Why are OMNI speakers not more popular?

finally, persuaded by a friend, also a diyaudio user, I am in the process of development a finished speaker which will be state-of-the-art - if I may say so 😉 - flooder implementation that will be clonable and kids-and-kittens resistant

Kitty resistant is a big deal for me, I've had to attach my speakers to my stands because of an obstinate cat that insists my left speaker is the best route to the window ledge and it's met the ground a couple of times.:RIP:
 
But, this thread have not convinced me, that omni is the holy (g)raal. Maybee it's not the purpose of this thread?

no, its not

wow, that was scary to see so many of my posts :crazy:😀

there have been some questions about the possible actual height of such omni design

well, I think it may be related to physical angle of drivers
meaning, a higher placed driver may need to be angled more
and that to avoid diffusors 😉
 
my estimated listening angle would about 20-30 degree
but ofcourse, can't say for sure
 

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The naked test

The talk about naked drivers on the floor made me want to experiment with two of the FR10's I got.
Tried them angled and flat on the ground against the front wall, but the best soundstage and height came from placing them at an angle in front of my speakers (about 2 1/4 meter distance from my chair).

What I noticed (at any position in front or next to the speaker) was a strong phantom center and deep, wide soundstage (with the exception of placing the drivers between the speakers, of course not so wide then). As long as the driver could radiate freely I could hear a 3D soundstage.

Height depended on the recording, some were at ear level, others more halfway to the ground. High frequencies were least compromised in height. It only seemed like sound coming directly from the drivers in the horizontal plain took a dive to the floor, anything outside that position had height (I think it has to do with extra distortion from turning up the bass, single instruments were fine).

Thinking about creating two small cubes with FR10's at 5 sides to hear what effect this has.
 

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Hi there, I'm new so if this is the wrong thread, my apologies in advance, however I plan on building a pair of Omni's and am on a tight budget, so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a full range speaker, which would be used in a 3x3.5m room on the end of a solid (probably ceramic) tube, about 1 metre high, with a reflector (probably exponential) on top. In future I'd like to make it 3 way or more, but for now, It will need to be 1 or 2 way.
 
We're probably talking about a different perception. I was referring to images that fill a space (ASW). This requires very strong early reflections around 10ms and up. A high directivity speaker design can't create such reflections. A wide dispersion design could but it also creates all sorts of detrimental reflections. Furthermore ASW is poured over all sounds which might not be appropriate for all program material.

good observations! now You are talking Markus! 😀

So, am I to understand that we can agree that some ASW is better for realistic sound reproduction than no ASW?

so the questions are:
1) which of room reflections are detrimental and why and what can be done?
2) reproduction of what kind of program material specifically will not benefit from a fixed amount of ASW?
3) can we somehow when designing speakers and their room interface adjust ASW to suit a specific program material or at least fix an amount of it suitable more or less for most program material?
 
For what it is worth, the MBL E MKII ($70,500) won this years The Absolute Sound - Golden Ear award for 2011.

But one must ask, does it sound good because it is an OMNI speaker, or because it costs $70,5000?

Steve/bluewizard

Nothing energizes the room like MBL. The listening experience is unlike anything else in audio. Some MBL show demos are too loud, some have too much midbass, but its goodness still shines through every time.

Show attendees often look spellbound, mesmerized, mouths sometimes partially open to take in as much as possible. Some of the spellbound reaction may be related to the system cost and cosmetic effect, but IMO most of it is the sound effect. I know the following is ridiculous, but MBL sound almost more real than live music.
 
Hmmm... I think, being omni, it radiates much wider than ordinary speakers in mid-high frequency range, so the ordinary SPL measurement might not tell the whole story.

Meantime, the sensitivity weak spot of almost all speakers is in bass, where MBL is using separate subs to take care of that.

So, its nominal low sensitivity might not be too big a problem if the space is not too big and/or too dead. The using of big amps (in most audio shows), I guess there's a certain portion of 'political' issues 😉