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New MMT from Dennis Murphy with SOTA drivers!

MarcT

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Well, I actually got a reply and then had a nice little exchange with Dominika Behounek, Co-Founder of Arya Audio Labs. No airblade for testing, but a very nice lady. I asked if she minds me sharing our email exchange here and she essentially said to feel free. So, rather than summarize, I'll just quote her directly:















From there, we discuss the possibility of me getting an introduction to Western Electric in Chattanooga, TN to get a demo of the speakers they are building which incorporate the AirBlade.

So, bottom line for me testing one of their speakers is: not yet. But, they (she) seems willing to do so in the future and she is helping me get connected with a manufacturer just a couple hours' drive from me to hear what they are doing with it.



BTW, you should see Ms. Behounek's LinkedIn profile... BS in Acoustic Engineering, PhD in Modelling electrocochlear responses ... which I have no idea what that even means. Off the charts smart. These credentials, at least to me, add a level of confidence that this isn't just some audiophoolery technology.
Hearing aid research and design?
 
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tomtoo

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Nice pro conversation. No this driver is no BS talk. But how good it realy is we will see.
 

Rick Sykora

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I need to read a bit and look at some of the videos, this thing seems really interesting. I kind of wonder if they could design in a specific horizontal radiation pattern of their choosing by changing the (electrical/mechanical) design as they radiate out. I assume it has a 180 degree radiation pattern only due to being uniformly designed/built across that span. An OEM could custom order it to their choosing. Or there might be a way to control/steer it passively or actively if they get really crazy with it. With this idea, even if done only experimentally due to complexity & cost this could be one way to test preference of wide/narrow dispersion as well as fall off pattern outside of the primary radiation area. If used with room correction designed to leverage this capability, you could really tame the room. As in 'oh, that speakers is close to a really reflective side wall (at this frequency) so let's reduce the curve in that area'.

Could it be further jazzed up with a KEF meta thingy? ;)
 

restorer-john

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I don't think you have any idea about how trademark law works, which you should before you call someone a clown.

Poor old @orchardaudio can't even name his amplifier after a botanist (bosc) who lived 200 years ago had a pear variety named after him because Bosch jumped all over him. I know how it works, sunshine.

As for Dyson, their products are poor in my opinion and they have a history of litigation for what I consider pathetic reasons. Dyson sues Samsung for a wheel, Samusung sues Dyson. Dyson sued Vax. Dyson also sued Bosch for "cheating on EU efficiency tests" which is ironic considering (and if you'd owned and sold Dysons you'd actually know) they are utterly useless vacuum cleaners, and not remotely efficient at cleaning the floor.

So the poor old airblade tweeter people will likely hear from Dyson at some stage- I'd put money on it.
 
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Dennis Murphy

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Nice pro conversation. No this driver is no BS talk. But how good it realy is we will see.
I do have the driver here, although I haven't tested it yet.
I have also been informed that the company regards the AirBlade as in the experimental stage, and wouldn't feel happy about having it publicly testing it at this time. I'll defer to their wishes, although I thought that this was a product ready for normal sale, and that under such circumstances they should be subjected to the same public scrutiny that any other company faces, particularly on an educated forum such as this where new technology is watched with such great interest.

( I will say that my Dyson works very well on Golden Retriever hair, and for me that's the ultimate test.)
 

KaiserSoze

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I do have the driver here, although I haven't tested it yet.
I have also been informed that the company regards the AirBlade as in the experimental stage, and wouldn't feel happy about having it publicly testing it at this time. I'll defer to their wishes, although I thought that this was a product ready for normal sale, and that under such circumstances they should be subjected to the same public scrutiny that any other company faces, particularly on an educated forum such as this where new technology is watched with such great interest.

( I will say that my Dyson works very well on Golden Retriever hair, and for me that's the ultimate test.)

If it works on Golden Retriever hair, what more could you want?
 

orchardaudio

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Poor old @orchardaudio can't even name his amplifier after a botanist (bosc) who lived 200 years ago had a pear variety named after him because Bosch jumped all over him. I know how it works, sunshine.
Fingers crossed my Starkrimson trademark does not meet same fate...
 

arya-audio

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Dennis Murphy, I tend to avoid inserting myself in discussions on a public forum, however, since the laundry is already airing out here I might as well chip in my two cents. Firstly, AirBlade is not in an “experimental stage” as you put it, the units ship in the form they are ought to be and they have been for some time now. The only thing that is in the experimental stage is your project with Jim, which you seem to be awfully prejudiced against without having even tested the driver. So far this forum, that as you said has a very educated audience, heard from you only non-technical, sound quality unrelated remarks that 1) the driver is likely a gimmick but it’s OK because Jim is picking up the tab, 2) it’s expensive 3) it looks like this or that 4) probably won’t sell because of 2 & 3. I am asking you this: where is the information about how is actually sounds? Shouldn’t that be the thing you would want to touch on first? Nobody here at Arya Audio requested for you not to discuss AirBlade on a public forum because we won’t be “happy” about what you share, but because the discussion so far, considering you are actually designing the system for Salk Sound, has frankly been quite unprofessional. We’re happy to help you with everything you touched on including waveguide implementation that would take care of the cosmetic aspect you are clearly not a fan of, as well as lots of technical information that you would have surely found useful, should you have decided to discuss it with us before taking to a forum and sharing your preconceptions.

Arthur Marker | Founder | Arya Audio Labs
 

richard12511

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Dennis Murphy, I tend to avoid inserting myself in discussions on a public forum, however, since the laundry is already airing out here I might as well chip in my two cents. Firstly, AirBlade is not in an “experimental stage” as you put it, the units ship in the form they are ought to be and they have been for some time now. The only thing that is in the experimental stage is your project with Jim, which you seem to be awfully prejudiced against without having even tested the driver. So far this forum, that as you said has a very educated audience, heard from you only non-technical, sound quality unrelated remarks that 1) the driver is likely a gimmick but it’s OK because Jim is picking up the tab, 2) it’s expensive 3) it looks like this or that 4) probably won’t sell because of 2 & 3. I am asking you this: where is the information about how is actually sounds? Shouldn’t that be the thing you would want to touch on first? Nobody here at Arya Audio requested for you not to discuss AirBlade on a public forum because we won’t be “happy” about what you share, but because the discussion so far, considering you are actually designing the system for Salk Sound, has frankly been quite unprofessional. We’re happy to help you with everything you touched on including waveguide implementation that would take care of the cosmetic aspect you are clearly not a fan of, as well as lots of technical information that you would have surely found useful, should you have decided to discuss it with us before taking to a forum and sharing your preconceptions.

Arthur Marker | Founder | Arya Audio Labs

Hmm, this post seems a little bit misplaced. Perhaps I've misread, but I haven't seen the swarm of negative posts that you seem to be seeing. There have been some criticisms, but that's normal in a public forum, and Dennis seems excited to work with the driver and seems to think it has great potential(read his first post in the thread). Note the title of this thread is "New MMT from Dennis Murphy with SOTA drivers!", especially the bolded ;) I get being defensive of products you've personally created. It's a natural reaction, and I do it too, but I feel like you may be reading more criticism here than actually exists.

Haven't followed the thread 100% so maybe I need to re-read, but that's my observation as a casual reader, here.
 

ribosradagast

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Dennis Murphy, I tend to avoid inserting myself in discussions on a public forum, however, since the laundry is already airing out here I might as well chip in my two cents. Firstly, AirBlade is not in an “experimental stage” as you put it, the units ship in the form they are ought to be and they have been for some time now. The only thing that is in the experimental stage is your project with Jim, which you seem to be awfully prejudiced against without having even tested the driver. So far this forum, that as you said has a very educated audience, heard from you only non-technical, sound quality unrelated remarks that 1) the driver is likely a gimmick but it’s OK because Jim is picking up the tab, 2) it’s expensive 3) it looks like this or that 4) probably won’t sell because of 2 & 3. I am asking you this: where is the information about how is actually sounds? Shouldn’t that be the thing you would want to touch on first? Nobody here at Arya Audio requested for you not to discuss AirBlade on a public forum because we won’t be “happy” about what you share, but because the discussion so far, considering you are actually designing the system for Salk Sound, has frankly been quite unprofessional. We’re happy to help you with everything you touched on including waveguide implementation that would take care of the cosmetic aspect you are clearly not a fan of, as well as lots of technical information that you would have surely found useful, should you have decided to discuss it with us before taking to a forum and sharing your preconceptions.

Arthur Marker | Founder | Arya Audio Labs

The founder of a new audio company creates an account on a public forum to bash a venerable crossover guru with his first post...

unnamed.jpg
 

mtmpenn

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Arthur -

You really know how to make an entrance! Let’s hope your marketing/PR/sales teams don’t look to you for guidance on how to make connections and generate positive excitement about the brand...

Anyway, if the device is not experimental and you are interested in a technical discussion, perhaps you can provide some detailed info to help get us excited?
 
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Dennis Murphy

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Dennis Murphy, I tend to avoid inserting myself in discussions on a public forum, however, since the laundry is already airing out here I might as well chip in my two cents. Firstly, AirBlade is not in an “experimental stage” as you put it, the units ship in the form they are ought to be and they have been for some time now. The only thing that is in the experimental stage is your project with Jim, which you seem to be awfully prejudiced against without having even tested the driver. So far this forum, that as you said has a very educated audience, heard from you only non-technical, sound quality unrelated remarks that 1) the driver is likely a gimmick but it’s OK because Jim is picking up the tab, 2) it’s expensive 3) it looks like this or that 4) probably won’t sell because of 2 & 3. I am asking you this: where is the information about how is actually sounds? Shouldn’t that be the thing you would want to touch on first? Nobody here at Arya Audio requested for you not to discuss AirBlade on a public forum because we won’t be “happy” about what you share, but because the discussion so far, considering you are actually designing the system for Salk Sound, has frankly been quite unprofessional. We’re happy to help you with everything you touched on including waveguide implementation that would take care of the cosmetic aspect you are clearly not a fan of, as well as lots of technical information that you would have surely found useful, should you have decided to discuss it with us before taking to a forum and sharing your preconceptions.

Arthur Marker | Founder | Arya Audio Labs
First, welcome to the forum. I hope you will stick around and contribute to the discussion of what is an imaginative initiative in tweeter technology, and not merely another minor twist on long-established designs. It's evident, and more than understandable, that you know nothing about me or my somewhat jocular personality. My comments were never meant to disparage the merits of the Airblade. It was just light banter that is very common to this and other forums. But the Airblade is indeed ex;pensive, and I am very glad that Jim is paying the bill. And the appearance is rather aggressive when mounted sticking out of a traditional baffle. I haven't commented on the sound and technical performance of the tweeter because it only arrived last night and I have spent perhaps 5 minutes taking some initial measurements today. In deference to your concern that the Airblade's performance is so specific to the particular application and that we are in the early stages of design, I won't publish those measurements or discuss the specifics during the development process. . And I look forward to working with you or your colleagues to make sure we are implementing the Airblade in the best possible fashion. When that design is completed, and if Jim decides to offer the product commercially, I will of course report on the full range of the Airblades's performance. .
 

KaiserSoze

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Hmm, this post seems a little bit misplaced. Perhaps I've misread, but I haven't seen the swarm of negative posts that you seem to be seeing. There have been some criticisms, but that's normal in a public forum, and Dennis seems excited to work with the driver and seems to think it has great potential(read his first post in the thread). Note the title of this thread is "New MMT from Dennis Murphy with SOTA drivers!", especially the bolded ;) I get being defensive of products you've personally created. It's a natural reaction, and I do it too, but I feel like you may be reading more criticism here than actually exists.

Haven't followed the thread 100% so maybe I need to re-read, but that's my observation as a casual reader, here.

I'll second that.
 

tomtoo

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Dennis Murphy, I tend to avoid inserting myself in discussions on a public forum, however, since the laundry is already airing out here I might as well chip in my two cents. Firstly, AirBlade is not in an “experimental stage” as you put it, the units ship in the form they are ought to be and they have been for some time now. The only thing that is in the experimental stage is your project with Jim, which you seem to be awfully prejudiced against without having even tested the driver. So far this forum, that as you said has a very educated audience, heard from you only non-technical, sound quality unrelated remarks that 1) the driver is likely a gimmick but it’s OK because Jim is picking up the tab, 2) it’s expensive 3) it looks like this or that 4) probably won’t sell because of 2 & 3. I am asking you this: where is the information about how is actually sounds? Shouldn’t that be the thing you would want to touch on first? Nobody here at Arya Audio requested for you not to discuss AirBlade on a public forum because we won’t be “happy” about what you share, but because the discussion so far, considering you are actually designing the system for Salk Sound, has frankly been quite unprofessional. We’re happy to help you with everything you touched on including waveguide implementation that would take care of the cosmetic aspect you are clearly not a fan of, as well as lots of technical information that you would have surely found useful, should you have decided to discuss it with us before taking to a forum and sharing your preconceptions.

Arthur Marker | Founder | Arya Audio Labs


Relax, we know its your baby and maybe that little joking about how it looks hurt you. But when it performs nobody cares how it looks. @Dennis Murphy startet this thread talking about SOTA drivers. That are high expectations. Thats why i cant wait to see it integrated into a speaker.
 

napilopez

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Dennis Murphy, I tend to avoid inserting myself in discussions on a public forum, however, since the laundry is already airing out here I might as well chip in my two cents. Firstly, AirBlade is not in an “experimental stage” as you put it, the units ship in the form they are ought to be and they have been for some time now. The only thing that is in the experimental stage is your project with Jim, which you seem to be awfully prejudiced against without having even tested the driver. So far this forum, that as you said has a very educated audience, heard from you only non-technical, sound quality unrelated remarks that 1) the driver is likely a gimmick but it’s OK because Jim is picking up the tab, 2) it’s expensive 3) it looks like this or that 4) probably won’t sell because of 2 & 3. I am asking you this: where is the information about how is actually sounds? Shouldn’t that be the thing you would want to touch on first? Nobody here at Arya Audio requested for you not to discuss AirBlade on a public forum because we won’t be “happy” about what you share, but because the discussion so far, considering you are actually designing the system for Salk Sound, has frankly been quite unprofessional. We’re happy to help you with everything you touched on including waveguide implementation that would take care of the cosmetic aspect you are clearly not a fan of, as well as lots of technical information that you would have surely found useful, should you have decided to discuss it with us before taking to a forum and sharing your preconceptions.

Arthur Marker | Founder | Arya Audio Labs

Hmm, this post seems a little bit misplaced. Perhaps I've misread, but I haven't seen the swarm of negative posts that you seem to be seeing. There have been some criticisms, but that's normal in a public forum, and Dennis seems excited to work with the driver and seems to think it has great potential(read his first post in the thread). Note the title of this thread is "New MMT from Dennis Murphy with SOTA drivers!", especially the bolded ;) I get being defensive of products you've personally created. It's a natural reaction, and I do it too, but I feel like you may be reading more criticism here than actually exists.

Haven't followed the thread 100% so maybe I need to re-read, but that's my observation as a casual reader, here.

Welcome to the forum!

I will second @richard12511's post. I'm sorry you read Dennis's post that way, that was not the impression I got from the comments about this driver so far. It's actually one of the more exciting new bits of technology I've ever seen here, and I don't think anyone had a negative impression of the drivers based on Dennis' poking fun at itcomments. It is expensive (for good reason!) and it looks unusual. But that doesn't mean it's not super exciting too!

I get wanting to defend something you've put a lot of work into. But put another way, considering Dennis is one of the most respected crossover designers in audio communities... as soon as he said they were state of the art drivers and that was working with the airblade for a future design, that was all that needed to be said. He probably wouldn't be working on a project with an expensive and unusual-looking driver were it not something really exciting.

In this forum, it's nice to see designers and manufacturers participate and contribute. Sometimes that includes typical forum banter; it makes us trust the people behind the product more. There are challenges to any newfangled design, and it's exciting to see the process and challenges behind it.

So thus far, I just see the discussion as good press -- which I say as a journalist :). I hope you'll contribute more technical information about the drivers in the future.
 
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Dennis Murphy

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Relax, we know its your baby and maybe that little joking about how it looks hurt you. But when it performs nobody cares how it looks. @Dennis Murphy startet this thread talking about SOTA drivers. That are high expectations. Thats why i cant wait to see it integrated into a speaker.
Just one factual matter--I didn't start this thread. It was an unsolicited outgrowth of a different conversation on a different thread concerning the Purifi woofers. But there's no question I've been excited to work with the Purifi-Airblade combination.
 
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tomtoo

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Just one factual matter--I didn't start this thread. It was an unsolicited outgrowth of a different conversation on a different thread concerning the Purifi woofers. But there's not question I've been excited to work with the Purifi-Airblade combination.

Uhpps sry.
I thought you started it.
 
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KaiserSoze

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The way it happened was confusing, but the post that is now the de facto initial post for this thread was not originally the initial post for this thread, or for any other thread. Originally it was an ordinary post to a different thread that already existed.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but just to let you know, the tweeter I'll be working with on the Purifi MMT should be of interest ...

Dennis did not create this thread. It only appears so because appearances are deceiving.
 

arya-audio

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The founder of a new audio company creates an account on a public forum to bash a venerable crossover guru with his first post...

My post is far from bashing anyone, it's a remark on what I believe are, or at least should be, widely accepted rules of working hand in hand on a project. For me personally, any such collaboration is an opportunity to exchange knowledge, listen to the feedback, engage in the discussion and make sure the outcome is the best it could be - a collective work of people with different backgrounds, skills and experiences. That’s my work ethic and I don’t believe it’s unreasonable so I cannot help but feel slightly unsettled to find out details about Dennis’ design from a public forum.

The issue I am taking is not in the comments about AirBlade’s appearance, after all, I have been on Apple’s AirPod team where we received a lot of “constructive” feedback about how they look like shower heads, cigarette buds or what have you and yet when they came out it didn’t matter. I could have designed the driver to look a lot more “domesticated” but I chose not to, understanding that it might not cater to everyone’s tastes and that’s completely fine. The truly important aspect is the sound performance and this is only going to be as good as the implementation of it in a whole system which brings me to the next point.

@Dennis_Murphy, you are right, I am not familiar with your personality, I am however familiar with some of your crossover designs, which, as far as I can see are passive. The reason I am mentioning that relates to your comment about the AirBlade driver aggressively sticking out of the baffle which immediately raises a red flag for me. To implement the AirBlade driver correctly you need to take its acoustic center into consideration. In an active design, this can be done through adjusting the time delay of the crossover. In a passive design however, that you probably will be using, it has to be done by (physical) lateral alignment. If the driver is sticking out of the baffle, as you mentioned it, what I read from that is that the cabinet you are working on has all the drivers mounted to the same flat baffle, which, despite your unquestionable talent in crossover design, will result in time misalignment that cannot be addressed with a passive crossover. I think we all agree that’s not a great start. That is just one remark that I picked up on based on your few posts on this forum.
There are a lot more technical aspects that should be considered when working with this driver, therefore, I believe a discussion beforehand [in private] would have made a lot of sense so that when the project like this is done and ready to go, everyone involved walks away knowing that the final outcome couldn’t have been executed any better. I think that we can agree upon.
 
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Dennis Murphy

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My post is far from bashing anyone, it's a remark on what I believe are, or at least should be, widely accepted rules of working hand in hand on a project. For me personally, any such collaboration is an opportunity to exchange knowledge, listen to the feedback, engage in the discussion and make sure the outcome is the best it could be - a collective work of people with different backgrounds, skills and experiences. That’s my work ethic and I don’t believe it’s unreasonable so I cannot help but feel slightly unsettled to find out details about Dennis’ design from a public forum.

The issue I am taking is not in the comments about AirBlade’s appearance, after all, I have been on Apple’s AirPod team where we received a lot of “constructive” feedback about how they look like shower heads, cigarette buds or what have you and yet when they came out it didn’t matter. I could have designed the driver to look a lot more “domesticated” but I chose not to, understanding that it might not cater to everyone’s tastes and that’s completely fine. The truly important aspect is the sound performance and this is only going to be as good as the implementation of it in a whole system which brings me to the next point.

@Dennis_Murphy, you are right, I am not familiar with your personality, I am however familiar with some of your crossover designs, which, as far as I can see are passive. The reason I am mentioning that relates to your comment about the AirBlade driver aggressively sticking out of the baffle which immediately raises a red flag for me. To implement the AirBlade driver correctly you need to take its acoustic center into consideration. In an active design, this can be done through adjusting the time delay of the crossover. In a passive design however, that you probably will be using, it has to be done by (physical) lateral alignment. If the driver is sticking out of the baffle, as you mentioned it, what I read from that is that the cabinet you are working on has all the drivers mounted to the same flat baffle, which, despite your unquestionable talent in crossover design, will result in time misalignment that cannot be addressed with a passive crossover. I think we all agree that’s not a great start. That is just one remark that I picked up on based on your few posts on this forum.
There are a lot more technical aspects that should be considered when working with this driver, therefore, I believe a discussion beforehand [in private] would have made a lot of sense so that when the project like this is done and ready to go, everyone involved walks away knowing that the final outcome couldn’t have been executed any better. I think that we can agree upon.

I had no part in the design of the cabinet or driver placement. Given the complexities of implementing this driver optimally, I'm surprised you didn't at least ask Jim a few questions or give him some pointers rather than simply shipping the drivers to him. Obviously communications haven't been what they should have been, and going forward I hope we can work more constructively.
 
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