Unusual Speaker Designs

[Harmonie]

Was it for the cinema or part of the cinema ?
Reminds me a droid or Starwars comes to my mind.

 

[pozz]

View attachment 77558
View attachment 77560
I used to work for the company which made these. 8x18” per side, nCore amps, DSP filtered.

What was the use case? Were these supposed to be cardioid?

What's the name of the company and model?

 

[MarsianC#]

Reflector Audio U.S.A. releases the Q1818 impulse-correct open-baffle monitor system
https://www.reflectoraudiousa.com/

And for your humble loft @home
http://www.reflector.audio/

Woofers seem to be Faitial Pro for Q and P models and Acoustic Elegance for E series. No clue on horn/compression drivers. Hypex DSP for amplification and crossover plus room correction.

@Hrodulf any change to get some measurments/simulation data of these beasts?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Your just mad that your room isn't big enough to a 7.4.6 multich with them.

To be clear, my ideal would be the invisible loudspeaker. The more obvious/obtrusive the appearance, the more distracting I find it. It is one reason that I prefer leaving speaker covers on.

 

[Blumlein 88]

There were the Magnat Plasma Tweeters too.

http://www.plasmaspeaker.de/ionophone-family.html

Check out the video of the plasma producing flame start.

http://www.plasmaspeaker.de/media/files/zuenden_zeitlupe_small.mp4

 

[MattHooper]

How did they sound?

Short version:

Boxless, vivid, powerful, neutral. (There was a review site that measured the Mach Solo and the measurements were excellent).

Long version - My old review of the Waveform Mach Solo:

http://stereotimes.com/speak020200.shtml

(That's one of several speaker reviews I wrote "back in the day" - you may find it interesting in that it delves a little in to the design, though that was a subjectivist rag and hence no measurements)

I still own a pair of Waveform Mach MC monitors, which consist of just the upper "egg" module. They do a pretty freaky 3D imaging act, with great off-axis sound, wide sweet spot for both imaging and tonality.

 

[Harmonie]

I remember these on Sterophile's year's A class recommended list and were fairly priced. and quite liked them.

 

[Hrodulf]

What was the use case? Were these supposed to be cardioid?

Yeah, they're cardoid throughout the frequency range. The use case is just about anything as they do 130dB down to 30Hz and can be made to go lower if less absolute SPL will do. I guess the most optimum use case would be a studio main monitor, but we had even supplemented live instruments in an opera with them.

@Hrodulf any change to get some measurments/simulation data of these beasts?

We set up one pair for demo at Chris Lord-Alge's studio live room before the plague hit. The room is hardly optimum, but they performed pretty nicely.

These are measurements done with SMAART at circa 2.5m distance. There might be a set of more standardized measurements done by Anselm Goertz, but I don't have them. As I recall, the directivity is pretty well behaved. That also reflected into listening impressions which were overwhelmingly positive.

 

[MarsianC#]

There might be a set of more standardized measurements done by Anselm Goertz, but I don't have them.

Ok, I might be willing to do almost everything for measurments by Dr. Goertz. Altough, buying a pair might be a bit over my limit...

 

[pozz]

Ok, I might be willing to do almost everything for measurments by Dr. Goertz.

Seconded.

 

[Sal1950]

Hill Plasmatronics [EDIT] Type 1

Unlike most electrostatics (including Pass' prototype, which put him in the hospital via ozone intoxication) which used air as the medium to generate a plasma, the Hill used helium. Safer in a domestic setting.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/hill-plasmatronics-type-1-loudspeaker

Yep, that's the one I was thinking about, what monsters. LOL

Nelson Pass Ion Cloud

Damn Nelson was young then.
So was I

 

[mhardy6647]

I probably mentioned this before (and, being sofaking lazy, I am loath to check), but no discussion of plasma drivers is complete without at least a mention of the DuKane "Ionovac", also sold by Electrovoice as the T3500.
https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/T-3500 Ionovac EDS.pdf

Nearly massless transducer, but not very sensitive. Horn loading did help.

DIY plasma is possible, too.
http://www.plasmatweeter.de/eng_plasma.htm

Generic, borrowed photo of a pair -- mostly to illustrate the diffraction horns.

 

[pozz]

I probably mentioned this before (and, being sofaking lazy, I am loath to check), but no discussion of plasma drivers is complete without at least a mention of the DuKane "Ionovac", also sold by Electrovoice as the T3500.
https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/T-3500 Ionovac EDS.pdf

I love the older abbreviation and use of cps (cycles per second) instead of Hertz/Hz in the document. Though I'm sure the latter and Ampère, Volta, Joule, and Bell will all raise an eyebrow at me and my preference.

 

[Dmitri]

Just landed in my back yard. For those who like to be stared at by martians while listening to music, I suppose. Seems like a low volume market nitch, but I guess someone was bound to fill it...

 

[Frank Dernie]

View attachment 77782
Just landed in my back yard. For those who like to be stared at by martians while listening to music, I suppose. Seems like a low volume market nitch, but I guess someone was bound to fill it...

I heard them last autumn. Sounded great but too expensive IMO. The "egg" is a 3D printed transmission line, the bass unit is hidden and the mid is a BMR.
They didn't seem to me to be better than my Devialet Phantoms though at a fraction of the price and including amps.

 

[Angsty]

Does it come with the turntable built in?
View attachment 56365

When are wheels on a speaker ever a good idea, sonically?

 

[Dmitri]

When are wheels on a speaker ever a good idea, sonically?

When is a turntable set on top of a loudspeaker a good idea sonically?

 

[Frank Dernie]

When is a turntable set on top of a loudspeaker a good idea sonically?

When you enjoy lots of added reverb

 

[sergeauckland]

When are wheels on a speaker ever a good idea, sonically?

Why would they be a bad idea? I have always had my 'speakers on castors so I can move them for vacuum cleaning or any other reason.

S

 

[fordiebianco]

When are wheels on a speaker ever a good idea, sonically?

When they weigh 40kg like my KEF 105 Mk1. The wheels make positioning so much easier.