New planar drivers at Parts Express

[Jaytor]

@Jaytor Great build! I am curious if you still feel the need for all the room treatment I see in the picture? Is that for this speaker, or for some previous boxed speaker? I ask because in my living room about 1/3 of the walls is glas, not that much sound absorbing furniture either, but sounds very good indeed, which is a very nice overall characteristic of dipole systems.

I've actually only had dipole systems set up in this room. But the room is very reflective without the room treatments. The walls are primarily cinderblock, with stone over concrete floors.

But I did have the room overdamped initially. I replaced the GIK diffusor/absorber panels that I used to have behind my previous dipole speakers with ATS quadratic residue diffusors which I wrapped in fabric. These worked wonderfully behind the dipoles and provided a very deep and wide soundstage with beautiful center imaging.

With the line arrays, the ceiling treatments probably don't make much difference since the speaker's vertical response drops off significantly in the upper octaves. My previous dipoles were point source speakers and the ceiling treatments definitely helped. My ceilings are a bit on the low side at about 2.36 meters (7'9").

The art panels you see on the side walls are absorbers with scatter plates, so they provide a bit of absorption and diffusion.

 

[paulgyro]

GRS mid options: my use case would be an array of GRS planar drivers about 60” in height, covering 500 hz - up to at least 3 khz, although I might want to experiment with taking them up as high as c. 7 or 8 kHz. There would seem to be 3 options: PT 6825 8”, PT 6816 8“ slim version, or PT 5010 10”. Ignoring relative costs, I’d welcome peoples thoughts on which of the 3 would perform best across this frequency range.

With your requirements you are more in the sweet spot of the 10" driver. This would allow greater dynamics with the larger diaphragm so I would certainly go with the 10".

 

[ErikdeBest]

Thanks for the explainer Jaytor!
In our living room we like it "minimalistic" and tied up - our 3 daughters gives us enough chaos already - so my wife and I agree that there will not be any additional stuffing. A good friend of mine was over here, he has better ears, and while we were playing quite loud he wondered that there was indeed no rambling of the windows, no "energy stored" in the room. Actually, that line arrays expand they need reflective floor and ceiling IIRC.
But if I had the dedicated room, maybe yes, I would try out more room treatment.

 

[cab]

With your requirements you are more in the sweet spot of the 10" driver. This would allow greater dynamics with the larger diaphragm so I would certainly go with the 10".

BG neo-8's would be just the ticket- I was planning to do the same when I bought 20 of them. Check the swap meet where I now have them for sale.

 

[Jaytor]

The BG drivers have a flatter response than the GRS drivers, so the crossover can be a bit simpler and you won't loose as much efficiency from having to flatten the response. Another good option to consider is the new Radian drivers.