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Gobel and the Bending Wave

An article at Stereophile regarding the Gobel Divin Noblesse speaker caught my eye recently:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/g%C3%B6bel-loudspeakers-cables-engstr%C3%B6m-pre-and-power-wadax...


Jason Victor Serinus made a simple mistake and listed the AMT tweeter as a "bending wave" transducer. He's corrected the error, but the "fix" was just as curious. According to the Gobel website, and JVS's correction, the midrange drivers, which for all the world look like FaitalPro 8" mids to me are "bending wave" transducers in this model.


http://www.goebel-highend.de/products/divin-noblesse.html


These midranges look nothing like the bending wave planar transducers used in the Epoque line, or described by their technology page here:

http://www.goebel-highend.de/technology.html

So, without being able to order and disassemble these $190K speakers, I'm really skeptical that this description of the midrange drivers is accurate.


That is all,

Erik
erik_squires
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,577 posts
 
Ah. I had thought that the Linaeum AMT was also the Linaeum bending wave tweeter, but apparently they are different. You can see the Lineaum bending wave tweeter in the first link you provided above.
erik_squires OP
15,669 posts
 
@atmasphere -

I'm not a Linaeum historian, the only tweeter I know them from was the butt-cheek like driver made famous by Radio Shack.


If they also made an AMT that would be news to me. Let me know if you find a link to one.


Best,
E
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,422 posts
 
Erik, I have a pair of that Radio Shack speaker, named the Optimus Pro LX5. The Linaeum driver was used as a dipole in that model, and as a direct radiator in an even cheaper model.
erik_squires OP
15,669 posts
 
Hey bdp24

This is staring to sound familiar. Honestly, I'm more than a little surprised that this tweeter design didn't last well into the late 20th and early 21st century. I don't remember hearing it, but it's' innovative design should have made it a long lived classic.


Best,

E
jwpstayman
387 posts
 
HI Erik- the bending wave driver IS alive and well.  The original designer of the Lineaum tweeter and later the Impact speakers (Paul Paddock) has designed a HUGELY impressive new speaker called the Forty 10 for a company named MCAudiotech (http://mcaudiotech.com) which I have heard several times and it is VERY impressive indeed.
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