MakeMineVinyl
Major Contributor
The old ones were horns. Don't know about now, or if they're even being made.Plasma speakers -- weren't they omni?
The old ones were horns. Don't know about now, or if they're even being made.Plasma speakers -- weren't they omni?
The Ionovac used a horn. The Hill Plasmatronic did not. The Plasmatronic's helium tank was omnidirectional, in a cylindrical sort of way.The old ones were horns. Don't know about now, or if they're even being made.
Wasn't ozone a hazardous byproduct of these speakers?The Ionovac used a horn. The Hill Plasmatronic did not. The Plasmatronic's helium tank was omnidirectional, in a cylindrical sort of way.
Its tough , listening is entertainment, or is it some puritanical pursuit where liking it less but knowing its correct is rewarding.Because the omni adds so much of the acoustics of the listening room to the sound you hear the acoustics of the original recording venue on live recordings is swamped.
IME omni speakers are impressive and euphonic but the spatial information of the recording is completely hidden and largely lost and a wide deep artificial space imposed over it.
This does not matter with most recordings, particularly modern ones, since recordings made in a studio with a manipulated mix from multiple microphones has no true "recording venue acoustics" anyway.
OTOH the older recordings made in iconic concert halls using 2 or 3 microphones are not rendered accurately at all.
My own recordings (2 channel no manipulation) sound nice but certainly the acoustic rendering are nothing like the original recording.
Euphonic but inaccurate sound IME.
I rather like it nevertheless but high fidelity to the recording? No.
Such dodecahedrons are used for acoustic measurements like reverberation or excitation of reverberation chambers (we use them too at work), for example
https://www.muellerbbm.com/products/dodecahedron-loudspeakers/
https://www.nti-audio.com/en/products/ds3-pa3-tm3-noise-sources/ds3-dodecahedron-speaker
https://web2.norsonic.com/product_single/dodecahedron-loudspeaker-nor276/
and were even tried by some hifi companies in the 70s
https://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/Grundig_Audiorama_7000
but for me personally their very diffuse soundfield was never to my liking.
How can you read this thread and not understand that Omnis have no possible ability to reproduce most music as it's currently recorded with any sort of accuracy to the original performance? It's mind boggling.I wonder how many people in this room have actually listened to a good pair of omnis...
I have the Morrison Audio speakers, and they sound phenomenal. They don't have many of the problems that omnis are supposed to have according to posters in this thread.
They don't accurately reproduce the acoustics of the recording venue for most music, but what they do exceptionally well is reproduce music as if it were being played live in your room. This is something that has to be experienced to really be appreciated.
Their imaging is palpable. The precision with which these speakers spatialize three dimensional information in the music is unlike anything I have ever heard from a pair of speakers. It's precise to the point of being able to discern individual keys on a piano and individual strings on a guitar. Whoever is saying that they would sound hazy and diffuse is flat-out wrong.
With the right kind of music these speakers are truly excellent. They're just not versatile and don't like to play loud.
Perhaps the ones that Amar Bose actually claimed to design, the 901's? That seemingly only worked right when hung from a ceiling at a certain distance from both the ceiling and the wall?
How can you read this thread and not understand that Omnis have no possible ability to reproduce most music as it's currently recorded with any sort of accuracy to the original performance? It's mind boggling.
The OP was an obvious troll repeating canned Omni misconceptions calling us all "audiphools". That's basically the foundation you're posting on. Let that sink in.
Nor can any other kind of loudspeaker (or headphone). When will people understand that the 'original performance' is a chimera. The original performance – if there is such a thing – is what comes out of the speakers in front of you, in the room you are in.How can you read this thread and not understand that Omnis have no possible ability to reproduce most music as it's currently recorded with any sort of accuracy to the original performance?
I recall how the designer, Dr. Hill, stated somewhere that the amount of triatomic oxygen generated by the speaker was negligible. I don't recall the good doctor suggesting that users listen with an open window, but I suppose that couldn't hurt. LOLWasn't ozone a hazardous byproduct of these speakers?
If you're listening to music that was recorded in stereo or multichannel and then mastered with conventional speakers in stereo or multichannel, it at least makes sense to listen to it on conventional speakers in stereo or multichannel. You then have a chance to hear the artists intent. If you throw Omni speakers into the end of that chain it doesn't make any sort of logical sense to believe you will magically have "live music sound" or any other such nonsense. That was my point.Nor can any other kind of loudspeaker (or headphone). When will people understand that the 'original performance' is a chimera. The original performance – if there is such a thing – is what comes out of the speakers in front of you, in the room you are in.
Well, I listened to omnis (sorry, don't remember the brands) on Highend 2018 in Munich. They were all tonally so far off what I expect from a speaker (I do own only studio monitors) that I didn't bother to stay longer to detect any magic.I'm not going to get into an argument about this. All I am saying is that if you haven't heard a good pair of omnis then you're already in a bad position to say how they sound.
I haven't heard his speakers, but Don Morrison is no fly by nighter, or astral traveling tweako. From what I know of him and have read, he is quite grounded. Don was responsible for a very low noise line level preamp and switching device (the ELAD), which made more than a few waves years ago. He is not a man whose ideas on audio reproduction should be discounted out of hand.I have the Morrison Audio speakers, and they sound phenomenal.