Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site


In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Munich High End 2010
Post Subject: Speculation crumbles...Posted by Joe Roberts on: 5/19/2010
fiogf49gjkf0d
Is not about the cost of plywood bit the placement cost if the speakers have this type wings. Sure, for monophonic films in 40s and multitude listeners in this it was not a problems but for contemporary stereophonic sound it make the speaker positioning very difficult if even possible as this type of speaks even in very large room would have very limited option to placed them in the room.


True that... However, placement options for many of the huge theater speakers are limited anyway. If room allows, wings add projection of midbass.

For VOT users, try it...easy enough. If it doesn't work, chop up the wings and make a coffee table out of the wood.

I wish your Silbatone people have enough perseverance and money to demo their WE gear with having any financial gratitude.


Well, fortunately, that happens to be the case.

Sure we are seeking to stand out from the crowd by bringing 400kg horns across the planet that we are not trying to sell...and it works. The man who is paying for all of this is quite happy to spend significant money to share the experience of hearing vintage speakers without expecting to make it back. Your greed-based analytical system is misplaced when dealing with Silbatone. There is no profit motivation behind the company. Maybe someday we will break even. We are not Goldman Sachs.

In reality, Silbatone is primarily an amp/electronics company. Aporia is produced in very small numbers and, in fact, is never shown in Korea but sold in small numbers locally by word of mouth. It is too time consuming and difficult to manufacture in quantity. We are happy if we never sell a pair, although if somebody wants to buy they are available. We use Aporia primarily as a overseas demonstration item.

We are working on a new demo speaker that will be more in the tradition of the electrodynamic WE Mirrophonic systems. We won't be trying to sell that one either. Cost of parts will be on the order of $175,000+. Yes, it will have a marketing angle but we are building it to let people have a chance to hear something on this level also. This will be interesting for them and good PR for us.

As for Mangers, there are a lot of challenges with this speaker but it does allow for excellent extended HF performance in a single driver setup, without whizzers and resonators. Like its competitors, it is very touchy and presents a lot of challenges. Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with it but it does present some very positive attributes.

I don't frame the comparison as Aporia vs. all other speaker topologies in the world. Compare it to other single driver systems instead. If that is not your thing, that is cool with us. Frankly, it is not my main thing either, unless I'm listening to a 15A or a 755A on it's own individual merits. I'd pick a multi-driver horn system for ultimate wide-range technical performance, not a single driver, but this is an experiment in the possibilities of a single driver system.



the fact that your German forums junkers find your WE as the Best of Show is not the indication of WE sound but the indication of level of the Show.


Well, that's the whole point isn't it...supposedly the best of what is currently on offer from the audio industry was on demo in Munich.

It that context, the result that a 60 year old second-rate WE speaker with numerous "audiophile deficiencies" was preferred by many is instructive.

I heard the Aporia in Munich last year IIRC, Joe, and thought the sound very weird. Dynamically and tonally uneven over the frequency range.


Well, then you saw the small "acoustical cabin" that we were in (a small sheetrock box with a low ceiling). We got better sound than we expected but reflections were deadly and performance was limited. Still a lot of people liked it quite a bit and no speaker pleases everybody, but read CES 2010 and Munich 2009 show reports for other opinions. That bad room is why we switched to a large room this year. Unfortunately, the only room available was too large for Aporia. You should have been at CES....or come to Korea and we'll play them for ya.

We had better Aporia sound at CES but I'd have to give the Munich show the nod for civilized and interesting attendees.


The reason is that I am not very impressed with Joe’s interpretation of the WE experience.


At least I have significant WE experience! Romy, you have none to speak of, yet you are super-opinionated on the subject.

Someday you might learn the truth. The big WE horn systems are a different league entirely from most of the junk we play with. Speculation crumbles at the foot of experience.

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site