2. speakers
  3. 137349-82539

Is Speaker design evolution stagnant

Based on what I read from speaker manufacturers, many use the same drivers but apply different crossover philosophies to achieve a particular sound.

My simplistic understanding is that while limiting the range of high or low signals , the remaining signal is corrupted ( phase inversions, roll off, etc.. ).

With today’s technology, why aren’t more speaker manufacturers using active crossovers to be connected after the preamp and sending exact spectrum signals separately to be amplified to each driver.  That would Eliminate all electronics inside the speaker cabinet except the drivers. Each driver gets fed only the signal that it works best at. No out of phase, half phase, quarter phase issues, no phase angle issues. 100% of the power goes to each driver without limiters to scale it back.  I think Bryston Model T Actives is designed this way ( don’t work for them and not pushing any product). Am I looking at it too simply? Do electronic crossover play havoc on signals the way inductors and capacitors do?

Some speaker manufacturers have gone half way with built in woofer amps ( Vaughn?)

Of course you would need a 3 channel amp for each side ( based on W/M/T config) or some variable of mono amps, whatever.



jacksky
lukaske
307 posts
 
All speakers are build practical the same :tweeter, mid- and bassspeaker. Now there is one exeption: the Ilumnia Magister, build by two brothers in Belgium. Those 2 boys worked for 7 years on it. It is the first speaker in the world with a floating Crone driver on a magnetic field. It’s 99,7% linear/always pure sound, regardless of noise level or dynamics. Theorie slogan is: Less is more. This patented and progressive loudspeakertechnology gives a new dimension to high fidelity. No energy absorption: 100% preservation of th signal down to the smallest details.  No unwanted resonances and distortion caused by spider and driver. I have them at home,and i can say: I never  heard such a pure and detailed sound. High-,Mid,and low in harmony. You can see them on the  website: ilumnia.be. Now they are buiding a  Monitorspeakers.
lukaske
307 posts
 
Rectification: Floating CONE driver.
mrdecibel
3,012 posts
 
Faxer…..At it again ? You should be open and honest and disclose that you are a dealer...…...Enjoy ! MrD.
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Check out Magico he is moving ahead never stagnant and his speakers sound wonderful.He has sold over 750 pairs of A3s which are truly revolutionary and a new and wonderful design.
richopp
760 posts
 
A bit of history, if you don't mind:

In the mid-1970's one could purchase a combo-effort on the part of two of the premier manufacturers.  Magnepan's inventor Jim Winey and Audio Research's inventor Bill Johnson got together--whether Wendell had anything to do with it is moot--and developed a tri-amped system that used an external (tube) crossover.  The Typmani speakers were in three parts...kind of what Mr. Winey's son has gone back to recently, with superb results...and they were driven by three+ (you could bridge the amps and run 6 if you wanted to) Audio Research amplifiers run through an Audio Research SP-3 pre-amp.  The amps were of the D-76(A) vintage, which was then doubled into the D-150--still an awesome amp all these years later.  The crossovers were both passive (PC) and active (EC-tube), and one could select a number of ways to set this up.  More importantly, HOW DID IT SOUND??  All that technology is fine, but if it does not sound like a live concert, or as close as possible to one, then it is of little value.

The good news is that the SOUNDED AWESOME.  Set-up properly in a good room, this was the ultimate in those days.  Today, I would guess that the new Magnepan 3-part speaker set driven by quality amps is probably somewhat better as the technologies of all these components has improved since the mid-1970's.  In any case, it sounds better than any box speaker system, so I don't think speaker design is in the tank today.  Most designers use conventional drivers, but I constantly see engineers trying different materials, etc., to get the accurate sound they are seeking.  Too bad that Magnepan found a way to do it better than cone or electrostatic designers have so far...but that doesn't mean engineers are not hard at work looking for the "next big thing."
More to discover