i thought i would write a 'basic' review of my new speakers using the Omnes Audio L8 full range driver.
after listening to this for a while, and i guess it has had about 30-40 or so hours running in time, i think either i have got used to the slightly top heavy treble or it has smothened out a bit because it sounds really good now.
i am not sure what i am describing but the mid range, and especially the vocals seem to come out a lot from the speakers and i could swear they were just in front of me, and the actual voices seem very 'live' or real, as if they were in my room not in a padded recording studio.
there is not really any bass (not that i expected any) but seems just right if i am listening late at night and with relaxing music, dont really feel the need for a sub, but i do with louder rock etc.
i do not feel the need for a tweeter although if the treble is a bit to much you could cut it off lower and add a tweeter.
i cant really say much bad about it because for £100 a pair they whip my Kef XQ1's on imaging, dynamics and vocal reproduction (the kefs are better at overall accuracy and bass).
about the actual units, the cone is very stiff and it is very hard to move the cones manually and they hardly move even at ear splitting levels and the woofen phase plug looks very good set against the black cone and the full paper (all-in-one) surround looks very neat.
a rubbish pic of them in my room (obviously they would be aligned for listening 😉 )
after listening to this for a while, and i guess it has had about 30-40 or so hours running in time, i think either i have got used to the slightly top heavy treble or it has smothened out a bit because it sounds really good now.
i am not sure what i am describing but the mid range, and especially the vocals seem to come out a lot from the speakers and i could swear they were just in front of me, and the actual voices seem very 'live' or real, as if they were in my room not in a padded recording studio.
there is not really any bass (not that i expected any) but seems just right if i am listening late at night and with relaxing music, dont really feel the need for a sub, but i do with louder rock etc.
i do not feel the need for a tweeter although if the treble is a bit to much you could cut it off lower and add a tweeter.
i cant really say much bad about it because for £100 a pair they whip my Kef XQ1's on imaging, dynamics and vocal reproduction (the kefs are better at overall accuracy and bass).
about the actual units, the cone is very stiff and it is very hard to move the cones manually and they hardly move even at ear splitting levels and the woofen phase plug looks very good set against the black cone and the full paper (all-in-one) surround looks very neat.
a rubbish pic of them in my room (obviously they would be aligned for listening 😉 )
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
some more photo's...
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Good to hear a review of these, the FR looks very linear but that's only a first indication (if it's not too fraudulent as with some other speakers), I'm mostly interested in high-mid and treble smoothness for replacing Beyma 8ag/n that have very similar T/S data but some problems. Are the L8 phase plugs attached to the membrane or mounted on the polepiece (with a narrow gap between plug and speaker membrane)? Most manufacturers just glue them on the cone, fast and easy, neglecting more important issues as cone-mass and a-voiding resonant voids...
Simon
Simon
the phase plugs do not move so i assume they are attached directley to the magnet at the back as there is a hole in the rear of the magnet and you can see the back of the wooden phase plug and there is a gap between the phase plug at the front and the voice coil.
is than not a horn? and dont the L8's have a too high QTS? (and i am using them with a sub so bass isnt a problem) 😉
Yes, it's a horn, and I can't see this driver working too well in it with a Q of over 1.0. Having said that, Vas is pretty low, so it's not impossible that it could be used (horns do not automatically require low Q drivers) but it would have to be designed around it from scratch.
Greets!
FWIW, based on published specs, Professor Leach's math suggests a 61.75 Hz Fc:
Vr = 148.63"^3
St = 42.04"^2
Am = 1891.77"^2
Am (min.) = 945.89"^2
M = 0.857 with an inital 3.54" long straight section and use a horn program to find its expansion length based on desired mouth area.
GM
FWIW, based on published specs, Professor Leach's math suggests a 61.75 Hz Fc:
Vr = 148.63"^3
St = 42.04"^2
Am = 1891.77"^2
Am (min.) = 945.89"^2
M = 0.857 with an inital 3.54" long straight section and use a horn program to find its expansion length based on desired mouth area.
GM
I have been asking myself for a while whether the Viech would work, since TSPs of Omnes an Beyma are very similar. I hope someone will try one day.
I'll try it when money permits. I've got a pair of VIechs and damared the Beymas to death (too much makes a dull sound, two layers is a vast improvement) + can't live with the high-mids even after a large array of tweaks. Last time I operated the Viechs it was with a very broad notch filter from around 2 to 5k (whizzer was already cut of + replaced by neodymium tweeter) which helps the metalic high-mid sound but when operated without notch (bad balance) you notice how much you do lose with a notch-filter (has something to do with naturalness of soundstage). As the Omnes audio is very close to the Beyma's regarding T/S + has a nawi cone (generally better than whizzers) + hopefully a better top-end (although this FR shows a 3,5khz peak that troubles me a little, don't won't to resort to a notch filter again http://www.lautsprechershop.de/hifi/index.htm?/hifi/omnesaudio.htm) this might be an improvement over the Beymas...
Very good to know, one extra point for the L8 🙂
I'ld love to hear some more subjective evaluations of these drivers.
Simon
Greets!
Yeah:
Title: On the Specification of Moving-Coil
Drivers for Low-Frequency Horn-Loaded Loudspeakers
Publication: AES-J, Vol. 27, No. 12, pp. 950 (1979)
Author: W. Marshall Leach, Jr.
and
Title: Author's Reply to "Comments on Reactance
Annulling in Horn-Loaded Loudspeaker Systems"
Publication: AES-J, Vol. 29, No. 7, pp. 523 (1981)
Author: W. Marshall Leach, Jr.
GM
Yeah:
Title: On the Specification of Moving-Coil
Drivers for Low-Frequency Horn-Loaded Loudspeakers
Publication: AES-J, Vol. 27, No. 12, pp. 950 (1979)
Author: W. Marshall Leach, Jr.
and
Title: Author's Reply to "Comments on Reactance
Annulling in Horn-Loaded Loudspeaker Systems"
Publication: AES-J, Vol. 29, No. 7, pp. 523 (1981)
Author: W. Marshall Leach, Jr.
GM
Thanks Greg. I last looked at it when I was down with the dreaded lurgy, which probably put me off. I'll re-read today.
Regards
Scott
Regards
Scott
thinking of adding some woofers in the same baffles (one per side)..... as before, whats my best bet?
idealy (i know its harder) but i would rather go passive with the low pass for the woofer and keep the L8 full range.
from what i have seen the Eminence Alpha 15's look good, V.cheap, QTS of 1.26 and fs 41Hz.
and should i roll them off at the baffle step freq? (280Hz)
how much power do they need?
regards
idealy (i know its harder) but i would rather go passive with the low pass for the woofer and keep the L8 full range.
from what i have seen the Eminence Alpha 15's look good, V.cheap, QTS of 1.26 and fs 41Hz.
and should i roll them off at the baffle step freq? (280Hz)
how much power do they need?
regards
The Beta 15s are better than the Aplha on an OB. connect the drivers in series and cross over between the two at 100-300Hz to suit the components you have. Use a cap across the Beta 15 and an inductor across the Omnes for the crossover. Mount the Beta 15 near the floor to use the floor lift to offset the baffle rolloff...
James
James
and another thing, is there a way to tame the treble a little, symbals in particular seem strange, sort of distorted and 'samee' and 'rings' a bit if you get what i mean..... would adding a tweeter say at 10Khz help with this?
or looking at the fr plot on the spectrum audio website, would the normal L8 with a tweeter be better?
noticed this symbal thing when listening to rock (soft and classic) and it spoils it really... 🙁
or looking at the fr plot on the spectrum audio website, would the normal L8 with a tweeter be better?
noticed this symbal thing when listening to rock (soft and classic) and it spoils it really... 🙁
There look to be some peaking in the graph, though the thing's so small it's difficult to be sure. The standard version certainly appears to be flatter across that region -the special edition version looks to me as if they were trying to create a cut-price B200 -not exactly an eaasy task. I'd probably consider them a wide-range rather than full range driver, and bring a nice tweeter in around 8KHz or so, which often works well as the XO is well out of the critical range.
yeah, with acoustic and simple vocal music, they are brilliant, just with more complex and rock music that 'ringing' happens, but i suppose thats just what full range drivers do? 😀
Not the B200s, the better Fostex drivers & Lowthers (providing you're not going insane with the volume knob). But they cost a whole lot more, and your Omnes clearly are a heck of a lot of driver for the money. I'm impressed by their paper specs & their appearance. The build looks very good too.
Oh yes: Try the album 'One of these Nights' by The Eagles through them -it's a great album, and doesn't cost much. Much musical pleasure. Also, importantly, it's the sort of music they should lap up, so if you can hear something wrong, you should be able to isolate it PDQ.
Oh yes: Try the album 'One of these Nights' by The Eagles through them -it's a great album, and doesn't cost much. Much musical pleasure. Also, importantly, it's the sort of music they should lap up, so if you can hear something wrong, you should be able to isolate it PDQ.
I see my previous link wasn't the right one, here is a FR graph measured by a german audio mag; standard L8: http://www.lautsprechershop.de/pdf/omnesaudio/l8.pdf
BTW I don't see the point in the spectrumaudio modification; the text mentions lower harmonic distortion + better treble extension but all I see is a huge rise (5 to 10db if my eyes can read the tiny graph) from 4 till 10k and indeed, a small lift above 10k which fulfills the claim of more treble. Which means that to avoid the ear-shredding part you would have to cut off around 5khz and lose the whole idea of a fullrange driver. I guess you could call it a special version 🙄
Simon
BTW I don't see the point in the spectrumaudio modification; the text mentions lower harmonic distortion + better treble extension but all I see is a huge rise (5 to 10db if my eyes can read the tiny graph) from 4 till 10k and indeed, a small lift above 10k which fulfills the claim of more treble. Which means that to avoid the ear-shredding part you would have to cut off around 5khz and lose the whole idea of a fullrange driver. I guess you could call it a special version 🙄
Simon
- Status
- Not open for further replies.