Yes I remember that days... But it is becoming ridiculous... last example : Faital has twiced the price of some of its products, SB Acoustics in 3 years has increased by 30% some of their product, etc. They try with the cars and sells are falling....
Fact of the matter is you're powerless as a small consumer. We're nowadays being told what buy (via "influencer" input) whereas many years ago we as consumers dictated what we wanted in the luxury goods department. Don't get me wrong, I believe its not a bad thing to be able to financially prosper. The US however is out of control with Google and Apple running the majority mobile hardware market. That's pretty much a few massive companies steering the majority of our consuming lives so they can be guaranteed huge profits while further enslaving most of us.
So then you have the other huge giant Amazon, who just pumps out billions of dollars of mostly Chinese garbage (much of it not tested for consumer safety), while we just sit around on our behinds getting fat and brainwashed from more social media content funded and run by the same guys who control Google, Apple, Tesla, etc. Its the perfect crime... cue Everthing Counts by Depeche Mode...
... (yes, I'm an 80s child and almost end of my rant)...
If you're lucky enough to live in the greedy USA, don't have major medical problems and have some online marketing thing going with maybe some old family money sitting around, this is the place for you. The most of us 99% misguided consumer sheep need to make due with what we're told is suitable and adequate for our so called predefined lifestyle. (OK, now the rant is over).
I don't see the place for another overpriced dome midrange in the diy market that doesn't deliver the performance it promises with its obvious massive design flaws. I'd rather have some of the great older Dynaudio, Morel, Cabasse, Focal and Vifa drivers back which were either discontinued to DIY or production halted completely.
Focal and Vifa (DST) ran most of the OEM driver supply to the better home audio sector, leaving some room for the little guy to make a few bucks from his latest and greatest 2 way near field monitor. Nowadays most of the diy market is run by the big guys, who want every small penny they can get from their business. Dynaudio started this mess and now Peerless / Tymphany is finishing it (who doesn't even sell replacement diaphragms last time I checked).
The DIY speaker building market is screwed if consumer behavior continues to carry on this way. We need some more educated and enthusiastic open source thinkers who have some money to throw at our hobby and not just another greedy investment opportunity.
So then you have the other huge giant Amazon, who just pumps out billions of dollars of mostly Chinese garbage (much of it not tested for consumer safety), while we just sit around on our behinds getting fat and brainwashed from more social media content funded and run by the same guys who control Google, Apple, Tesla, etc. Its the perfect crime... cue Everthing Counts by Depeche Mode...
... (yes, I'm an 80s child and almost end of my rant)...
If you're lucky enough to live in the greedy USA, don't have major medical problems and have some online marketing thing going with maybe some old family money sitting around, this is the place for you. The most of us 99% misguided consumer sheep need to make due with what we're told is suitable and adequate for our so called predefined lifestyle. (OK, now the rant is over).
I don't see the place for another overpriced dome midrange in the diy market that doesn't deliver the performance it promises with its obvious massive design flaws. I'd rather have some of the great older Dynaudio, Morel, Cabasse, Focal and Vifa drivers back which were either discontinued to DIY or production halted completely.
Focal and Vifa (DST) ran most of the OEM driver supply to the better home audio sector, leaving some room for the little guy to make a few bucks from his latest and greatest 2 way near field monitor. Nowadays most of the diy market is run by the big guys, who want every small penny they can get from their business. Dynaudio started this mess and now Peerless / Tymphany is finishing it (who doesn't even sell replacement diaphragms last time I checked).
The DIY speaker building market is screwed if consumer behavior continues to carry on this way. We need some more educated and enthusiastic open source thinkers who have some money to throw at our hobby and not just another greedy investment opportunity.
Yes, back in the 80’s when I worked at Speaker City we had lots of great options for DIY drivers that were actually good. Then Dynaudio pulled out followed by Focal and others leaving few choices these days and lots of poor made and designed reasonably priced drivers and an upper tier of ridiculously expensive drivers that are not all good. Then regret is the most people don’t want to actually do anything for themselves anymore. I Think that has a lot to do with the thinning of the heard where DIY is concerned. I’d love to have access to what I did back then but it’s only going to get worse. Soon AI will tell us what to do and how to do it. I’m not going to listen!
My first loudspeaker in the end of the 80s, as an aging teenager, was diy Focal Kit in a loudspeaker shop with many choice where there the only electronic was a tube with Chretien OT and el34 or el84...
diy is becoming almost more expensive than second hand, the nich is becomming smaller and smaller. And because it is becoming too much expensive for the average quality, people that own that monney indeed can be tempted to buy ready made product and not play alchemy with commodities that the drivers are like the caps that cost even more (incredible !)
diy is becoming almost more expensive than second hand, the nich is becomming smaller and smaller. And because it is becoming too much expensive for the average quality, people that own that monney indeed can be tempted to buy ready made product and not play alchemy with commodities that the drivers are like the caps that cost even more (incredible !)
True, some caps must be made by unicorns with elves as assistants to justify the ridiculous prices! I can afford whatever I want and I still can’t justify some of the driver and parts prices. $3k for a single midrange is something I would consider under any circumstance. I think they do it because they can. There are people who think the more it costs the better it must be. There is also the law of diminishing returns, is ten times the price worth a infinitesimal improvement?
Here's the Test Bench by Vance
Test Bench: The D8404-552000 Ellipticor Cloth Diaphragm Dome Midrange from Scan-Speak
"Given the low coloration aspect of the oval voice coil technology, the new D8404 mid dome is a spectacular new entry for the Scan-Speak Ellipticor line."
Test Bench: The D8404-552000 Ellipticor Cloth Diaphragm Dome Midrange from Scan-Speak
"Given the low coloration aspect of the oval voice coil technology, the new D8404 mid dome is a spectacular new entry for the Scan-Speak Ellipticor line."
A wise man once told me-
“The biggest problem I see is that in the high end world you can't see the forest for the trees. There are just too many companies, each selling a more spectacularly designed (and in spite of that, uglier) product. Only a few are universally known. If we join <fancy Brand X>, we'll be known by the same kind of folk who know <fancy Brand X>
The price race is another problem. If I look at, say, loudspeakers, companies like K put out speakers that are 10 times as expensive as brand B, and about 1/10th as well designed.
The relativism that rules in a market as utterly democratic as the high end allows situations like this to exist without anyone inside that market asking questions. How are we to establish supremacy in a market that's so saturated and where everything goes?”
This is exactly what he meant. Why isn’t Vance calling this out-
“What?!!
$3K for a soft dome driver of unexceptional performance?! I refuse to recommend this. Move along!”
“The biggest problem I see is that in the high end world you can't see the forest for the trees. There are just too many companies, each selling a more spectacularly designed (and in spite of that, uglier) product. Only a few are universally known. If we join <fancy Brand X>, we'll be known by the same kind of folk who know <fancy Brand X>
The price race is another problem. If I look at, say, loudspeakers, companies like K put out speakers that are 10 times as expensive as brand B, and about 1/10th as well designed.
The relativism that rules in a market as utterly democratic as the high end allows situations like this to exist without anyone inside that market asking questions. How are we to establish supremacy in a market that's so saturated and where everything goes?”
This is exactly what he meant. Why isn’t Vance calling this out-
“What?!!
$3K for a soft dome driver of unexceptional performance?! I refuse to recommend this. Move along!”
.
What the heck is the text above supposed to mean?
Only Vance knew the answer.
I guess it's hard not to give some compliment considering the price tag of this driver as a reviewer.
I guess it's hard not to give some compliment considering the price tag of this driver as a reviewer.
In fairness to Vance, I read that as a brevity term / reference to the asymmetric coil shape & the resulting mechanical distribution of the TL [Eigen] modes. Since he'd already referred to it in paragraph 2, he probably didn't see any point in repeating himself [how effective it actually is, is a different matter of course] & settled for that. The 'spectacular new entry' bit is the part that I'd say falls more into the realm of opinion. YMMV on that one -I'm not really qualified to pass comment as I'm not in the target market: a pair of these units costs rather more than 75% of my total annual income (excluding shipping).
Considering the audience of AudioXpress, he does not need to point out that this driver is extremely high priced for its performance. The audience should know that. He presented the data, and it reveals the measured performance to be lower than a Bliesma M74P, which is 1/5 the cost. Anyone reading this article will know that, or should know that.
Rarely. I get the impression that, like a lot, if he has something in which is simply bad, it just doesn't get reviewed / published. And the Ellipticor isn't a bad driver of its type. It's just [very] expensive.
Well, opinion is just that: opinion. He's entitled to it, and agreeing with it (or even reading it) isn't obligatory. 😉 I'd rather Vance expressed an opinion and focused on positives in his remarks if that's the 'price' for having the data. Better that than having no data from which we can form an independent opinion of our own at all, right?
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yes. It is not a bad driver, it is quite a good driver. If it were priced at $500, it would be very competitive. At $900 it would be expensive, but in some applications it could be justified. At $2500, I just don't see how it could ever be justified for technical reasons. It becomes a luxury item, like a $10,000 wrist watch or a $3000 pair of shoes.
