Speaker Porn

[ironbut]

I think it's amusing that with the DSD craze and audiophiles obsessing over every FOTW DAC Alon Wolf is showing his speakers with a 20 year old DAC at last week's Munich show.

 

'Course that 20 year old DAC is a Pacific Microsonics Model 2. Pretty much unobtainium. A buddy of mine sold his a couple of years ago for $18k IIRC.

Up at Coast Recording, they have/had a few and that is probably one of them.

They may have switched over to the new Bricasti M1.

[Voltron]

Pak knows what DAC it is.  It doesn't matter how old the Pacific Microsonics is, it will be used in shows for years to come.

[swt61]

Holy crap! Sonus Faber has a new 30 year edition of my favorite speaker...The Extrema. Not sure I like the looks as much as the original, but the Extrema has always been my favorite speaker.

 

[blessingx]

^ "The company plans to make only two to three pairs a month and no more than 30 pairs in total." Ouch.

[spritzer]

Also crazy expensive.  Skeleton is made from carbon fiber, just because they could. 

[deepak]

Definitely!  Big horns and compression drivers are where it's at for me.  Just need to get it together.  Here is OMA's flagship:

 

 

 

Big fan here as well, though IMO the number of bad horn designs swamp the number of good ones. Too many places for things to go wrong. 

[Dusty Chalk]

Sonus Faber always did a crazy bunch of carbon fiber shit. They also did the Bishop, which was on my lotto winning wish list for a good long time.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

[swt61]

I think I still prefer the look of the original...

 

 

And they can be had for under $5K.

[johnwmclean]

^ I also prefer the original.

 

My favourite the Guarneri...

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I think I still prefer the look of the original...

 

Those are some fiiiiiiiine looking speakers, right there.  That's a serious cabinet/enclosure/whatever-you-call-it.

[Audio Jester]

I think I still prefer the look of the original...

And they can be had for under $5K.

Those speakers drink scotch of the highest order.

[swt61]

Not only do they look good, but because of the 'KEF' style 6 x 9 subwoofer on the back, they supply enough bass for a very satisfying system, sans separate subs. And they're beautifully balanced.

 

Don't be fooled though, these speakers need serious power to open up.

[spritzer]

Don't be fooled though, these speakers need serious power to open up.

 

They eat up 10W in the crossover alone... 

[blessingx]

On the other side...

http://vimeo.com/12827233

[Matt_Carter]

Speaker AND ear porn. Best system I've worked on and best speaker I've heard.

[mikeymad]

and they make a slightly larger set...

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Are you using those privacy things as diffusors?

[tjkurita]

Hopefully, my end-state speaker system will look something like this: 

 

5-way system.  What looks like 80hz bass horn, 250hz and 800hz spherical tractrix, and super tweeter with two tapped horns (the towers) for sub bass down to 20 hz. 

 

 

[Matt_Carter]

Are you using those privacy things as diffusors?

Yes, as well as the plants. Before they were there the wall was plastered with acoustic resonators, which I preferred. 

Edited May 25, 2014 by Matt_Carter

[skullguise]

This looks kind of funky.....

 

 

[blessingx]

Probably already been posted, but...

http://www.goodwinshighend.com/manufacturers/magico/ultimate3.htm

Edited May 27, 2014 by blessingx

[Sherwood]

woof.

[skullguise]

Goodwins High End isn't far from me, I should check them out; that looks like quite the speaker.  

 

I remember being in there when they had I think the second Magico model (big multi-driver tower).  WAY too big for the room they were in, and amazingly glaring all over the place from mids on up.  Someone was in listening and came out "very impressed" 

 

I couldn't stand to be in the room for more than about a minute.  They are surely much better than how they sounded that day in that room.....(the Mini's were in that room another time, and sounded quite good).

[Dusty Chalk]

 

Pretty cool idea -- uses T-shirts to decorate DIY bass traps a la Ethan Winer, and uses artwork to lightly diffuse behind the speakers.  I think the latter might be trapping as well.

[tjkurita]

I like the looks of that!  A bit busy.  But it looks a lot better than the crappy foam bass traps I've got set up.  Using box frames to add a bit of knobbliness to the wall seems like a good idea too.  I am a big advocate of room treatments where possible.  I guess this system places the "dead" end of the room on the speaker side.  I've got my "dead" side of the room at the listening position side. 

 

Having said all that, what real effect is there when the majority of the sound is likely being handled by what looks like a single 3" driver?  Maybe those 10" on the sides of the speakers are crossed at around 100hz?  Unless the perspective is really strange, those front-facing drivers look like something out of a mini-monitor... 

 

I do have a good bit of artwork up on the largest wall surface.  I don't know what difference it makes as I am not using anything as extreme as this guys box frames (which may well include damping material inside).