Omnidirectional loudspeakers ?

[SDX-LV]

Thanks for the clarification! Have extensively studied your work as well as that of Linkwitz and Don Keele. I have a pair of Don's CBTs and so have experienced what they can do. As you have indicated in your writings, there is a broader sets of problems to be solved if we are to improve sound reproduction. I do not know whether the speaker answer is different drivers, more drivers, more processing or different configurations, but am pretty clear it is beyond what the mainstream offers today.

It is encouraging to know that you are more open minded about dipoles than some may have thought. Your position on CBT speakers is not well known. It seems to have been summarized as they might be good surround speakers. As JBL has commercialized them, am guessing you may have more than a passing experience with the technology. Please let us know if you have more insights that you might share?

CBT...
You may find your answer here: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/of...vel-home-theater-thread.2515137/post-55856288

+ fun that this article exists: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ransducer-speakers-in-commercial-project.310/

 

[musicforcities]

My OMD-5 are my surrounds and a third one is my center. Of 5 centers I’ve owned, it is the only one that has been transparent. Tried Omni 150s for Atmos and did not work out as well. Have had various monopoles as mains and the mirage always worked well as center. As long as you can have Audyssey or some decent room eq., the mismatch has been less of an issue for me.

Before my CBTs, had bg radia z7 as mains. They use a planar tweeter and liked that too. The CBTs just do a better job of widening the sweet spot for more listeners. Hope this helps a bit.

I have used a single Omni -150 as a center and it worked quite well given its size. The timbre works well with human voices and as an “omnipolar” (with about 70% firing generally forward with 30 reflected), voices were clear regardless of seating position while still seeming to come from the tv. Angling the speaker up a bit was important however because the speaker is lower (below the tv) and raising the front allowed the sound to be projected upwards a bit to hit ear level more or less as seating positions. It’s not a huge speaker so room size can be an issue.

I have omnisats as surrounds and they work pretty well for that too. I suppose things are not as pinpointed but on the other hand it again works better for off center seating positions. Things still clearly come from light or right and pans/sweeps work great. I toe them in to half way between center and extreme side seating positions.

Some calibration software gets confused by the Omnipolar effects though. So you need to check /correct auto detected distances and polarity sometimes.

The little omnisats create a much more enveloping and larger soundstage than any typical speaker with similarly sized drivers/cabinet. They can be great for surround sound if you have a living room set up for seating rather than a “home theater” proper. And they are small. They work well on walls and elevated near the ceiling (note: you hang them upside down. Works like a charm). And they don’t do bizarre things to the timbre or eq , unlike small sats stuff from Bose, Sonos, etc.

I tried the Omnisats as atmos speakers placed in the front (but set up of software in various settings: as front height, upward firing and as overhead), and I could never hear much of anything from them even if I boosted the levels as much as allowed. Could be my error or my room. In theory they should be good for atmospheric sounds, like rainfall, and still decent for more directed because they are not true Omnipolar (as in equal 360 radiation of sound).

 

[musicforcities]

Listened once to one local audiophile's smallish standmount MBLs and was not so impressed : great spaciousness but tonal balance quite not right, with recessed mids and overall dullness.
Good for comfy-cosy listening maybe, just not my cup of tea.

The mirage omnis were soft on the higher frequencies…maybe to manage reflections and combing effects. Or to manage the power going to those tiny tweeter motors…

I have removed /jumped an attenuating resistor on the tweeter crossover of a pair of Omni 150s and POW…full extension and sparkling highs. I did the same for a pair of little Omni sats and the resiukts were similar but less dramatic. But I am a bit of a treble junky.

And I don’t use them for serious 2-channel audio, either as background or as surround sound.