Detailed measurements and spinorama of Reflector Audio Square Two 2-way coaxial horn monitor with 4x 5" woofers

[thewas]

Very interesting concept with very good measurements from an unknown to me before company:

Sources of the measurements and photos:

Reflector Audio: Koaxialer Hochleistungs-Midfield-Monitor im Test

Reflector Audio ist ein hierzulande noch weitgehend unbekannter Hersteller aus Jurmala nahe der lettischen Hauptstadt Riga. Schon seit einigen Jahren beschäftigt man sich dort mit der Entwicklung und Produktion hochwertiger Lautsprecher für den High-End Consumer-Bereich. Ein anspruchsvolles...

www.soundandrecording.de

Reflector Audio USA | Studio Monitors | United States

Reflector Audio USA unique professional studio reference monitors

www.reflectoraudiousa.com

Would be curious to know the price though?

 

[dasdoing]

I like it. though I would rather see it use a horizontal dispersion horn

 

[Biblob]

Measurements look nice. Great SPL capability above 100hz too.

But it's a very narrow directivity design, I think it would result in a narrow optimal seating position.

 

[Da cynics]

This company...?

Reflector audio

www.reflector.audio

 

[abdo123]

@sarumbear

Any idea what makes this design tick? the last time we discussed this configuration of drivers you were heavily opposed.

 

[tomtoo]

I see a synergy horn. Maybe iam wrong, we should ask @Tom Danley ?

 

[Juhazi]

^No, nothing to do with synergy concept. Reflector's woofers do not open in the horn but around it.

Audio Square migtht have some use as a stage monitor, and perhaps some individualists might enjoy it's super-narrow directivity in an apartment.

 

[tomtoo]

^No, nothing to do with synergy concept. Reflector's woofers do not open in the horn but around it.

Audio Square migtht have some use as a stage monitor, and perhaps some individualists might enjoy it's super-narrow directivity in an apartment.

??? Could you explain please more detailed?

 

[sarumbear]

@sarumbear

Any idea what makes this design tick? the last time we discussed this configuration of drivers you were heavily opposed.

Which design?

 

[abdo123]

Which design?

Four woofers with each one of them being on one side of the tweeter.

 

[kyle_neuron]

Small thought experiment - If the front of the woofers don’t enter into the horn at all and only the rear of each cone radiates via the four ports at the mouth, how can they market that it can be converted into a sealed enclosure type rather than a reflex or vented alignment?

 

[sarumbear]

Four woofers with each one of them being on one side of the tweeter.

You mean this silly thing? I was opposed to to a design where there were mid range drivers surrounded a tweeter. These are woofers. The wavelength involved is an order of magnitude different. On this design when the horn cuts off the direct sound is the the rear of the drivers. Why would you want to do that?

At best this is an art piece.

 

[puppet]

kyle_neuron, https://www.reflectoraudiousa.com/_files/ugd/8d720f_e88e504f1832422ea7f62baf5697872d.pdf

 

[kipman725]

It could work with a coaxial comp or other driver that could cross very low. However they specify a 4" Be dome comp and I'm unaware of any that will reach a low enough crossover frequency for this to be a great idea. Also some of their other speakers are rearly silly: http://www.reflector.audio/products/touch/f10.html

 

[sarumbear]

It could work with a coaxial comp or other driver that could cross very low. However they specify a 4" Be dome comp and I'm unaware of any that will reach a low enough crossover frequency for this to be a great idea. Also some of their other speakers are rearly silly: http://www.reflector.audio/products/touch/f10.html

Not a single meaningful spec. Why would anyone trust them?

 

[abdo123]

You mean this silly thing? I was opposed to to a design where there were mid range drivers surrounded a tweeter. These are woofers. The wavelength involved is an order of magnitude different. On this design when the horn cuts off the direct sound is the the rear of the drivers. Why would you want to do that?

At best this is an art piece.

No i meant the design in the original first post of the thread.

 

[dwkdnvr]

??? Could you explain please more detailed?

In Danley's designs, both the tweeter AND the woofers/midranges fire into the horn flare, and are loaded by the horn flare. This makes 'the horn' a wider bandwidth device, but also introduces some acoustic problems. The Synergy design carefully balances the horn loading with the acoustic interference patterns to create a horn what measures very close to a minimum phase, directivity controlled device over it's bandwidth. (WITHOUt the need to resort to DSP in most cases)

This monitor OTOH clearly has the woofers firing through openings around the horn flare rather than into the horn flare. This means that they aren't loaded by the horn, but they also avoid (for the most part) the acoustic interference. This device is really just a horn tweeter surrounded by 4 woofers. The 4 woofer arrangement does allow controlling directivity to get a more uniform soundfield, but it's really not operating on the same principles as the Synergy.

 

[Vladimir Filevski]

This company...?

Reflector audio

www.reflector.audio

Hmm... Latvia is mentioned elsewhere as a country of origin, at least of designer(s), for both Square Two and those ugly open-frame-four-woofer-plus-horn monstrosity. Both designed by Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde?

 

[sarumbear]

No i meant the design in the original first post of the thread.

Unless we are miscommunicating, my reply also applies to that speaker. It will be better if you show me where I objected to a design similar to that so that I can either be shamed because I was wrong or explain further why I still object.

 

[kyle_neuron]

kyle_neuron, https://www.reflectoraudiousa.com/_files/ugd/8d720f_e88e504f1832422ea7f62baf5697872d.pdf

This might be more useful - never underestimate the benefit of some basic computational photo editor tools!

From this I notice the front of the cones is outputting via the openings at the horn mouth round over, and there’s a small slot port at the bottom. I guess that’s what they are referring to with the sealed comment.

It’s interesting, as they’re clearly using the anti phase radiation to generate directional response far below the angular and mouth dimensions of the horn itself. FIR is used for axial linearisation, but I’m curious how it behaves when driven to non-linearity.

Mostly my curiosity is out of respect for refining a crazy concept as discussed by @sarumbear to something more practical. This is a potentially more useful and modest invention, while also being one that could be replicated for <$1000 in parts for the DIY folk.