I recently bought Joachims Kalasan speakers he had for sale here. The Crossover has to be built in a separate enclosure, because there not much room in the speaker cabinet, they are pretty small, actually, but really beautiful and obviously very well built with excellent damping.
Today I had a first listen and all all I can say is I am really floored. I never heard a speaker with such a high resolution.
Okay, my experience with audiophile Monitors is limited, but I am running a small recording place and so I heard and used quite a few high end studio monitors (Klein Hummel, Geithain, PSI) and I can say that this small speaker is better than most of them concerning dynamics, imaging and resolution. Features you really need in a Monitor. Of course it is lacking in the bass department, I am measuring usable lowed to maybe 60 HZ, but just listening to music I am not missing much, but if these are going to be my main mixing monitors (And it looks like that), I will probably need a sub for them. (DIY recommendations are very welcome
By the way, I like the sound best with both ports closed, the bass is really tight then and I do not hear more usable deep bass with the ports open, only what is already there gets louder but also a little blurry.
These are only first impressions, I will see, how they grow on me.
Tobias
Sounds awesome. Can you post the height of the cabinet?
Thanks,
Robert
"By the way, I like the sound best with both ports closed, the bass is really tight..."
Continued campaign for 3-way SB kit using sealed box Satori MW-16P for the midrange. Two 8" SB23NRXS45-8 bass reflex, or one 10" SB29NRX75-6 BR vs. TL? Ports can be always be sealed for alternative bass transient goals.
Attached WinISD plot of a in three different sealed box volumes:
0.3 cuft with Qtc = 0.709 ~ maximal flat ButterWorth function
0.53 cuft with Qtc = 0.576 ~ uniform delay Bessel function
0.8 cuft with Qtc = 0.50 ~ critically damped function
What is the best solution for time-alignment?
Stepped baffle(s)?
Slanted baffle + modest Xover compensation tweek?
Flat baffle with phase shift compensation in the Xover?
TM box + separate woofer box? Flexibility.
Single TMW box?
Continued campaign for 3-way SB kit using sealed box Satori MW-16P for the midrange. Two 8" SB23NRXS45-8 bass reflex, or one 10" SB29NRX75-6 BR vs. TL? Ports can be always be sealed for alternative bass transient goals.
Attached WinISD plot of a in three different sealed box volumes:
0.3 cuft with Qtc = 0.709 ~ maximal flat ButterWorth function
0.53 cuft with Qtc = 0.576 ~ uniform delay Bessel function
0.8 cuft with Qtc = 0.50 ~ critically damped function
What is the best solution for time-alignment?
Stepped baffle(s)?
Slanted baffle + modest Xover compensation tweek?
Flat baffle with phase shift compensation in the Xover?
TM box + separate woofer box? Flexibility.
Single TMW box?
Attachments
Comparison of sealed alignments for Satori MW16P.
Thick line plots for 8-ohm. Thin line plots for 4-ohm.
Both provide adequately low F3 for good woofer integration.
8-ohm provides lower F3 frequency.
F3 ~70Hz @8ohms F3~80Hz ~4ohms
4-ohm provides higher 2.83V sensitivity.
Thick line plots for 8-ohm. Thin line plots for 4-ohm.
Both provide adequately low F3 for good woofer integration.
8-ohm provides lower F3 frequency.
F3 ~70Hz @8ohms F3~80Hz ~4ohms
4-ohm provides higher 2.83V sensitivity.
Attachments
Wow, sweet looking build. Curious about crossover points, slopes, which software and dacs you use. I have an active system going, using minidsp 4x10. I tried doing it in the computer, jriver does the crossover (but not phase and time alignment). Have a Steinberg unit for dacs. Minidsp does timing offsets, but not phase. I tried rephase but had a few problems (I'm not a software friendly user). Might try it again soon.
I got the satori drivers for another room, wanted a simple passive system there.
Good luck with the woofs, have fun with it!
I've listened to a pair of Kalasans at Joachim's place, and I agree with Tobias. Distinctive and elegant appearance, sound that is both v-e-r-y clean and pleasing to the ear, and a comfortable load for the power amplifier, all from cabinets that are compact and don't weigh too much.
It would be a huge shame if SB is not able to make the kit available.
jonathan
From SB acoustics facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587654228027568.1073741831.313472775445716&type=1
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587654228027568.1073741831.313472775445716&type=1
FYI,
I'm soon to release the "BE" version of the Satori Two – Monitor. It's a more exclusive variant of the original version and uses the ScanSpeak D3004/664000 Beryllium tweeter. It has a 6deg sloped baffle instead of a stepped baffle as in the original version.
Regards
/Göran
I'm soon to release the "BE" version of the Satori Two – Monitor. It's a more exclusive variant of the original version and uses the ScanSpeak D3004/664000 Beryllium tweeter. It has a 6deg sloped baffle instead of a stepped baffle as in the original version.
Regards
/Göran
Attachments
Yes, The 6640 has its own sound character and is very low distorting and in that aspect match the Satori mid-woofer very well.
The attached picture shows the distortion profile for 95dB @ 1m. The odd-order distortion is very low, but the second-order is somewhat elevated.
Regards
/Göran
Attachments
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Hopefully, nobody feels I capture this thread. Treble/mid is crossed over at 2000 Hz, 24dB Linkwitz Reilly. Mid/sub is crossed at 75 Hz, also 24dB Linkwitz Reilly. With bass units in each speaker, the XO point will probably be increased to 100-150 Hz.
Two different kinds of filter have been tried. A) IIR filters built in JRiver, phase linearization achieved by FIR filters in rePhase and implemented in JRiver via Convolver. B) FIR filters generated in rePhase, doing XO, phase linearisation and frequency-amplitude correction in one step. In my opinion version B is a better than A.
JRiver offers an option for setting delay between units in the parametric equalizer, so no need for baffle step.
My DAC is ESI Gigaport HD+ at just 150€. It sounds a lot better than much more expensive DACs like RME at almost 10 times this price.
The phase linear version of the L/R4 is the best you can do.
When you go steeper you run into trouble with pre-ringing and the off axis performance in the time domain gets worce.
Therefore i do not like super steep digital filters.
There was a time where 100dB per octave and such got much promotion but i think this is nonsense.
Yes, ESI makes excellent stuff for very little money.
I use an ESi card with my Praxis software.
When you go steeper you run into trouble with pre-ringing and the off axis performance in the time domain gets worce.
Therefore i do not like super steep digital filters.
There was a time where 100dB per octave and such got much promotion but i think this is nonsense.
Yes, ESI makes excellent stuff for very little money.
I use an ESi card with my Praxis software.
I tried steeper filter slopes than 24 dB, but the sound gets distorted.
With carefull phase linearisation, the transition between speaker units is not heard at all. So there is no point in making steeper slopes when both speaker units can operate well beyond the XO frequency.
I can very much recommend JRiver to anyone wanting to do experiments with PC-filters. The DSP section (parametric equalizer) contains all necessary tools and it is very quick and intuitive to work with. This goes for both XO, which is a little more advanced, and for room correstion or just small changes to the desired frequency responce. The filters sound very good, so for anyone using JRiver this is a free and very good toolbox.
With carefull phase linearisation, the transition between speaker units is not heard at all. So there is no point in making steeper slopes when both speaker units can operate well beyond the XO frequency.
I can very much recommend JRiver to anyone wanting to do experiments with PC-filters. The DSP section (parametric equalizer) contains all necessary tools and it is very quick and intuitive to work with. This goes for both XO, which is a little more advanced, and for room correstion or just small changes to the desired frequency responce. The filters sound very good, so for anyone using JRiver this is a free and very good toolbox.
FYI - I called Madisound today to enquire about the Kalasan kit. They said they have the cabinets in stock (in Walnut or another color I don't recall). They said they are awaiting vendor (SB - I assume ) to give the final crossover. Assuming Joachim's crossover version 5 is his final version, then looks like there is enough to complete a kit build now.