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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Vox Olympian secrets unveiled
Post Subject: Vox Olympian secrets unveiledPosted by martinshorn on: 5/24/2017
Hi folks. Who ever listened to Living Voice Vox Olympian Speakers might've liked them as much as I do.

They got a great realism in their projection. Some things are obvious, some even claimed.

Its claimed to use excellent drivers, high quality components & finish, 5 ways which each running in its own best spectrum, time alignment in the highs at least.
That's nice and amongst many details like silver wiring, voicing service on delivery, lovely finish etc adds up to the whole picture.

Certain other things are not claimed but obvious for the specialists. The dynamic capacity, sensitivity and distortion adds a lot more. But then you could buy any other high end horn.
Still there is something unique in the sound.

I had some assumptions and tracked them down in munich last week.
I can confirm:

1. most important, the 3 dimensional fundamentals projected with a fullbodied size into the room are mainly designed by a resonating chamber. The rear chamber of the AK151 is completely empty and hard wall surrounded. Its got two big opening ports on the front with approx. 200 squarecentimeter surface, 4cm depth. Together with approx. 120cm too little front loaded horn, it creates a strong 110dB efficiency bandpass from 100-500 Hz when I run my simulation of this setup. Also creates a slight pre-echo as the resonance will be distributed about 3-4 msec before the horn impulse. That would explain the perception of depth of field. I took pictures from the inside and post them next week when im back home, also other findings about the cut and my simulation.

2. The diffuse spacious rendering while being precisely located on the other hand, is a nice combination of dispersion pattern between the radial mid horn and the tweeter. The Midhorn got a 90x120 degree dispersion while the tweeter is likely a JBL 2312 copy, that's got a 30 degree narrow dispersion. Consequently you blend out the room reflection and increase the IACC in the highs, precise localization as a result. While the mids are still widespread spaceous in voices thx to the radial design.

3. The case itself, especially the AK151 housing, other than I expected, is very rigit and heavy. My finger knocking test showed 0 resonance behavior on any point of the cabinet. No sounding from the material used here, though they claim to intentionally color by special wood selection, like they do on the non-rigid OBX speaker cabins.

4. The subs with the claimed 2x12" longthrow in exponential horn.... very much look like a tapered horn, rear loaded. They claim 20Hz, and yes it sounds like. But with this size we all know it cant be an real exponential. It must be tapered, saying a prox 4 meter path labirynth. Definitely the drivers rearchamber is in the middle of the case, firing open on one side.

It all completes the picture quiet nicely and makes sense.

cheers
Josh

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