Midrange dome drivers banned ?

[thewas]

By the way, especially in the past and from smaller companies, not every driver that was sold as Beryllium was really and fully one:

https://www.behringer-electric.de/app/download/9021869186/the_truth_about_beryllium_diaphragms.pdf

 

[sq225917]

Tad bought the mothballed yamaha facility

 

[gene_stl]

I wonder if TAD will sell that CST driver separately.

 

[beeface]

update: midrange dome drivers are banned *bangs gavel*

 

[dualazmak]

I wonder if TAD will sell that CST driver separately.

The possibility would be very small, but you and us may contact with TAD, by referring to this thread and others, requesting the separate supply of the CST driver... the more contacts the better, I believe.
https://tad-labs.com/jp/support/?ref=gnavi

 

[dualazmak]

Tad bought the mothballed yamaha facility

Would you please let us know the source of the info, if possible?

 

[sq225917]

I can't recall it, possibly from an interview with Andrew at the time. It's logged in my 'it's a fact section' of my memory, so defo not Rumour, it's from a published source. I don't waste memory on rumour.

 

[ontherun]

Almost all German mainstream brands loudspeakers in the 70s had small (usually 38 or 50 mm and rarely 76 mm) mid domes till the mid 80s where most manufacturers switched to larger mid cones as they won in some magazines comparison tests. The reason they won was the higher directivity in the mids which although not as smooth and continuous as with mid dome designs, compensated more the too high "Hifi" listening distances and the room design which was getting more and more sparse compared to the "flokati rug 70s".
Mid domes have also some other advantages as lower distortions but also disadvantages as more limited frequency range (needing often one more way) and more abrupt directivity change above their wavelength radiation. If you want to make them compatible to modern poor room acoustics you usually must use also waveguides for them as for example Neumann does, which further increases the design and production cost.

Same for most Italian loudspeaker brands... they used either OEM or proprietary dome mid units... just think about ESB, RCF the most known but even the less (known) ones like (ie) Audiolab, Augusta. The most famous of these dome units was certainly that one designed and used by ESB in its '7' series (and LD one too)... it was called UMA, Unità Medio Alto (mid high unit).

 

[Frank Dernie]

Same for most Italian loudspeaker brands... they used either OEM or proprietary dome mid units... just think about ESB, RCF the most known but even the less (known) ones like (ie) Audiolab, Augusta. The most famous of these dome units was certainly that one designed and used by ESB in its '7' series (and LD one too)... it was called UMA, Unità Medio Alto (mid high unit).

Shame ESB stopped making home speakers, they were way ahead of most in their heyday.

 

[ontherun]

Shame ESB stopped making home speakers, they were way ahead of most in their heyday.

Actually ESB reborn in 2009 as Giussani-Research , named after its chief-designer Renato Giussani (already co-founder of Audiolab and then Research and Development manager for ESB ... the '7 series', of which the 7/06 was choosen by Sheffield Lab's Doug Sax, was designed by Renato itself).
Unfortunately, as maybe some of you already knew, Renato passed away in 2013 at 67 :-( I was lucky enough to get to attend one of his last demo held @Roma Hi-Fidelity in winter 2012. RIP Renato.

 

[richard12511]

The whole point of stereo recording ,reproduction and ownership is imaging.

I think that may just be a personal preference of yours. It's certainly not the "whole point" for me, as tonality, soundstage/envelopment, and dynamic capability are just as(if not more) important.

I agree with @Frank Dernie that imaging has more to do with the room and speaker/listener position than it does the speakers themselves, though different speakers do image differently.

 

[jtgofish]

I think that may just be a personal preference of yours. It's certainly not the "whole point" for me, as tonality, soundstage/envelopment, and dynamic capability are just as(if not more) important.

I agree with @Frank Dernie that imaging has more to do with the room and speaker/listener position than it does the speakers themselves, though different speakers do image differently.

Well I agree that some rooms will never allow decent imaging.I own one like that myself.Thankfully I have other good sound rooms in which I can have my systems.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Well I agree that some rooms will never allow decent imaging.I own one like that myself.Thankfully I have other good sound rooms in which I can have my systems.

It is far more the position of the speakers in the room and the listener location and the type of furniture and its location than the room itself, unless it is one of the modern minimalist rooms with only hard surfaces. IME it is not possible to get excellent sound quality in one of them.
Speakers make a difference but even the best speakers poorly located in the room with an unfortunate furniture layout will fail to achieve their potential IME

 

[Doodski]

It is far more the position of the speakers in the room and the listener location and the type of furniture and its location than the room itself, unless it is one of the modern minimalist rooms with only hard surfaces. IME it is not possible to get excellent sound quality in one of them.
Speakers make a difference but even the best speakers poorly located in the room with an unfortunate furniture layout will fail to achieve their potential IME

I find clapping my hands, listening to my voice ring in a room and standing in a corner and speaking in various tones gives me a pretty good guess about the acoustics and how damped the room is or isn't.

 

[jhaider]

I wonder if TAD will sell that CST driver separately.

Pioneer (TAD parent) used to have a parts department that listed some drivers available. For reference, this was when Chris Walker and Andrew Jones were still there.

IIRC the coax for S-1EX and bookshelf center in that line were around $1200 each, and that was magnesium cone with beryllium tweeter. My old bookmarks lead to dead sites now.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I find clapping my hands, listening to my voice ring in a room and standing in a corner and speaking in various tones gives me a pretty good guess about the acoustics and how damped the room is or isn't.

Very much so, and gives a good first indication about promising speaker locations.
The difficult bit is often the position which excites room modes in the bass least isn't always the most ideal for stereo image .

 

[Newman]

I find clapping my hands, listening to my voice ring in a room and standing in a corner and speaking in various tones gives me a pretty good guess about the acoustics and how damped the room is or isn't.

It can also be hugely misleading. One can sit in the listening seat and clap hands and hear the terrible flutter echo, and hear one’s voice ring quite severely, and draw conclusions: but if, instead, one stays in the listening seat and gets a friend to go to the speakers and clap their hands and speak or call things, very often none of those effects occur at the listening seat, which is the more reliable sign of whether those type of resonances are a genuine concern.

cheers

 

[Frank Dernie]

One can sit in the listening seat and clap hands and hear the terrible flutter echo, and hear one’s voice ring quite severely, and draw conclusions:
cheers

Why would anybody be stupid enough to think the sound source should be coincident with the listener?

 

[Newman]

Why would anybody be stupid enough to think the sound source should be coincident with the listener?

That’s unnecessarily aggressive IMHO.

 

[JWAmerica]

I understand that Be tweeters are the gold standard, but what of corundum dome tweeters? I've read several favorable comparisons. Corundum may be inferior, but assessments indicate that it's 90% of the way there.