Hello everyone,
I'm curious if anyone has first hand experience with Radian's new ribbon elements. They have released a line of planar ribbon high frequency elements and also released a line of coaxial speakers that utilize these drivers for the tweeter. They also have waveguides for the ribbon elements that could be very useful.
From a lot of reading it seems these drivers have had a lot of thought put into them. One of the designers seems to be Igor Levitsky who was involved in BG and SLS.
Overall there seems to be a lot of love for the BG products. I'm surprised to have not found more experiences of working with these drivers around on forums, especially considering their rather reasonable pricing.
If you have heard one, worked with one, or have any thoughts I would love to hear about it.
Here is a link to the ribbons Ribbon - Radian Audio
Here is a link to the coaxial with ribbon tweets
Coaxial-Ribbon - Radian Audio
(Note: I'm putting this in Multi-way due to these likely ending up as a component in a bigger multi-way system. If this needs to move go ahead and my apologies.)
I'm curious if anyone has first hand experience with Radian's new ribbon elements. They have released a line of planar ribbon high frequency elements and also released a line of coaxial speakers that utilize these drivers for the tweeter. They also have waveguides for the ribbon elements that could be very useful.
From a lot of reading it seems these drivers have had a lot of thought put into them. One of the designers seems to be Igor Levitsky who was involved in BG and SLS.
Overall there seems to be a lot of love for the BG products. I'm surprised to have not found more experiences of working with these drivers around on forums, especially considering their rather reasonable pricing.
If you have heard one, worked with one, or have any thoughts I would love to hear about it.
Here is a link to the ribbons Ribbon - Radian Audio
Here is a link to the coaxial with ribbon tweets
Coaxial-Ribbon - Radian Audio
(Note: I'm putting this in Multi-way due to these likely ending up as a component in a bigger multi-way system. If this needs to move go ahead and my apologies.)
Been looking at them on and off since they announced them.
The circular ribbon's pattern narrows a bit more than I'd like in the top octave.
The waveguide coaxial model would make for an interesting line array but the very narrow overlap would make for a compromised crossover unless using FIR.
Would be nice to see some third party test as well but so far no one has covered them or bit the bullet yet. The planars seem to be built in the same place as current production BG planars if I remember correctly.
The circular ribbon's pattern narrows a bit more than I'd like in the top octave.
The waveguide coaxial model would make for an interesting line array but the very narrow overlap would make for a compromised crossover unless using FIR.
Would be nice to see some third party test as well but so far no one has covered them or bit the bullet yet. The planars seem to be built in the same place as current production BG planars if I remember correctly.
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Nothing wrong with planars if implemented correctly. I'd argue that the planars used in Alcons systems are the best high output high frequency devices in use today. AMT would be close but don't reach as low.
Pro-ribbon - Alcons Audio
All compression drivers suffer from the same problems at high output levels. They are hard to beat in overall implementation though which is why they still dominate the prosound market.
Pro-ribbon - Alcons Audio
All compression drivers suffer from the same problems at high output levels. They are hard to beat in overall implementation though which is why they still dominate the prosound market.
Also designed by the same person, Igor Levitsky. He is pretty much the "Master of Planars", having designed for BG, SLS, HiVi and now Radian (probably others that I don't know or recall). He has quite a few planar related patents. He was hired by Radian a few years ago.
One of my mentors, the late Ed Long (pioneer of time alignment, near field monitoring, boundary microphones and many other concepts we take for granted now) thought very highly of Radian's engineering and drivers and used them in some of his designs. That is about as high a recommendation as you can get.
I have been wanting to try the Radian planar coax drivers as well. I am thinking about a sort of Onken "homage" cabinet. But rather than the side vents loading the woofer as is the case with a true Onken, they would be exit slots for opposed pairs (either 2 or 3) of 8" woofers. The coaxial driver would also be mounted from behind the front baffle for a visually hardware free exterior. In the concept sketches below the darker version is for an 8" and the lighter for a 6". Don't get too into the weeds analyzing the sketches. They are just concepts, after all.
It would be a 3-way active system using Digmoda DDC 552DSP plate amplifiers that I have on hand. I also have several boxes of HiVi M8N woofers I can draft for woofer duty. I just need to acquire the Radians, but that is not an inexpensive proposition.
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That's a neat design. Radian does make good stuff. The 745Neo I've been playing with is quite nice and very detailed at sane levels. Gets rough at prosound levels like any compression driver I've heard though.
When funds become available I want to nest a waveguide LT6 in the middle of one of the big JBL Cinema midrange waveguides. Maybe three in a line with only the middle one going all the way up.
They look like a higher sensitivity version of the BG drivers which have gotten a lot of praise over the years. Can't see these being any worse and probably better considering they're designed with prosound in mind.
As long as you don't try to push them too low.
When funds become available I want to nest a waveguide LT6 in the middle of one of the big JBL Cinema midrange waveguides. Maybe three in a line with only the middle one going all the way up.
They look like a higher sensitivity version of the BG drivers which have gotten a lot of praise over the years. Can't see these being any worse and probably better considering they're designed with prosound in mind.
As long as you don't try to push them too low.
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The concept sketches were made in SketchUp (free version). Before the SketchUp 3D effort, I initially started drawing them in AutoCAD.
Radian has replaced the cast pincushion frame of the 6.5" ribbon coaxial with a stamped steel round frame. Price is the same and published response is very close to the previous. If anything the round version is a bit smoother in the LF. HF is unchanged, of course.
I have no problem with a well designed stamped frame, but I know some folks are put off by them. (There is a definite "cool factor" with cast frames.) I may pull the trigger on a few of these in the next few months.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0111/0324/0254/files/6CRS5130_R-data_sheet_REVISED.pdf?v=1607465683
I have no problem with a well designed stamped frame, but I know some folks are put off by them. (There is a definite "cool factor" with cast frames.)
I may pull the trigger on a few of these in the next few months.https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0111/0324/0254/files/6CRS5130_R-data_sheet_REVISED.pdf?v=1607465683
The Radian drivers the op posted are not ribbons they are Isodynamic planar drivers. Some may see this as nit picking but they are very different animals. Just wanted to make the difference known so those who don't know there is a difference can do their own research. Ribbons are fairly easy to make and sound very good not suitable for pro use but can work exceptionally well in home settings. forgive the late intrusion please carry on.
interesting, do you have any measurements to show? frequency responses for phl drivers seems rare