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Loudspeakers You Wish To Try But Probably Won't Own In This Lifetime

My issue with most of the large speaker systems (apart from being downright ugly IMHO) is they require a large room and I've found I personally do not like a large room and much prefer a modest sized and easier to heat room, which in itself has become a bit of an issue as the majority of rural detatched houses in our price range (which is considerable for NI) and in our chosen area have great big horrible open plan living spaces, ego houses I call them.
 
Darren L said:
My issue with most of the large speaker systems (apart from being downright ugly IMHO) is they require a large room and I've found in I personally do not like a large room and much prefer a modest sized and easier to heat room.
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Definitely a factor. My room hates most ported boxes since most seem tuned to around 40Hz - bang on the main room mode!
 
Robert said:
The KEF approach as seen in the Blade probably gets closest in many ways.
Single Uni-Q on the curved front running down to around 500Hz then a bass driver array on the sides effectively surrounding the Uni-Q.
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I’d like to hear them properly as I’ve yet to be convinced by any speakers that fire the bass sideways (NBLs, Audio Physics etc). I’d expect Kef to apply some real research though, so they probably work!

As ever with this sort of thing it all comes down to taste/context, and I’ve never personally liked huge systems in huge rooms as everything I’ve heard just sounds like a PA system to some degree. There is always a blurring and smearing of information I can hear so clearly on a pair of mini-monitors, Tannoys or ESLs in the near-to-mid-field or a good pair of headphones, plus always so much colouration as the room and the time-domain take such a hold. I think I’m an outlier here as my ‘ultimate reference’ is the studio control room/mastering suite. That is what I want at home. I’m certainly not attempting to create a rock gig!
 
Would like to hear the Linkwitz Orion. Lots of obstacles - money, space etc. - but I see that @orangeart has removed a very significant one by making the finished article available in this country, good on him. Maybe some day. Surprised not to see them discussed on here.

Slightly more realistically I’d like to try the Neumann KH310 with matching subs. But very happy right now with big Tannoys, the size of which rules out casual swapping.
 
PhilofCas said:
O I don’t know, it think I wouldn’t mind looking at these in this room on a daily basis
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No matter how good the speakers, that one is an acoustic disaster
 
Tony L said:
I’d like to hear them properly as I’ve yet to be convinced by any speakers that fire the bass sideways (NBLs, Audio Physics etc). I’d expect Kef to apply some real research though, so they probably work!...
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500 Hz seems way too high to crossover side facing drivers. They must still be directional up there
 
Robert said:
Definitely a factor. My room hates most ported boxes since most seem tuned to around 40Hz - bang on the main room mode!
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I have only compared reflex loudspeakers in my room (26 Hz main mode) with 40 Hz tuning and 23 Hz tuning. Here, the lower frequency ones don't seem to excite room modes any differently to the higher, at least from REW measurement. However the bass from the ones with the lower frequency tuning (bigger drivers, of course and lower Q too) sounds like it has little of what I think people describe as "overhang" - certainly much less deviation from realistic.

I assume for now that's because most music I listen to has little content below 23 Hz but a lot more below 40 Hz.

This is why (as I posted above) I am interested in listening to PMCs "ATL" sort-of-transmission-line bass alignment with larger drivers than their typical consumer offerings. From a couple of sources it seems to provide rather broadband port output in support of the main bass driver instead of the more usual narrow band port output. I would love to hear that and have an informed opinion about it.
 
Wilson Sabrina X in Bugatti Blue or ATC SCM 20 PSLT in Burr Poplar.
Fingers crossed The Lottery Gods read this forum!
 
davidsrsb said:
500 Hz seems way too high to crossover side facing drivers. They must still be directional up there
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Yes, my guess would be they are deliberately trying for a ‘wide’ effect or something. I have a feeling I’d not get on with it at all as it has to impact the time domain with directional upper-bass/lower-mid stuff actually reaching you via a wall-bounce rather than directly. I guess a lot depends on the overlap from the front driver, but that would have all manner of phase/comb implications. I’ve certainly come to the conclusion I want everything coming from one point as much as is possible and after living the past decade or more with a true point-source in the main system and sealed mini-monitors elsewhere I seem to becoming less and less tolerant of large multi-driver systems even if they are all on the front baffle. I just hear something obviously ‘wrong’ with that presentation. Hard to put it into words, but it isn’t there on a Tannoy, ESL63, mini-monitor, single full-range driver etc.
 
mega lord said:
I have no idea. Something where my whole family of four can enjoy the same experience. That rules out anything too directional. Tried omni and they spray too much against the walls of my small room. Next thing up is line array with restricted vertical dispersion but super horizontal loveliness.

Musical appreciation is something that should always be done with others not on your own with your head in a vice.
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True or not, I’ve never met a single person that cares about the benefits of proper speaker positioning or dispersion patterns. My wife and kids seem as happy listening to an Amazon Echo a room away as I am when vice-gripped in the sweet spot.
 
tonerei said:
A friend got a pair of Alexia's. Never believed Daleks could sound so impressive. Serious money but seriously good music reproduction. Compared to some of the contraptions pictured on this thread they even sort of look reasonably normal.
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Yes, I was given that impression at a long demo at KJ West One a few years ago. I actually got them to play Welcome to the Machine all the way through at high levels (they have a cellar room) truly impressive.

They reduced the demo pair down to about 60K....but I only had a budget of 2K!
 
John Phillips said:
I have only compared reflex loudspeakers in my room (26 Hz main mode) with 40 Hz tuning and 23 Hz tuning. Here, the lower frequency ones don't seem to excite room modes any differently to the higher, at least from REW measurement. However the bass from the ones with the lower frequency tuning (bigger drivers, of course and lower Q too) sounds like it has little of what I think people describe as "overhang" - certainly much less deviation from realistic.

I assume for now that's because most music I listen to has little content below 23 Hz but a lot more below 40 Hz.

This is why (as I posted above) I am interested in listening to PMCs "ATL" sort-of-transmission-line bass alignment with larger drivers than their typical consumer offerings. From a couple of sources it seems to provide rather broadband port output in support of the main bass driver instead of the more usual narrow band port output. I would love to hear that and have an informed opinion about it.
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I respect PMC speakers and I understand why many people love them.

I dislike how PMC market the transmission line (TL) thing. It's fair to say they're not true TLs i.e for bass roll-off and transient response. The theory is a true TL acts like a sealed box, but in practice I don't know of any speaker sold as a TL like that.

IB1S FR has extended bass. But it drops off quickly, not like a sealed box - you can see the sealed, tiny SCM7 even puts out more at 20Hz.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/pmc-ib-1s-loudspeaker-measurements
https://www.stereophile.com/content/atv-scm7-v3-loudspeaker-measurements

From the other end of the stick, your active ATCs act better than a typical ported reflex. Like some Tannoys, the roll-off and transient response is between classic reflex and sealed box.

Of course you could demo, enjoy, prefer etc. PMCs for other reasons.
 
nostromo said:
Yes, I was given that impression at a long demo at KJ West One a few years ago. I actually got them to play Welcome to the Machine all the way through at high levels (they have a cellar room) truly impressive.

They reduced the demo pair down to about 60K....but I only had a budget of 2K!
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Given your budget probably no advantage to know you could snaffle a pair for a much better discount then that :) The adjustment south had no positive impact on the potential for me getting a pair either!
 
Tony L said:
I’ve heard several very tall multi-driver speakers (arrays, line-source etc) over the years and never once enjoyed the experience. I suspect it is partly down to room acoustics (everything inevitably arrives at different times) and that they bare no resemblance to a microphone input which is obviously a point source. I love some really big horns, but in most cases a very wide range comes out of the mid-horn, certainly most of the obviously directional stuff. There is something very ‘right’ the closer one gets to a point source IME.
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In my opinion and experience, the advantages of a point-source are mostly reflected in the imaging capabilities of the loudspeaker.
Because full-range, low distortion, point-source is technically difficult/impossible to achieve both designers and consumers have to choose which side-effects they're willing to put up with.

The ideal speaker would be wide dynamic range, full audio-range, point-source and time-coherent, with a flat on-axis and smooth off-axis anechoic response.
Directivity characteristics, on the other hand, are a matter of taste: some prefer dipole, others forward narrow directivity, many wide directivity and a few onmi-directional. As far as I know only the BeoLab 50 and 90 gives the user an option to change the directivity charateristics of the speaker.
 
Largely agree, though I do think it is more than imaging. I often hear crossovers and the effects of spaced drivers more as a incoherence and diffuse/blurred nature or edge which I suspect is in the phase/time domain. Think of a tall line array or whatever and picture what happens with time vs. listening height (also plot the reflections!). It is way more than imaging that gets screwed up.

PS I’d really like to hear the big B&Os. Likely not for me (just way too far from Right To Repair etc) but they are very interesting things for sure.
 
darrenyeats said:
I dislike how PMC market the transmission line (TL) thing. It's fair to say they're not true TLs i.e for bass roll-off and transient response. The theory is a true TL acts like a sealed box, but in practice I don't know of any speaker sold as a TL like that.
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I'm with you. In a true TL, when we reach the end of the line all energy has been absorbed and it will make no difference if the end is open or closed.

I think B&W's original Nautilus behaves like that. Possibly not in the bass section, it might be IB with a fancy look, but the other sections is long enough to absorb all energy. Or?
 
Tony L said:
I’ve heard several very tall multi-driver speakers (arrays, line-source etc) over the years and never once enjoyed the experience. I suspect it is partly down to room acoustics (everything inevitably arrives at different times) and that they bare no resemblance to a microphone input which is obviously a point source. I love some really big horns, but in most cases a very wide range comes out of the mid-horn, certainly most of the obviously directional stuff. There is something very ‘right’ the closer one gets to a point source IME.
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Multi-driver speakers have one problem in common : if two or more drivers are supposed to reproduce the same sound at the same frequency, they mostly will fail. To be on the exact same tone, they would need to have the exact same moving mass, exact same voice coil power and exact same spider and surround restriction which is pretty much impossible to achieve. These are basic laws of physics and real life manufacturing processes facts.
 
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