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Purité Audio

Purité Audio

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From the Grimm site,
The LS1s-dmf subwoofer was developed in cooperation with Rob Munnig Schmidt, who worked at Philips and ASML and was professor at the Technical University Delft. Rob explains his design motives:
"Being lifelong fascinated by precision control of motion systems and sound reproduction I never was happy with the unbalance in audio design between electronics and mechanics. On one side designers do everything to reduce distortion in electronics by means of feedback to almost unmeasurably low levels, while on the other side the real music is reproduced by electromechanical structures, called loudspeakers, without any control of their behaviour. Although many people agree that the loudspeaker is one of the most determining factors for the quality in an audio chain, strangely enough people accept that all loudspeakers have a well distinguishable character due to resonances, non-linearity, diffraction etc.
For this reason I immediately said yes when Grimm Audio asked me to design a motional feedback version of their LS1s subwoofer with a digital DSP controller, based on my experience with this principle. It covers the frequency range where control is most needed, the low frequencies around the fundamental resonance. By applying a sensitive acceleration sensor with low distortion on a rugged and powerful driver the real sound output is controlled such that the resonance disappears and distortion is significantly reduced. The effect is readily audible by its clean and dry bass where a base drum with damping blanket really gives short well controlled bumps, while organ tones to even below 20 Hz are reproduced faithfully such that you feel it rather than hear it. It is so rewarding to see people who hear the new DMF sub show real surprise when realising how much better bass reproduction can be."
Rob Munnig Schmidt
 

Daverz

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Is the Grimm LS1 open baffle? I can't tell from the pics.
 
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Even a 18" woofer would have to be pretty broken to suffer from cone breakups in the range of interest here...
Frank ( F1 eng) is your man when it comes to the structure and resonance, but essentially nothing remains rigid at certain frequencies, best to use the driver within its passband , the motional feedback just seems a good idea, perhaps JBL will adopt it , in time.
Keith
 
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Frank Dernie

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Frank ( F1 eng) is your man when it comes to the structure and resonance, but essentially nothing remains rigid at certain frequencies, best to use the driver within its passband , the motional feedback just seems a good idea, perhaps JBL will adopt it , in time.
Keith
It is easy to have bass drivers which are pistonic. Mid and tweeter much more difficult.
The motion feedback is not to correct cone breakup.
 
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I would have thought a larger cone area would be more susceptible to break up?
The designer Rob Munnig Schmidt talks about it above, I presume Rob developed the original circuit for Philips and their ASML speaker designs?
Keith
 

Soniclife

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I would have thought a larger cone area would be more susceptible to break up?
The designer Rob Munnig Schmidt talks about it above, I presume Rob developed the original circuit for Philips and their ASML speaker designs?
Keith
I don't see how motion feedback and cone breakup are connected, other than allowing heavier cone materials.
 
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Motional feedback is designed to lower distortion from the enclosure and driver itself, it is obviously good practise to only use drivers within their passband.
Keith
 

Frank Dernie

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I would have thought a larger cone area would be more susceptible to break up?
The designer Rob Munnig Schmidt talks about it above, I presume Rob developed the original circuit for Philips and their ASML speaker designs?
Keith
Yes, of course, but breakup even of a larger cone be way above any frequency a woofer is likely to be sent by a crossover, so won't be excited much, if at all.
 

JohnPM

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Motional feedback has been around a very long time and has featured in modestly priced products from Philips, Sony, Yamaha, Panasonic, ...
 
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What do you use at home John, in terms of loudspeakers?
Keith
 

March Audio

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Must be these

1554727368025.png
 

JohnPM

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Not F1's, no, though I've heard them more than most I suppose. My old TMA kit is hooked up to a pair of ATC SCM40, though I can't remember when I last switched it all on. I mostly listen to the pair of Adam ARTist 3's either side of my monitor. :D
 
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I didn’t realise you ( tag Mc) made loudspeakers too!
Keith
 

pierre

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Keith, what about other excellent ones? From JBL M2 to psi audio, there is no lack of superlative speakers.
 
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PSI, are ok, just your standard active monitor, slightly more advanced that’s ATC ( what isn’t) but nothing really exciting, M2 is a two way, compression driver crossing to a bass reflex loaded cabinet , there is a new wave guide which is good.
I guess the external DSP corrects phase, step response etc?
I haven’t had a chance to play around with a pair, what can they do?
Keith
 

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Motional feedback has been around a very long time and has featured in modestly priced products from Philips, Sony, Yamaha, Panasonic, ...

This might or might not be related, but I've noticed that many "consumer" speakers (especially things like Bluetooth/connected speakers - e.g. Apple HomePod, Devialet Phantom) have a bass response that extends surprisingly low with regard to their physical size. For example the Devialet Gold Phantom stays flat to 30 Hz despite having a similar volume as a bookshelf speaker. There are claims that the Apple HomePod is capable of "correcting itself" to some extent. I wonder if these speakers are using something similar to this "Motional feedback" concept to achieve this? Or is it something completely unrelated? Also I always wondered why "serious" speaker manufacturers (e.g. JBL Pro, Genelec, Neumann) do not seem to use similar approaches to extend low frequency response.
 
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