Pearljam5000
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What do you guys think?
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Fleetwood Sound - Deville speakers
- Thread starter Pearljam5000
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Dougey_Jones
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These idiots have lost their mind.
Ken1951
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Cadillacs? Coupe de Ville or Sedan de Ville? Fleetwood limo??
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You can find my measurements of the Fleetwood DeVille at https://www.stereophile.com/content/fleetwood-sound-company-deville-sq-loudspeaker-measurements
John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile
For a guy charging $18K on the strength of sound quality, you'd think he'd care enough about sound not to bump the mic with his chin.
Anyway, from what I know about speaker design, they didn't say anything wildly wrong in the port video... nor did they say anything to justify the price. Bottom ports aren't that unusual though.
Anyway, from what I know about speaker design, they didn't say anything wildly wrong in the port video... nor did they say anything to justify the price. Bottom ports aren't that unusual though.
Yeah, not good enough for 20 grand. Not broken, just... not amazing. For that kind of money if I wanted something living room-acceptable I'd probably just buy ATCs.
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The hump at 100-200hz is not encouraging, although I guess that might be a measurement artifact, but probably not the resonance at 300hz... and the chaos beyond 10khz is bracing to look at. Looks like a headphone measurement! My guess is they sound OK if you're in a mellow mood and don't pay too close attention to the treble, but maybe not so great off-axis.
I guess if you pay $18K for speakers you are probably inclined to devote a seat for listening also, idk.
@John Atkinson - this may be a breach of professional decorum, so feel free to ignore this question, but if you've had any interactions with Fleetwood Sound, do you have the sense that they are profitable? I really have to wonder at the prospects of trying to sell enough $18K niche-appeal speakers to pay for a 25,000 sqft wood shop. Even out in the sticks of PA, that's not free.
To be clear, I'm not saying "no way could they sell enough of these"... more like I'm curious about the volumes that brands like this typically sell. Are there really enough people out there interested in this exact type of speaker to pay for that whole space??
To be clear, I'm not saying "no way could they sell enough of these"... more like I'm curious about the volumes that brands like this typically sell. Are there really enough people out there interested in this exact type of speaker to pay for that whole space??
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OP
Pearljam5000
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They also have another new speaker coming soon
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As it can be seen from the off-axis plots (and also JA states) the directivity of the horn tweeter is much higher than of the woofer, which will lead to an audible sound power imbalance in normal rooms, a full CEA2034 spinorama would show that even better.
Considering what kind of superb loudspeakers can be purchased for that money, this one falls to the typical "highend" category for me, at least its direct sound isn't as coloured as on most products of that category.
Considering what kind of superb loudspeakers can be purchased for that money, this one falls to the typical "highend" category for me, at least its direct sound isn't as coloured as on most products of that category.
Looks like your typical lifestyle speaker taken to the nth+1 degree. It looks cool but I'm guessing a crisp stereo image is not part of the design brief for this one.
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fpitas
Master Contributor
"Conicals don't behave or sound like any other horns," Weiss explained. "They work differently. They have no constriction at the throat like curved-wall horns, which produce that honky, nasal coloration.
Schollaudio
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That hump doesn't make sense with the oversized box used. The last octave does make sense for the box volume used. I wonder how lower tuning would work. The hump would give the speaker a punchy sound. I wonder the crossover frequency. Looks to be 3Khz. 2khz or slightly lower might be better. THD is probably low. Just WAGs.
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Also remember that this company is actually the LOW COST brand of another brand that has far crazier designs: https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/loudspeakers
fpitas
Master Contributor
Now they're just trolling us.
Oh yeah, actually there was another article that went into the OMA speakers a bit, and they're supposedly in the mid-6 figures. Given that, I think it's easy to see how they can afford that workshop. They only need to sell 2 or 3 flagships per year to take care of overhead, I'd guess.
fpitas
Master Contributor
Maybe they're operating on different acoustic principles than I learned, but I'd say those look like they tossed together stuff to look Steampunk. I guess if the owners are happy...
If by “different” you mean 1940s tech combined with putting appearance and high cost above sq, then yes… different.
