Osborn loudspeakers

[Astroboydivx]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone has objective measurements for any of Osborn's speakers, but primarily either their Eclipse range or their Epitome Tower range?

https://www.osbornloudspeakers.com.au/eclipse
https://www.osbornloudspeakers.com.au/epitome-towers

All their subjective reviews seem great, but can find little objectively.

Thanks!

 

[Beave]

Their website says they partially pre-break-in the crossover components for you. It's nice that they leave some of the joys of break-in to the customer.

 

[dfuller]

I see some oddities in that design. Lots of space between the tweeter and midrange... like way more than I'd want to see for something even approaching decent vertical dispersion.

Also...the lead lined cabinets? I just - why?

 

[Blumlein 88]

I see some oddities in that design. Lots of space between the tweeter and midrange... like way more than I'd want to see for something even approaching decent vertical dispersion.

Also...the lead lined cabinets? I just - why?

Felt/lead lined. To dampen vibration of the cabinet is the why.

 

[Beave]

Looks like a 7" mid, crossed to the tweeter at 3.5kHz, according to the specs of the Epitome towers.

Wouldn't that likely mean a significant directivity error at crossover? That's a large mid AND a high crossover point.

 

[komhst]

Are they using SEAS drivers?

 

[dfuller]

Felt/lead lined. To dampen vibration of the cabinet is the why.

I got that, but it seems wildly excessive to me.

 

[Beave]

Are they using SEAS drivers?

The woofers look like Seas Excel paper cones with Nextel coating. The tweeters look like Seas Excel models.

But the midranges appear to be Scanspeak Illuminator woofers.

 

[ctrl]

The drivers are, as has already been said, of very good quality.

The high frame around the drivers (for speaker coverage) will cause interference along with the tweeter.

The Scan Speak 180mm midrange driver shows only minor break up resonances, but they are present and show delayed decay, which could be a (minor) problem at a crossover frequency of 3.3/3.5kHz @12dB/Oct.

Due to the width of the loudspeaker cabinet, a slight widening of the radiation should show up between 1.5-2kHz - related to a flat on-axis frequency response. However (because of the rather wide cabinet), it should show an even, broad radiation (related to a -6dB limit) up to 2 kHz.

The directivity and sound power (and thus also PIR) could be very special, since the radiation of the 180mm midrange clearly beams at a frequency of 3.5kHz and the tweeter radiates very broadly at this frequency. The effect should be somewhat mitigated by the flat second-order filter - if the specification refer to the acoustic order of the filter and not the electrical.

This can sound quite pleasant, but you should make sure in any case in a listening session that you like this sound.


Why! Why!

Each crossover weighs about 5 kg. each and is hard wired with specially selected ultra wide bandwidth, high speed data transfer cable.

Source: Website

 

[Frank Dernie]

Also...the lead lined cabinets? I just - why?

A lead lining is one of the most effective ways of blocking sound transmission, so preventing it getting through the cabinet walls.
I did experiment with a wall treatment containing a lead sheet in my DIY cabinets about 45 years ago. The treatment had a damping layer, to damp the walls, then a lead layer to block transmission then an "absorbing" layer to reduce inner reflections. What they called "absorbing" was anti-reflection though it "absorbed" nowt.
Mass to block transmission has been a known, standard, taught in college technique for at least 50 years.
I was sure my speakers sounded better with it, of course

 

[thewas]

Sorry, but only these are the real thing:

 

[dfuller]

A lead lining is one of the most effective ways of blocking sound transmission, so preventing it getting through the cabinet walls.
I did experiment with a wall treatment containing a lead sheet in my DIY cabinets about 45 years ago. The treatment had a damping layer, to damp the walls, then a lead layer to block transmission then an "absorbing" layer to reduce inner reflections. What they called "absorbing" was anti-reflection though it "absorbed" nowt.
Mass to block transmission has been a known, standard, taught in college technique for at least 50 years.
I was sure my speakers sounded better with it, of course

Okay, second time, I'm aware of that, but my point is that it's entirely unnecessary to go that extreme.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Okay, second time, I'm aware of that, but my point is that it's entirely unnecessary to go that extreme.

You may well be right but that doesn't stop those who believe these things are important making concrete, composite and other complex cabinets which probably cost a lot more than a lead lining.
There are loads of them.

 

[Trell]

A lead lining is one of the most effective ways of blocking sound transmission, so preventing it getting through the cabinet walls.
I did experiment with a wall treatment containing a lead sheet in my DIY cabinets about 45 years ago. The treatment had a damping layer, to damp the walls, then a lead layer to block transmission then an "absorbing" layer to reduce inner reflections. What they called "absorbing" was anti-reflection though it "absorbed" nowt.
Mass to block transmission has been a known, standard, taught in college technique for at least 50 years.
I was sure my speakers sounded better with it, of course

Asbestos has some very nice properties, but there are some real down sides, like cancer. By now we now that lead is also very hazardous (long term leakage, improper disposal, etc) and I'm flabbergasted that anyone would use lead lining in a speaker today!

 

[Blumlein 88]

Okay, second time, I'm aware of that, but my point is that it's entirely unnecessary to go that extreme.

I'm not so sure you are correct. One can evaluate a cabinet with and without the lining in testing. Whatever the influence of the cabinet vibration on sound, lead will reduce it. Is it a cost effective reasonable solution versus other approaches? I'm not in a position to say, but using such damping material isn't total audio woo like so many things.

 

[More Dynamics Please]

At least there would be little disagreement that lead-lined speakers sold in California would actually be worthy of the Prop 65 warning label.