How is your dream speaker like?

[cistercian]

Absolutely no disrespect, but what's the logic behind 20 dome tweeters in a vertical line?
(p.s. - love your site!)

They remind me of a line array!

 

[cistercian]

My dream speakers are giant pro ones. I always wanted some line array segments but was horrified by
the cost and weight. Too big as well! I have always liked the old Altec Lansing 3 ways but gave up on finding some
and ordered JBL SRX835 3 ways (passive). I am completely satisfied and the 835's actually fit in the house
very well. They perform better than I had hoped. I have always liked pro gear and I enjoy using it
immensely.
M2 monitors would be epic or the Everest as well. Totally out of my price range! The cat poses no danger to
the 835's so they are truly superior in that regard!

 

[Count Arthur]

My dream speaker would be no bigger than a shoe box, full range, ruler flat frequency response, zero distortion and cost £10.00.

 

[kevinh]

My dream speakers existg the large Sound Labs.

 

[Chromatischism]

Based on this interesting thread about dream DACs, I decided to make a similar one for speakers, as I was thinking about this earlier today.

So how would your dream speaker be like?

Since dreaming is still free , my ideal speaker is more like a system which I describe below. Let me know what you would change and why?


Design goals
1. Full range in a single enclosure. As in 20Hz or less up to 40+ kHz all in a single tower speaker.

2. Point source configuration. D'Appolito or coax configurations. I like the idea back-to-back, vibration canceling, side firing woofers of the Vivid Giyas or KEF Blades.

3. Active and digital. With a center control box with the usual digital inputs sending digital audio to both speakers by cable.

4. Time aligned stepped response. Some debate whether this is noticeable, I once heard a Goldmund demo switching on/off and it was clearly noticeable to me.

5. Wide and smooth horizontal dispersion. Some would argue that narrow lateral dispersion is preferable, this is debateable, I still would choose wide.

6. Narrow and smooth vertical dispersion. Contrary to side dispersion, I see no point in wide vertical dispersion, as stereo is supposed to be left and right.



Implementation
Now this is where the fun part begins, as it kind of combines everything we measure and discuss here in ASR.

1, 2, 5: I guess the ideal enclosure would look like a KEF Blade, sealed for better woofer transients, internally sealed for each band. The electronics would be fixed behind, isolated from the driver's air pressure and cabinet vibrations, and designed to be easily user replaceable (screws and plugs, for upgrades or swapping defective modules). Since it is active and digital, the bass response can be extended but with a maximum power limiting to avoid distortion and damage (if I keep turning the volume up it limits the bass addition, and further it is also soft limited to 1% THD per driver factory measured).

3. Control box with USB, Bluetooth, Wifi, SFP cage (for easy choice of ethernet or optical network), AES-EBU and BNC/RCA SPDIF coax inputs. USB input also for external drive in order to play music directly, as well as internet streaming. Mic input and calibrated microphone for digital room correction. Phone app for choosing house curves (4 preset based on the usual ones, or input my custom house curve). Output to speakers by something robust like AES-EBU with 24/192 or more if possible.

Single IEC power input on each speaker with auto-sensing voltage 100-240V. Amplification would be the highest performing class D (Purifi Eigentakt, Hypex NCore) on all drivers, one for each driver. Gain stages optimized for highest SINAD on all volumes (variable gain possibly). The DACs of each frequency band with low noise floor like -150dB and distortion spikes below -120dB FS on 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

4. Time alignment I understand is trivial to implement with digital and active speakers, so just add an on/off or variable alignment on the app for fun.

6. I don't recall how the UniQ coax is on the vertical axis, but maybe combine it with some sort of Dynaudio Confidence waveguide to limit vertical dispersion?

Loudness control, like Audyssey’s Dynamic EQ.

Capable of at least 105dB at the MLP, as I watch a lot of movies.

I don’t care about full range as I’d use subs, but I’d want in-room roll-off below 60Hz.

The Buchardt A700 + hub ticks a few of your boxes: https://www.buchardtaudio.com/products/a700-white

 

[MZKM]

The Buchardt A700 + hub ticks a few of your boxes: https://www.buchardtaudio.com/products/a700-white

I wish they went with a 1“ tweeter. You can see they still have a dip in the sound power response in the crossover region and that the response is basically flat above that, when it should be sloping down.

 

[Chromatischism]

I wish they went with a 1“ tweeter. You can see they still have a dip in the sound power response in the crossover region and that the response is basically flat above that, when it should be sloping down.

In the floor bounce? Yeah, but it doesn't show up in the in-room response. The 0.75" gives them the directivity they wanted, low distortion, and it gets a boost from the deepish waveguide.

The tweeter response of the A700 is interesting - I hadn't looked at the measurements before this. They do look like they would be brighter than the S400, which has more of the downward slope. I'd like to know more about this design decision. With that said, it's a fully DSP controlled speaker, with different tunings available, so I'm sure it's easily adjusted.

 

[Deleted member 16543]

I get the feeling a lot of people seem to think DSP can fix almost everything.
The truth is that it can fix almost nothing.
You can only correct for 1 point in space, or a small area if one is willing to relax the deviation from target curve.
You can use DSP for overall amplitude and phase correction, but if the speaker doesn't have certain physical attributes, that can only be addressed with driver and cabinet design, your impulse response will look incorrect as soon as you move 1 cm from the measuring point.
That's why I am partial for single drivers. You give something up in lower order accuracy parameters such as Doppler effect (and max SPL, if that's a concern), for the benefit of fixing higher order distortions such as cross over region cancellations, deviation from point source, etc...
Ported cabinet time smear is another major factor.
And, of course, the room. One should really try to input the least amount of sound energy in a room. Even ones that are 'well treated'.
That might not be possible for entertainment types of setups, but it should be stated that for accurate reproduction the intended listening position is one that is quite constrained in space.

 

[Chromatischism]

Careful with universal statements like that. Raising or lowering the level of the tweeter is easy and affects all points in the room. It's done all the time with active speakers.

 

[Deleted member 16543]

Careful with universal statements like that. Raising or lowering the level of the tweeter is easy and affects all points in the room. It's done all the time with active speakers.

But it doesn't affect all of them in the same way. Think of points were you have a cancellation between direct and reflected sound, for example.
I'm not saying DSP doesn't change the sound but in 1 specific point (of course).
What I am saying is that it can only get you close to a specific target response in 1 point in space.

 

[jonfitch]

My dream speaker would be a Genelec 8331 or 8341 that had the decor and finish of a boutique high end bookshelf speaker.

 

[concorde1]

My dream speakers are

Selah Tempesta MK2

JBL 4429

 

[AlmaAtaKZ]

https://barefootsound.com/masterstack12/

 

[Juhazi]

I like to make my dreams come true!

Stealing ideas from Linkwitz and Salmi mostly, using minidsp or Hypex and classD ICEpower or Ncore amps... and measuring with REW. Then just some mixing, cooking and roasting!

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/231353-aino-gradient-collaborative-speaker-project.html
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/322839-seas-mr18-3-a.html
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/321711-avalanche-as1-modernization.html
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/subwoofers/223960-bench-style-cabinet-subwoofer-2x15-closed.html

 

[Valhalla]

my dream speaker would a fully horn-loaded kind of speaker. maybe a Jubilee bass bin or Jamboree with Hypex NC1200 to driver the woofer with DSP to correct the timing. The upper section will be passive with enough big horn to control directivity well down to crossover point 350-400hz or so. something like K402 from Klipsch with a TAD 4001 or even PSE-144 synergy horn and maybe a super tweeter something like Fostex T500AMKIII or TAD ET703. it would be a huge speaker and after all, I can still live with Salon2

 

[PierreV]

I own my dream speakers - at least in the sense that to upgrade would also require a house upgrade.
But the speakers I'd love to have would be a pair of very rough-looking, unpainted, and unfinished Linkwitz LX521.4
To well-informed audiophiles, I would appear as the consummate connoisseur who sacrificed everything to pure sound quality.
All others would think I am a genius.

 

[Zvu]

@PierreV What do you own ? I'm intrigued now.

 

[PierreV]

@PierreV What do you own ? I'm intrigued now.

Focal Scala Utopia and Giya G3 as main speakers.

 

[Deleted member 13028]

I am currently building a pair of IDS-25-ish line arrays. Hopefully that dream will not turn into a nightmare.