My next home speaker...?

[Se7en 10+ year member]

So, I'm considering this as my next loudspeaker... Any opinions?

http://www.emeraldphysics.com/intro.htm

I've been reading some reviews on audiocircle and they seem to be pretty awesome for the money.

Thoughts?

-7

Click to read more...

 

[tEh koRnDog 5,000+ posts]

Never heard of them..But hopefully some of the HT guys on here chime in on it for you.

They will be able to give you alot more helpful insight.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Well, personally I think $3k for an open baffle setup is nucking futs, considering you can build something like Linkwitz's Orion setup for under that //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

But hopefully some of the HT guys on here chime in on it for you.

OB's would not be my first choice for home theater.

For two-channel playback, that's a different story //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Assuming he has the room...these things are notoriously picky for room placement.

 

[Se7en 10+ year member]

I'd be using them for 2 channel audio, not HT.

I'd agree that OB bass board is easy enough to build your self, but the mid-upper range is hornloaded.

Also, I'm using a fairly decent room correction system to help with room related issues.

 

[Fast1one 10+ year member]

Well, personally I think $3k for an open baffle setup is nucking futs, considering you can build something like Linkwitz's Orion setup for under that //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif


OB's would not be my first choice for home theater.

For two-channel playback, that's a different story //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Assuming he has the room...these things are notoriously picky for room placement.

+1 on the Orion if you want something open baffle...

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Looks like a fairly straightforward compression driver/Tractrix horn, yeah...which is not that expensive to do yourself either //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

That's a cool idea though, I don't think I've ever seen a horn used like that in OB...would have to be attenuated all to hell, but no reason why it wouldn't kick *** //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[alstee 10+ year member]

I used to be in the hometheater buisness. If was was spending that kind of money I would go with some nice kef 1q9's I loved the sq they had

 

[Se7en 10+ year member]

I already have a pretty decent set of 2 channel speakers (which I would keep), this said I've become increasingly curious about OB set ups (I've never run one). The other scenario is possibly building a linesource which would cost me about the same in parts, just not in labor.

The current set up:

Fully Loaded VMPS RM30s main speakers. Martin Logan subs for the lowest octave.

Pre-amp: Heavily modified Tact 2.2X room correction system. (Modifications: PS, DAC, ADC, etc)

Amps: Carver ZR1600s (Tripath based full range class D pro amps) and a pair of custom Bruce Moore Class tube monos (50w per channel pure class a). The tubes run the ribbon mid/tweet.

Waveguide removed: (the 8" mids operate from 270hz to 6900hz)

 

[Fast1one 10+ year member]

Wow, nice equipment, I want that Tact 2.2x //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[Se7en 10+ year member]

Wow, nice equipment, I want that Tact 2.2x //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

Thanks! I really like the Tact stuff. The mods take this thing to an entirely different level as well. The PS probably being the most significant mod. The stock unit is very noisey in comparison. You can pick one up for relatively little money these days on Agon.

I'm really impressed with the VMPS as well. They are very tunable on there own (without RCS). The mids and tweets have separate adjustment pots and the bottom port has two 6.5" passive radiators which are tunable by removing a non-hardening putty for tuning the system's mid bass. With the wave guides attached, I can basically walk anywhere around the room with only limited loss of sound staging and almost no change in frequency response (very rare with ribbon or planar type speakers).

When sitting in the sweet spot with RCS imaging is dead on, but the overall sound is very enveloping, elements from the recording that are engineered out of phase seem to be able to move almost a full 180 degrees around the sound stage. It is not quite the same as a full 5.1 surround but the overall presentation is far more coherent to these ears.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Mmm...KT88's and stereo subbass...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Two thumbs up right there...

 

[Se7en 10+ year member]

Mmm...KT88's and stereo subbass...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
Two thumbs up right there...

Although set up primarily for music, it does work for movies too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

And yes, things have been cleaned up (re-arranged) quite a bit since this photo was taken.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

What are you using as a preamplifier?

 

[Se7en 10+ year member]

Tact 2.2x

http://www.tactaudio.com

Full modifications by arberdeen components (Maui Mods).

http://www.mauimods.com/TacTAudio.htm

The front end is currently PC based. I'm using an airport extreme with seagate 400g hard drive docked. That streams wirelessly to my laptop running either foobar or itunes. For foobar which utilizes asio drivers I run a usb cable to a basic usb/toslink converter. That goes to a Monarchy 24/96 dip (to clean up jitter) before it goes digital into the Tact.

I also on occasion use an airport express if I don't want any wires showing at all (if we have guests, etc.). This is pretty easy because all I have to do is swap the toslink at the monarchy and I'm "fully wireless". I do not use the express for any critical listening though. It can get noisey depending on how many other aps happen to be running on the laptop.

Great sig btw!!!

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Nice setups... Those aren't Dynamos are they?

You have an interesting setup there.