HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

As I say you have gone too far, they need to come out a tad. Corners are too far away to influence. Back wall is fine. Try swopping the LS5 and LS6 around, then the midband will sing and the treble will be tamed back a little. But I would still go LS6 on both eventually.

Much that I hate to quote Linny things it may be that the Isobariks and Epos are talking along with the music.

Yep. I admit I deliberately pushed them back as far as they could go. Mainly to see what happened with the mike sound/sibilance I picked up on initially - this has certainly been tamed but it is a bit more noticeable on some tracks than I have been used to. I shall bring them forward a couple of inches for the next listening session. I'll find another home for the speakers. The picture shows the tidy bit of the room, I daren't say what other stuff is there. I'll have a go with the LS5/6 swap (I'm tempted only to swap the top end). I could also try swapping A70/A80 (A80 currenlty pushing the bottom end).

Doc what posessed you to build such a (lets say) complex designed loudspeaker...?
What happened to keep it simple......!
And on that note, any plans to build a simple 2 way standmount / bookshelf.?
I think you would shift a load of them...You just have to see / hear some of the crap out there. (Build somthing Roydish)...!!

jammy

jammy395 wrote:Doc what posessed you to build such a (lets say) complex designed loudspeaker...?
What happened to keep it simple......!
And on that note, any plans to build a simple 2 way standmount / bookshelf.?
I think you would shift a load of them...You just have to see / hear some of the crap out there. (Build somthing Roydish)...!!

jammy

I don't know what you are talking about, it is a very simple speaker (or in fact two speakers as I will explain). I really don't understand how people can construe things so far from reality.

Cabinet simplicity = no wadding, no cabinet damping. Thick 20mm solid black acrylic, acrylic welded.

Driver simplicity = commercial available bass / mid driver, nothing special, Kevlar cone but treated and doped by me to flatten the response curve so can be used with no crossover. Upward firing in order to couple the acoustic to the driver and put low frequency in phase with its drive into the floor, as opposed to 90deg phase shift with normal speakers. Cube 2 = 6inch, Cube1 = 8inch, Cubix = 2x8inch. Tweeters just have protecting capacitor to keep LF away from them and a resistor to balance efficiency with the bass / mid.

Crossover simplicity = as explained above, basically there isn't one.

Cubix is two Cube 1s on top of each other and wired internally in parallel. No bottom to the top cabinet so the bass drivers operate in unison in what was styled by Linn as Isobarik, but they didn't invent it. Second tweeter is side firing. So a Cubix is two two way speakers built into one cabinet (two cabinets glued together).

All the Cube range speakers operate as semi omnidirectional which is why you have the fun with room coupling, but what it means is you will not find a room they wont work in unless it is a massive high ceiling ballroom or similar. Where as normal speakers always have rooms they wont work in.

So I am afraid what you are saying is arse about face, and I challenge anyone to find a simpler speaker.

OOO-ER,
I did try to build a simple speaker - but fell at the first hurdle (see pic)
Ok Doc I stand corrected the CUBIX is a simple speaker..!!
Well cant you build a complex budget stand mount/bookshelf....!

So Jammy, you got most of what you were asking for. And, as Doc says, I don't think you can get much simpler unless you can find a decent full-range driver, Except I don't think any of these speakers would work too well in a bookshelf (or in the middle of a room). And they're great fun to shift around to optimise the sound. I'm sure the lack of wadding is the only thing saving my back.

Blimey! I think I've now experience the lens effect you talked about Doc. I've had a few days away from listening. With fresh ears I felt that the sound was congested. So I toed the speakers out by 10 or 15 degrees. The sound stage opened up immediately. These really are very different speakers. They react dramatically to different positioning. I'm still finding them a tad sibilant on close-miked vocals.
(That was the only change: no change forward or backwards and still with other speakers in the room).
More later.

I think you are just hearing for the first time the recording as it was recorded.

EDIT - I mean the close miked sibulance. If it is only there with close miked recordings then that is what the mic picked up.

Dunno. Listening to a load of new stuff this evening. Quite deliberate to make me concentrate on the music.