Omnidirectional speakers. The future?


I have been interested in hi-fi for about 25 years. I usually get the hankering to buy something if it knocks my socks off. Like most I started with a pair of box speakers. Then I heard a pair of Magnepans and was instantly hooked on planars. The next sock knocker was a pair of Soundlabs. I saved until I could afford a pair of Millenium 2's. Sock knocker number 3 was a pair of Shahinian Diapasons (Omnidirectional radiators utilizing multiple conventional drivers pointed in four directions). These sounded as much like real music as anything I had ever heard.
Duke from Audiokinesis seems to be onto the importance of loudspeaker radiation patterns. I don't see alot of other posts about the subject.
Sock knocker number four was a pair of Quad 988's. But wait, I'm back to planars. Or am I? It seems the Quads emmulate a point source by utilizing time delay in concentric rings in the diaphragms. At low volumes, the Quads might be better than my Shahinians. Unfortunately they lack deep bass and extreme dynamics so the Shahinians are still my # 1 choice. And what about the highly acclaimed (and rightly so) Soundlabs. These planars are actually constructed on a radius.
I agree with Richard Shahinian. Sound waves in nature propagate in a polyradial trajectory from their point of source. So then doesn't it seem logical that a loudspeaker should try to emmulate nature?

holzhauer

Showing 2 responses by muralman1

A little off topic, but on theme, is the build, and sonic differences between The bipole Apogee Scintilla, and other dipole Apogees. In Apogee circles, it is a recognized fact the Scintilla's performance is touched with magic. I attribute the difference to the wrap over tweeter ribbons of the Scintilla. This creates two fan shaped radiation wave patterns front and rear, out of phase with each other.
Zaikesman: I probably have the terms switched. The Scintilla ribbon wraps over. The back trace ribbon is pushing outward at the same time as the forward facing ribbon. The part that confuses me is while they are both pushing, the rear is pushing backwards.

A panel pushes forward while pulling the opposite direction.

Which type is in phase, and which is out of phase?