Re: Burhoe Inspired Room Flooder
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 2:23 pm
At the moment, these speakers are a lash-up; built from bits of my old Flatback speakers, plus some MDF side cheeks. However, though they use the same drivers, the sound is very different, due to the difference in the way that these speakers interact with the room.
The ratio between the direct and the reflected sound has been tilted (literally) slightly more towards the direct and I think I have hit the golden ratio; in my almost 10ft high ceilinged room at least.
The good localisation cues provided by the Allison/Dunn derived approach of the forward-firing tweeter were something I didn't want to lose, with this redesign, but at the same time, the vertical firing main drive unit is heavily dependant on the proximity of a rear room boundary in order to get 'presence' and focus to the soundfield; fine in average sized rooms, as all us semi-omni users know, but in larger rooms, the rear wall proximity output ends up being significantly weakened by the lack of any other nearby room walls to the left, right and (nine times out of ten) above, because of high ceilings. The result of this is that the speakers can, all too easily become "lost" in the room, and all you end up with then, is the thing puffing and wheezing away to itself and simply not communicating.
The frustration I have with this, b'stard of a large room problem has prompted me to look seriously at the Burhoe flooder, but incorporating the Allison/Dunn forward tweeter approach to the mix.
The conventional room flooder has both the tweeter and the main driver firing up on the diagonal as in various Direct Acoustics (Burhoe's current firm) Shahinian and Larsen models.
All I have done is to combine the two methods into one speaker design. They work very well in my own room, better than the straight up firer, and they are going to a much larger room than mine tomorrow (Friday) to see how they perform.
The way they work there, will tell me if the design is worth scaling up for bigger rooms or not.
It's been a long old road with semi omnis, the journey down which for me, has been spoiled somewhat by a great deal of unnecessary unpleasantness. However the support of the Doc, and also reading Stu's adventures, and the undeniable excellence of musical presentation offered by semi-omnis, tells me I'm on the right lines.
That a ruddy speaker design could have caused such a frack arse, saddens me greatly. But though I was a few months ago, very tempted to just abandon the whole thing for the sake of maintaining good relations, and (if the truth be told) my own mental health, I'm glad I stuck with it.
What I'm hoping the visit to Hull will show is that although both the flooder and the Allison/Dunn approach to semi-omnis is equally valid, there is another way: a way that combines the two of them into one "super semi-omni" - one that improves on both.
We'll soon find out one way or the other.
The ratio between the direct and the reflected sound has been tilted (literally) slightly more towards the direct and I think I have hit the golden ratio; in my almost 10ft high ceilinged room at least.
The good localisation cues provided by the Allison/Dunn derived approach of the forward-firing tweeter were something I didn't want to lose, with this redesign, but at the same time, the vertical firing main drive unit is heavily dependant on the proximity of a rear room boundary in order to get 'presence' and focus to the soundfield; fine in average sized rooms, as all us semi-omni users know, but in larger rooms, the rear wall proximity output ends up being significantly weakened by the lack of any other nearby room walls to the left, right and (nine times out of ten) above, because of high ceilings. The result of this is that the speakers can, all too easily become "lost" in the room, and all you end up with then, is the thing puffing and wheezing away to itself and simply not communicating.
The frustration I have with this, b'stard of a large room problem has prompted me to look seriously at the Burhoe flooder, but incorporating the Allison/Dunn forward tweeter approach to the mix.
The conventional room flooder has both the tweeter and the main driver firing up on the diagonal as in various Direct Acoustics (Burhoe's current firm) Shahinian and Larsen models.
All I have done is to combine the two methods into one speaker design. They work very well in my own room, better than the straight up firer, and they are going to a much larger room than mine tomorrow (Friday) to see how they perform.
The way they work there, will tell me if the design is worth scaling up for bigger rooms or not.
It's been a long old road with semi omnis, the journey down which for me, has been spoiled somewhat by a great deal of unnecessary unpleasantness. However the support of the Doc, and also reading Stu's adventures, and the undeniable excellence of musical presentation offered by semi-omnis, tells me I'm on the right lines.
That a ruddy speaker design could have caused such a frack arse, saddens me greatly. But though I was a few months ago, very tempted to just abandon the whole thing for the sake of maintaining good relations, and (if the truth be told) my own mental health, I'm glad I stuck with it.
What I'm hoping the visit to Hull will show is that although both the flooder and the Allison/Dunn approach to semi-omnis is equally valid, there is another way: a way that combines the two of them into one "super semi-omni" - one that improves on both.
We'll soon find out one way or the other.