2. speakers
  3. 1071972130

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 3 responses by dawgbyte

dawgbyte's avatar
dawgbyte
325 posts
 
Sean, can you please tell us what you think are the top 5 best speakers on the market today and why you think each speaker on your list is exceptional. This is not meant as a flame, it's just a matter of intrigue. It's obvious you have a lot of knowledge in this area and your recommendations could be of value to myself and others on this board.

Thanks,
DB
dawgbyte's avatar
dawgbyte
325 posts
 
This would be a good thread for Roy Johnson to chime in on. Roy, you out there? It sounds like Opalchip is of the phase coherent and time alignment (1st order XO) camp.

Opalchip, have you heard Green Mountain Audio speakers? It sounds like they'd be right up your alley. Besides the Sequerra's what other speakers currently on the market do like?
dawgbyte's avatar
dawgbyte
325 posts
 
Opalchip, my guess is that Roy would say "Negatory" on the towel stuffage idea! ;-) I think a lot of DIY tweakers would be interested to hear from Roy regarding his choice of port placement. Having spoken to Roy several times, there is no doubt he would provide us with a logical and eloquent basis for his decision.

Your reaction to the proceived brightness in the high frequency range runs counter to the impressions I've heard from C-3 owners, but as you pointed out - maybe they weren't fully broken in.
More to discover