Meyersound X10 speakers

[milezone]

Has anyone had a chance to hear these: https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisa0a94-meyer-sound-x-10-full-range. I suspect in their time of production they were some of the best speakers available. I've heard the newer Bluehorns which are excellent. Do any contemporary speakers implement a similar technology as this:

“Normally, in designing loudspeakers, the industry works in small incremental improvements,” explains company president John Meyer, “but working with the university gave us a chance to try something completely new. They approached us with a technology based on computer-driven hydraulics [that had been] developed to help control jet fighters moving at three times the speed of sound. They thought the high-speed, multi-input servo systems they developed could be applied to loudspeakers.”
Meyer engineers took the concept and developed it into Pressure Sensing Active Control (PSAC), which places a pressure sensor-essentially a calibrated condenser microphone-in front of the woofer. The information picked up by the sensor is then sent to the PSAC comparator circuit inserted before the LF power amplifier, which compares the sensor data to the input and puts the two signals in precise alignment. The original project was designed and prototyped entirely in the digital domain, yet interestingly, a high-speed analog computer circuit was selected for the X-10 because of its real-time speed and wide dynamic range.

 

[beefkabob]

They look stone age.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

They look ugly because they’re intended for professional installations / applications, where they typically aren't seen.

. Do any contemporary speakers implement a similar technology as this:

I don’t know if you’re referring to the consumer or pro market. I don’t think anyone in the consumer market is doing this, although a few companies do make highly-efficient speakers with horn-loaded compression drivers for the highs. Not with the built-in mic and its associated electronics.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[617]

Has anyone had a chance to hear these: https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisa0a94-meyer-sound-x-10-full-range. I suspect in their time of production they were some of the best speakers available. I've heard the newer Bluehorns which are excellent. Do any contemporary speakers implement a similar technology as this:

“Normally, in designing loudspeakers, the industry works in small incremental improvements,” explains company president John Meyer, “but working with the university gave us a chance to try something completely new. They approached us with a technology based on computer-driven hydraulics [that had been] developed to help control jet fighters moving at three times the speed of sound. They thought the high-speed, multi-input servo systems they developed could be applied to loudspeakers.”
Meyer engineers took the concept and developed it into Pressure Sensing Active Control (PSAC), which places a pressure sensor-essentially a calibrated condenser microphone-in front of the woofer. The information picked up by the sensor is then sent to the PSAC comparator circuit inserted before the LF power amplifier, which compares the sensor data to the input and puts the two signals in precise alignment. The original project was designed and prototyped entirely in the digital domain, yet interestingly, a high-speed analog computer circuit was selected for the X-10 because of its real-time speed and wide dynamic range.

It seems to me that if that technology works perfectly, all it does is fix nonlinearities in the woofer cone motion below breakup, which is great, but only marginally contributes to fidelity.

Having said that, Meyersound always struck me as a very technically innovative group, much like Danley, and much like Danley, their focus is not on hifi.

 

[dubkarma]

I'm late to the party, but since none of the posters have actually auditioned a pair of Meyer Sound X-10s, I thought it worthwhile to post a comment. These speakers were in production from 2001 to 2017—not a bad run!—and have now been replaced by the $80K Bluehorn system. I purchased a pair brand new from an authorized dealer in 2015. Briefly, the comments in Home Theatre Review are spot on. Pick whatever aspect of audio reproduction you like—clarity, detail, micro- and macro-dynamics, bass extension and quality, etc., it doesn't much matter—the X-10s, properly set up, will keep your jaw on the floor and your eyes wide. A crude analogy would be the JBL Everest DD67000 in a much smaller package, at a much lower price—very much lower when you consider that the amplifiers are included!—and with much better LF extension. It's also worth mentioning that the X-10 comes/came in two sub-models, identical except for the shape: a boxy studio cabinet (X-10) intended for soffit-mounting, and a tall, slim floor-standing cabinet (X-10T). Plus—albeit for an extra charge—the X-10T is available in just about any real-wood veneer. I myself purchased the tower model, as I use them in one of my home systems. As a friend who visits frequently has told me, he's heard systems costing up to a million dollars, with speaker cables that cost as much as the X-10s, and, so far at least, he's heard nothing that compares. Now he's heard a lot more high-end systems that I have or likely ever will hear, but I do respect his opinion, so I mention it. As the attached photo may (or may not) show, I have good quality, but hardly remarkable, "associated components," most, unlike the X-10s, purchased used. Indeed that same friend who says he prefers my X-10 system to all others he has ever auditioned, at any price, still tells me to upgrade my electronics if I want to realize the full fidelity-potential of the speakers. But then I tell him, "Alan, we all have to stop somewhere!" The X-10s is where I stopped. Not saying there aren't comparable, or superior speaker/amp combinations out there—I myself have only heard a tiny fraction of them—just saying that before you drop $50K or $100K or $250K on a pair of speakers, audition the X-10s if you can.