Nice Talk with Jim Salk About Speaker Design from Daily HiFi

[amirm]

I have been watching the Hifi Summit videos with my morning breakfast and ran into this down to earth chat with Jim Salk about practical aspects of speaker design. @joentell is doing the interview. Set aside a few minutes to watch.

 

[amirm]

Forgot that it is an hour long. Feel free to speed it up using the Gear icon.

 

[DHT 845]

Knowledgeable person he is.
I just got the idea for my next "no compromise" DIY speaker project
I must cool down, I like what I have... But there are so many options with active crossover, ehh

 

[raif71]

Forgot that it is an hour long. Feel free to speed it up using the Gear icon.

I listened from start till end (enjoyed what Salk had to say) and at the end, the moderator said your turn next... appreciate the link here. Thanks

 

[tomtoo]

Forgot that it is an hour long. Feel free to speed it up using the Gear icon.

We all know time is relative. For me this was a real short one hour. Its nice to listen to people that know what they talk about. Thx for the video.

 

[Spkrdctr]

That was refreshing. BS free great video. He states over and over that you have trade offs with EVERY SINGLE speaker. Also, he hit on my favorite issue in that the room design can make it so no speaker made can be optimal in that room. Rooms can over ride every other tweak or speaker you can buy. If more people really understood this they would stop looking for a tenth of a db in distortion, volume or frequency response and enjoy the music. That room negates all of the normal issues like flat frequency response. Everything comes down to in room response listening to real music. I think Amir should pin this somewhere as it is so informative. He spits out one truth after another. What an enjoyable video.

 

[tomtoo]

That was refreshing. BS free great video. He states over and over that you have trade offs with EVERY SINGLE speaker. Also, he hit on my favorite issue in that the room design can make it so no speaker made can be optimal in that room. Rooms can over ride every other tweak or speaker you can buy. If more people really understood this they would stop looking for a tenth of a db in distortion, volume or frequency response and enjoy the music. That room negates all of the normal issues like flat frequency response. Everything comes down to in room response listening to real music. I think Amir should pin this somewhere as it is so informative. He spits out one truth after another. What an enjoyable video.

I didnt know Mr. Salk. But what ever he sayed in this video was at least for me completly on the point and well groundet.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Thanks for posting that Amir. Wow--18 years I've been working with Jim. Now I feel even older. He's probably the most unflappable, no-nonsense person I've met in the audio industry, or anyplace else for that matter. Since this is a technical forum, I would like to qualify or clarify one issue he brought up, which is the importance of "phase coherence" in a passive crossover design. His comments might be construed as suggesting that having drivers in phase at the crossover point in and of itself improves clarity and imaging. I think the most accurate statement would be more involved and qualified, and would go something like: If you're using, say, 4th order Linkwitz-Riley acoustic slopes, then in order for the adjacent drivers to sum flat on axis those drivers need to be 6 dB down and in phase with each other at the crossover point. That doesn't mean that the human ear will hear anything special just because the drivers are moving in and out together, and for non-coincident drivers they will probably be a full cycle apart. It just means that the crossover should produce a flat on-axis response if you follow the rules. The speaker's imaging characteristics will depend more on the off-axis response, which as we all know can still be a mess even if the on-axis response is flat.

 

[Wolf]

I met Jim back in 2003 at Phil Bamberg's place, when Jim was taking his Veracity design (xover also done by Dennis Murphy) around and vetting it via listeners and getting ready to start up the company that we know today.

Jim is great to talk to, and enjoys the hobby and R&D just as much as Dennis and I do. I'm glad to know him.

 

[R Swerdlow]

He's (Jim Salk) probably the most unflappable, no-nonsense person I've met in the audio industry, or anyplace else for that matter.

My impression from meeting Jim several times is exactly the same. It makes speaking with him, memorable and even fun.

I've ordered products from Jim on three different occasions. His calm, no nonsense unflappability, his knowledge of speaker design, as well as his straight-forward honesty makes doing business with him a pleasure. On top of that, his finishes on the wood veneers of his speaker cabinets are the best I've ever seen on any speaker or furniture.

 

[q3cpma]

He states over and over that you have trade offs with EVERY SINGLE speaker.

The tacit implication that those tradeoffs are somehow equal in objective magnitude and mostly up to taste is BS, though. I've never seen this feelsgood mantra not used as a justification for lack of performance.
A more detailed and "true" version would be that look, manufacturing price and performance may be hard to balance, depending on your customer base. Doesn't sound as good to the ear, though.

 

[eriksson]

It wouldn't be difficult to buy speakers from this guy. Good interview!