in the CD have been quite a revelation. I am really really fond of those drivers. Really smooth and accurate high end with a fairly low crossover to the cone driver.
Also for me, the BMS dual concentric type coaxials with annular ring diaphragm instead of the regular domes in the CD have been quite a revelation. I am really really fond of those drivers. Really smooth and accurate high end with a fairly low crossover to the cone driver.
I had hoped for many years that the class D would become a real contender and that has come to be true. I never thought that I would prefer my present class D power amp to my class A amp, but given certain speakers, the class D wins pretty easily. One nasty thing though is that if the class D amp clips, everybody knows it!
Nothing really new about great subs being available, but I hadn't had a good one in many years. Finally converted a passive sub and cabinet with an active model that I will not part with. It is essential for the sub to have adjustments to meld with the room and main speakers.
Nothing really new about great subs being available, but I hadn't had a good one in many years. Finally converted a passive sub and cabinet with an active model that I will not part with. It is essential for the sub to have adjustments to meld with the room and main speakers.
The technology that has made a huge impact for me, and I would do/acquire again in a heartbeat.
*Learning real-time dual channel measurements. 6 days total of in-person classroom training with Smaart, including lab/venue demonstrations . (2016 -2020)
*Learning about FIR, using miniDSP's OpenDRCs (2016)
*Learning about prosound open-architecture processors, and acquiring an entry level Q-Sys unit. (2018)
*Digging ever deeper into Q-Sys capabilities. Digging into FIR deeper.
*Learning real-time dual channel measurements. 6 days total of in-person classroom training with Smaart, including lab/venue demonstrations . (2016 -2020)
*Learning about FIR, using miniDSP's OpenDRCs (2016)
*Learning about prosound open-architecture processors, and acquiring an entry level Q-Sys unit. (2018)
*Digging ever deeper into Q-Sys capabilities. Digging into FIR deeper.
I guess my point was earlier that while class D has gained rapid acceptance lately I've been a believer long before Hypex was famous. No doubt Hypex is a great entry to the field, but ICEpower was around long before that and lacked any of the negative attributes commonly talked about related to Class D. I certainly like some ICEpower units a lot more than some Class A. 🙂
For years my standard amp was Bel Canto S300i ICEpower "never-turned-off" fed by a custom musicPC (fb2k managing shared music directory on multiple HDD, through KS kernel streaming with process priority set to high) into Chord Hugo, or AudioAero Capitole CD. But since Covid and diy I have mainly relied on two pairs of dB-discrete-attenuated TA2024 or four bridged TPA3221 on-steroids (the unit recommended on diyaudio but with upgrades), streaming my distributed library from Baidu cloud through (my third) Huawei first-gen flagship smartphone (minimalist uber-tech). OCC wire as much as possible.
Class D should never be turned off....
Class D should never be turned off....
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For decades we’ve been flip flopping between different cone materials, different magnets and optimising geometry. But it was that flabby piece of rubber that was the most non-linear part of a speaker cone. It was under our very noses the whole time:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...new-3-way-project.413182/page-13#post-7728157
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...new-3-way-project.413182/page-13#post-7728157
This too was the game changer for me. TEF first with a four day class, then later added SMAART. Using both with their dedicated USB interfaces makes them convenient and reliable.
Still need to get into FIR.
Barry.
I enjoy the miniDSP, but all the separate cables and amps create clutter and are tricky if you like to take your system to club meetings etc. I used a the Hypex Fusion plate amps for a project and they are fantastic. Amps and DSP all together in a compact package with all the inputs you could want. The price is very good if you shop them against two or three channels of amplification, DSP and cables. The Hypex support is outstanding. Emails are answered quickly and the help is just perfect.
The 3" Bliesma midrange is my latest favorite. I was looking for a very high output low distortion midrange. I quickly realized that the wide dispersion I wanted limited the cone / dome width to 4" or under. The best 4" midranges just don't have the power handling to produce the high SPL I was looking for. This is where the large voice coil of a 3" dome midrange really shines. The Volt dome just didn't sound right to me.
I have yet to buy a Purifi driver, but those look amazing.
Hornresp software for calculating the internal box modes for just any box even without a horn. The predictions match my measurements and lead me to build half cube shaped boxes, just like a guitar amp, to produce the highest possible first resonance mode. By raising the lowest mode frequency it is easy to get it into the range where damping material is very effective and have essentially resonance free speakers. No more boxy sounding speakers.
The 3" Bliesma midrange is my latest favorite. I was looking for a very high output low distortion midrange. I quickly realized that the wide dispersion I wanted limited the cone / dome width to 4" or under. The best 4" midranges just don't have the power handling to produce the high SPL I was looking for. This is where the large voice coil of a 3" dome midrange really shines. The Volt dome just didn't sound right to me.
I have yet to buy a Purifi driver, but those look amazing.
Hornresp software for calculating the internal box modes for just any box even without a horn. The predictions match my measurements and lead me to build half cube shaped boxes, just like a guitar amp, to produce the highest possible first resonance mode. By raising the lowest mode frequency it is easy to get it into the range where damping material is very effective and have essentially resonance free speakers. No more boxy sounding speakers.