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 2 responses by subaruguru

subaruguru
1,362 posts
 
Fine posts, all. I designed my first speaker system as an omni (vertical-radiating planar?) back as a teen in the late 60s, using a Utah triaxial driver sitting upfiring into a plaster-filled kitchen funnel mounted in a wooden "basket", the whole thing sitting atop a 90 lb clay suwerpipe! Yikes. Antiresonant, anyway. A couple of visits to Tweeter, Etc. caught me hearing the new small Mirage Omni-whatevers. My gosh what horrible sound. The sales staff at both locations hate 'em too. Sigh....
I proposed to a good friend/master acoustician the idea of collaborating on an omni-design someday, and he asked why? as they don't work right in normal living rooms. Can't remember his primary concerns (maybe indeed the "primary" early arrival/reflections summation stuff). Happy Holidays all.
subaruguru
1,362 posts
 
Like mom's apple pie, Jer.
Great posts, Zaikes, Duke.
More to discover