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Are there any co-axial passive radiator monitors?

watchnerd

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You can make one by getting one of the classic Tannoy drivers, slap it in the appropriate sized box, and stick a passive radiator in it instead of a port or slot.
 
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EPC

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I appreciate the phase coherence of a good coaxial, and the bass of a passive radiator
 

watchnerd

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I appreciate the phase coherence of a good coaxial, and the bass of a passive radiator

1164878-tannoy-t185-dual-concentric-integrated-loudspeakers.jpg



Tannoy T185 driver with passive radiators.

https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/tannoy/t185.shtml
 

Shazb0t

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I appreciate the phase coherence of a good coaxial, and the bass of a passive radiator
Phase coherence isn't a real thing you should be worried about unless the speaker crossover is horribly designed. With the coaxial you're trading potentially increased IMD for larger vertical directivity. This can be "good" or it can be "bad" depending on the speaker.

What exactly does passive radiator bass sound like?
 

thewas

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Also a well designed BR port doesn't need to be audibly worse than a passive radiator, I think you hang yourself too much on some experienced based criteria which not necessarily have a unique correlation like for example watching a Ferrari meeting and saying after that red cars are faster than the rest.
 

ernestcarl

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ernestcarl

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Tannoy co-axials have a distinct sound, but so do lots of types of speakers (electrostats, dynamic direct radiators, etc.).

I don't know if that qualifies as 'horny'.

I haven't heard of this tulip(?) style horn waveguide myself. And I know, I know... this is very flawed, but there's a whole of bunch audio/video recordings for these types of speakers in youtube. The comments are nearly always positive -- but I don't take them too seriously. Could mainly be the crappy audiophile recordings played and/or room, but they often do seem to sound... very peculiar, or as you say, "distinct". The differences between other more conventional dynamic speakers demoed often from the very same audiophile channels tend to vary less. From the ones I've heard before running out patience and leaving, at least.
 

watchnerd

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I haven't heard of this tulip(?) style horn waveguide myself. And I know, I know... this is very flawed, but there's a whole of bunch audio/video recordings for these types of speakers in youtube. The comments are nearly always positive -- but I don't take them too seriously. Could mainly be the crappy audiophile recordings played and/or room, but they often do seem to sound... very peculiar, or as you say, "distinct". The differences between other more conventional dynamic speakers demoed often from the very same audiophile channels tend to vary less. From the ones I've heard before running out patience and leaving, at least.

Horns have a sound, yes.

They also do loud better, though.

Pick your poison.

Good timbre and tonal neutrality, but with wet blanket dynamics.

Or life-like dynamics but colored timbre.
 
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EPC

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I own the Presonus Spectre S6, its a front ported horn coaxial
It’s weird because when comparing it to other monitors I perceive that horn effect, where it feels like it being pushed toward me, but it has like some crazy processing that gets rid of the actual honky sound
So it just ends up being a pretty dope speaker
 

andreasmaaan

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Horns have a sound, yes.

They also do loud better, though.

Pick your poison.

Good timbre and tonal neutrality, but with wet blanket dynamics.

Or life-like dynamics but colored timbre.

Both together are possible, I swear :p
 

ernestcarl

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I own the Presonus Spectre S6, its a front ported horn coaxial
It’s weird because when comparing it to other monitors I perceive that horn effect, where it feels like it being pushed toward me, but it has like some crazy processing that gets rid of the actual honky sound
So it just ends up being a pretty dope speaker

I have the S8 and the vocals are very clear and perhaps too forward -- people may find it a bit much so maybe listen more off-axis? -- but I think it's the 6-10kHz range that's mainly in need of some attenuation.
 
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EPC

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What feature of a speaker is responsible for that forward, 3D, transient right in front of your face effect?
I’ve had ribbon tweeters with super fast transient response but still don’t compete with a standard dome co-axial.
It’s like this strange out of speaker depth thing, it’d hard to explain, it isn’t just increased high end or anything, it’s a very 3D sound
 

ernestcarl

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I hate them, personally.

I don't find they translate well.

I don't use mine for mixing duties.

Some people have complained that the DSP modules can go out of wack with power loss -- so they have to be reset. This isn't stated in the manual!

Though, I really like the pair that I have, esp. when corrected.
 
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