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Selah Audio Purezza Review

Selah Audio

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Rick -- Please pardon me if this is an ignorant or naive question, but why the apparent 4 dB difference in sensitivity between the factory spec for the woofer and the Purezza's corresponding number? Is that from the effect of the enclosure and PR vs. a free air measurement?
Baffle step compensation and a small amount of loss from the d.c. resistance of the series inductors.
 

Icboschert

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@Selah Audio what would you recommend for a center channel with this? A single Purezza or could there be a horizontal Purifi MTM that might not break the bank?
 

Selah Audio

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I thought youtubers received free swag for heaping lavish praise on products they recommend.:D
I'm sending Erin some other woofers to test and donated them for a giveaway. You'll get to see how these compare against the Purifi. ;)
 

Selah Audio

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Great review and congratulations to Rick. I'm enjoying my Ceramicas all the time but have to admit that these new Purifi Woofers look awesome. Rick, what would the next step up be from this design?
Next step up from the Purezza? In a 2-way?
 

Selah Audio

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@Selah Audio what would you recommend for a center channel with this? A single Purezza or could there be a horizontal Purifi MTM that might not break the bank?
It depends on what cabinet dimensions are needed. A single unit is fine when placed vertically like the L/R speakers. If a lower profile is needed the a pair of woofers flanking a midrange and tweeter.
 

avidedtr

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DSP is great and certainly applicable to this design. I have a MiniDSP 2x4HD that I may experiment with on the Purezza. The extra EQ gives you flexibility and helps tame any room issues with the bass response.
this is great to know since my desk application will have a DSP.
 

Selah Audio

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Great review as usual.

Very interesting design decision to use that passive radiator. I remember sending him nearfield measurements of mine last year which might have piqued his interest. I'd be curious to hear more about why he ended up choosing it over a vented design. My guess is it allowed for a smaller cabinet which matched well with the active woofer, or even to allow closer placement to the front wall as he alluded to with his BSC. Basically, the same reasons it was chosen by Buchardt Audio. Rick may have other reasons.


Indeed, however another thing a waveguide would do is to broaden the high-frequency dispersion. Notice that the ribbon starts to beam above 10 kHz whereas a waveguide would maintain a more constant directivity throughout the whole tweeter range to 20 kHz. Tradeoffs. Example with waveguide (Buchardt S400):

View attachment 81924

I had similar thoughts since I use XT32 to flatten and linearize the bass region but maybe it doesn't matter to us as much. Perhaps making the speaker work well for those not using room correction is the right approach.

Just a guess – likely because you'd have to use 2 of them to get enough area which would be challenging to fit and not increase the size of the speaker.
Ah now I remember. I found the conversation on AVS. Actually the use of the passive radiator came about from using it with the Integrity design and previous to that some work that Jeff Bagby had done with it. The Purifi woofer's parameters are best suited to a passive radiator since the right size port won't fit in the small cabinet volume.
 

Bruce Morgen

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Definitely on my wish list -- hoping more makers adopt that revolutionary woofer. Thanks, Erin!
 

Pearljam5000

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Fun fact:
"Selah" means "eternity" in Hebrew and is used in many prayers and in the bible
.
 

Xyrium

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I'll soon be getting a lot more hands-on experience with the Purifi in a properly sized box. I'll be using two of the 8-Ohm version in a small floor stander along with a new "Airblade" 180-degree AMT radiator that can be crossed around 1200 Hz. Maybe that will make a Purifi believer out of me. I will be bringing out a tower version of the BMR, but it will use the same 8" ScanSpeak Revelator woofer I used in my Philharmonic 3. I've just never found anything that comes close to it, and it likes transmission-line loading.

Have to agree on those Scans. I've only used the 18W woofer in Krutke's ZRT design, but it sure was clean, and dynamic in sound. It was the final nail in the coffin for my little ATC SCM11's.
 

Pearljam5000

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Actually, AFAIK there's no consensus definition, "eternity" or "forever" being one of the more popular educated guesses at what it means.
Obviously I didn't want to go too deep on the subject because it's irrelevant in an audio forum but you are correct.
 
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hardisj

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Just FWIW, @Selah Audio said he was going to sell the ones I tested as "demo units". He said his asking price is $2000 shipped CONUS. Just figured I'd share the info. So, if any of you are interested, give him a shout. Seems like a great price for some top-shelf bookshelf speakers. Here are the photos I took for my review if it helps anyone decide.

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amitm

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Finally got this video shot and posted. Finally.


Thanks for the review! I can see that a lot of work went into it. It provides a lot of useful input for someone like me who is looking at speakers with a renewed interest.

Regarding vertical radiation -- is that an issue at even, say, 6 feet? If dispersion is relatively even up to 20 degrees (+-3 dB), then at 6 feet, we should be good with
mid_axis +/- 72*tan(20) inches,
i.e., mid_axis +/- ~26 inches
which should leave plenty of room for slumping if one wants to. Unless I do not understand something.

--amit
 

Billy Budapest

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Fun fact:
"Selah" means "eternity" in Hebrew and is used in many prayers and in the bible
.
Actually, no one really knows what “Selah” means. It’s an ancient Hebrew interjection whose precise meaning has been lost. The consensus of many biblical scholars is that it is an instruction to the singers of the psalm to pause and reverently reflect on what has been said.
 
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