It's not the speakers which are "super duper", it's the system which creates the quality. When I heard the MBL 101s I said, "Ah ha! A system which gets the sound right, finally!!" That the speakers happened to be radial radiating was neither here nor there.
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Omnidirectional speakers
- Thread starter oivavoi
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Mr Toole himself has/had Bipolar Mirage M1's...
by Dr. Floyd Toole — April 04, 2016
Manotick LR
Some reflected sound is good. Sometimes a lot of the right kind is even better. Concert halls are deliberately reflective, highly reverberant, spaces. This is my “classical” listening room in our custom-built Canadian home. Conceived as a space for enjoying large, spatially involving, works of music, it was the largest “concert hall” I could afford at the time. The very neutral, essentially omnidirectional, Mirage M1s “became” the orchestra and the room became a seamless extension of the recorded space. It provided a very satisfying, involving, experience.
http://www.audioholics.com/room-acoustics/room-reflections-human-adaptation
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It must have been tough. I am glad he has since been able to leave such hardship and deprivation behind.
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Are you saying that the radiation pattern of a loudspeaker is dependent on the quality of the music being played?
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Mr Toole himself has/had Bipolar Mirage M1's...
by Dr. Floyd Toole — April 04, 2016
Manotick LR
Some reflected sound is good. Sometimes a lot of the right kind is even better. Concert halls are deliberately reflective, highly reverberant, spaces. This is my “classical” listening room in our custom-built Canadian home. Conceived as a space for enjoying large, spatially involving, works of music, it was the largest “concert hall” I could afford at the time. The very neutral, essentially omnidirectional, Mirage M1s “became” the orchestra and the room became a seamless extension of the recorded space. It provided a very satisfying, involving, experience.
http://www.audioholics.com/room-acoustics/room-reflections-human-adaptation
I can't believe Dr. Toole puts bipolar speakers in front of highly reflective, untreated glass like that.
What a n00b.....
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
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I can't believe Dr. Toole puts bipolar speakers in front of highly reflective, untreated glass like that.
What a n00b.....
That was my first thought. Having some experience with these that would pretty much be a case of if it sounds somehow okay it can sound far better with better placement. Left one nearly in a corner is suspect too. Those speakers had in my opinion a bit too much low end, which from a distance in that large space might work out okay. They worked better if you put some small damping straws in the ports.
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Circular logic is best because its circular.
A great discussion can turn fruitless when the thread becomes forum vs fas42, iv been moving these kind of distractions over to fight club.
Fas42 says the same things every time, I don't want every thread being about getting ' convincing ' sound by 'sorting' systems.. Only when thing are 'sorted' can we know how $100 book shelf speakers can play infinity loud. Etc etc
This thread was a really good read..
Fas42 says the same things every time, I don't want every thread being about getting ' convincing ' sound by 'sorting' systems.. Only when thing are 'sorted' can we know how $100 book shelf speakers can play infinity loud. Etc etc
This thread was a really good read..
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Doesn't look omni to me:
Modern version:
Also not omni.
Also not omni.
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Modern version:
Also not omni.
A few moments after the above dog abuse the screams might be close to omnidirectional.
This is my first post, so somebody please tell me if bad form responding to a thread dormant this long.
I’ve spent countless hours on the forum, perusing 100+ threads and many hundreds of posts, so figured time to sign up and contribute. This has been an invaluable resource in my recent major changes in several systems.
Anyway…I have some recent experience with Duevel Omni speakers, specifically the Planets and Enterprises, both purchased this year. I’ll try to keep this concise, maybe useful to someone considering a purchase. The original impetus was from using a portable Bluetooth Omni speaker, finding it so versatile and enjoyable, I decided a pair of regular Omni speakers needed some investigation. Since Duevel has no dealers in the US, there was no way to audition. After reading several reviews on the Planets, it was enough for me to throw the dice, getting a pair from Mutine in Canada, the North America distributor.
Well, I did not regret the purchase, and while there are obvious limitations in output capability and low end extension, the Omni sound made them very enjoyable and compelling. I was looking for speakers that would work in a wide listening area beyond the “sweet spot”, and they sure delivered on that. No matter where you stood, even directly to the side, they still sounded good. In a more convention listening position, the soundstage was remarkably deep and wide, unlike any conventional forward firing speaker. I liked them enough to buy an up-model, the Enterprise, thinking it would be similar to the Planets but with more SPL and lower frequency extension, but they are so much more than that. At first, with a very modest signal chain in front of them, I was a little disappointed, not enough more than Planets to justify the price jump. In working with the distributor, he told me they needed and would greatly benefit from a better amp and signal chain. Well, that made more of a difference than I expected, and came alive and had exceptional sound then. I purchased a Bemchmark AHB2 amp, streaming lossless Tidal/Qobuz at best resolution available through a better DAC and was floored.
It’s unfortunate that there is no way to demo Duevel, so it’s one of those throw the dice and take your chances. I would never have bought the more expensive Enterprise without knowing the Omni sound first, so for me at least, the Planets were the price of admission. I use them in the kitchen now, but knowing what I know now, would have went straight to the Enterprise model. If anyone is curious and wants to test out the Omni sound, I don’t think they will regret dipping their toes in with the relatively modest priced Planets. They are a bargain to my mind, and I’m a very value oriented audio guy (except for the splurge on the Benchmark amp—no regrets though). Check out the reviews floating around—every one I saw was pretty glowing and praise was deserved from my time with them.
I’ve spent countless hours on the forum, perusing 100+ threads and many hundreds of posts, so figured time to sign up and contribute. This has been an invaluable resource in my recent major changes in several systems.
Anyway…I have some recent experience with Duevel Omni speakers, specifically the Planets and Enterprises, both purchased this year. I’ll try to keep this concise, maybe useful to someone considering a purchase. The original impetus was from using a portable Bluetooth Omni speaker, finding it so versatile and enjoyable, I decided a pair of regular Omni speakers needed some investigation. Since Duevel has no dealers in the US, there was no way to audition. After reading several reviews on the Planets, it was enough for me to throw the dice, getting a pair from Mutine in Canada, the North America distributor.
Well, I did not regret the purchase, and while there are obvious limitations in output capability and low end extension, the Omni sound made them very enjoyable and compelling. I was looking for speakers that would work in a wide listening area beyond the “sweet spot”, and they sure delivered on that. No matter where you stood, even directly to the side, they still sounded good. In a more convention listening position, the soundstage was remarkably deep and wide, unlike any conventional forward firing speaker. I liked them enough to buy an up-model, the Enterprise, thinking it would be similar to the Planets but with more SPL and lower frequency extension, but they are so much more than that. At first, with a very modest signal chain in front of them, I was a little disappointed, not enough more than Planets to justify the price jump. In working with the distributor, he told me they needed and would greatly benefit from a better amp and signal chain. Well, that made more of a difference than I expected, and came alive and had exceptional sound then. I purchased a Bemchmark AHB2 amp, streaming lossless Tidal/Qobuz at best resolution available through a better DAC and was floored.
It’s unfortunate that there is no way to demo Duevel, so it’s one of those throw the dice and take your chances. I would never have bought the more expensive Enterprise without knowing the Omni sound first, so for me at least, the Planets were the price of admission. I use them in the kitchen now, but knowing what I know now, would have went straight to the Enterprise model. If anyone is curious and wants to test out the Omni sound, I don’t think they will regret dipping their toes in with the relatively modest priced Planets. They are a bargain to my mind, and I’m a very value oriented audio guy (except for the splurge on the Benchmark amp—no regrets though). Check out the reviews floating around—every one I saw was pretty glowing and praise was deserved from my time with them.
Keith_W
Major Contributor
Not at all, it is preferable to use old threads rather than start new ones. Welcome to ASR!
Well, you must have been looking over my fence last summer. When initially purchasing the entry level Duevel Planets, I really had no specific system or location in mind. I was just so intrigued from another smaller portable Bluetooth Omni (Soundmatters Level10 Peak 360) that gets regular use, I trolled the internet to see what was out there and came across several glowing reviews of the Planets, thinking I gotta try these out—bet Omni would be perfect for the backyard. While I never tried any outdoor specific Omni speakers like you showed, I did try 3 different high end outdoor speakers a few summers ago and removed them the next day. I should have known that was futile given the previous “outdoor” speakers were some large JSE 0.6 “bookshelf” speakers that I hung under my long overhang on the house, protected from sun and rain. That wasn’t the best acoustically, but a whole league above even the best outdoor speaker. That was a job to hang those every spring and pull for storage every fall, so I went to small indoor floor standers, my old Energy 22 Reference Conns, and got some good custom covers for protection when not in use. So the Duevel Planets arrive last summer, so anxious to hear them, I quickly unboxed, set them down a few feet apart in my garage, grabbed a couple random speaker wires from a box, hooked to a zone in my garage rig, playing some tunes about 10 minutes later. I grabbed a folding chair and just sat down and didn’t move for a couple hours. Yeah, they sounded good, and that was with no consideration to placement and the wife’s car still sitting in the other side of my two car garage. Started getting dark, so I pulled my car in and just set the Planets in front of the cars near my counters. Even standing in between the cars with direct view of the Planets blocked, the still sounded good. That’s the beauty of Omnis—the “sweet spot” is everywhere. This is rambling, so circling back to outdoor Omni, I moved the Planets outside the next morning and put in place of my Energy 22s on the deck. The Planets are modest size drivers and cabinets, so they have obvious limits on SPL capability and low frequency extension, but oh my, that Omni sound was good. I went all the way down to the end of my pool, about 40’ away from the Planet and sounded almost as good as in front of them in the traditional sweet spot. If not for those two limitations of a small speaker, they would be my permanent backyard poolside deck speaker. It was a close call vs the much higher SPL and better low end of the Energy 22s, nearly a coin toss.
Bottom line is I liked them so much, within in a short time the next model up, Enterprise, was ordered and now my primary 2 channel rig in the living room. I have a pretty nice 11.1 ATMOS rig in the room too, and actually prefer the 2 channel Omni set up over some of my discrete multichannel SACD and DVD-Audio on the AVR surround rig.
Found some photos of the Duevel Planet Omnis garage unboxing and audition—any interest?.
I tried to attach some, but got a “security error”. I need to figure out the proper method to attach—probably directions somewhere here on the forum.
I tried to attach some, but got a “security error”. I need to figure out the proper method to attach—probably directions somewhere here on the forum.
WillBrink
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They have a "wow" factor that lasts about 10 minutes, then they're good for parties perhaps and little more.
I read the thread on tips for attaching photos, mostly detailing how to resize on a windows computer. I do everything from my iPhone photo library. Just tried a copy and paste of one photo, showing the speakers just plopped down in the garage—seemed to work ok.
In the photo, The chair is up close to the open cabinet door where i was messing with settings to connect to a zone. I just moved my chair back about 5’ or so in front of the Planets for the next couple hours of listening pleasure.
In the photo, The chair is up close to the open cabinet door where i was messing with settings to connect to a zone. I just moved my chair back about 5’ or so in front of the Planets for the next couple hours of listening pleasure.
Are you speaking of your experience with Omnis in general, or a specific speaker? Given the limitations of the Duevel Planets, I certainly would not use them as a primary speaker sitting in my living room, but get the “party” comment—the wide listening area is perfect for “party” mode where multiple listeners are spread out in the area.
I found the Enterprise to be another animal. I’m using mine in the living room as primary stereo speakers. The distributor did caution me that they won’t show their full potential without a good front end, exactly what I found to be true. I run the Planets off a Bluesound Powernode, which is fine for those. I first tried the Enterprise with that and then the Yamaha TOTL flagship AVR powering my 11.1 rig, and was a little disappointed. Well, when I put a good DAC and Benchmark AHB2 amp in front of them, it was a whole different story.
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