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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: High-End Audio Bass: what you do wrong.
Post Subject: LF At HomePosted by Paul S on: 1/31/2025
Plenty to chew on in your LF video, Romy. It almost
sounds like you just, finally, came to the conclusion that LF takes “serious
power”. An early audio guru of mine knew several people involved with changing
out theater and “venue” sound systems in greater LA at that time. Altec/JBL
were the go-to systems there, and even way back then they knew they needed more
power to keep up with changing film sound tracks, and they moved continuously
in that direction for many years. I have read in Heritage forums that JBL
wanted to stick with tube amps, X/O’s, etc., for “better sound”, but it
appeared to me at the time that they couldn’t go to SS quickly enough. As for
the speaker drivers, I have said around here for a long time now that they were
redesigned repeatedly to handle more power without distorting or blowing up.
Were sonics compromised by beefing up the drivers and going to SS? Sure, of
course, some aspects of sound took a few steps backward. To say it as a
non-sequitur, in keeping with one’s sense of this conundrum, “Compromise is de
rigueur” with audio. We as home hi-fi people will probably make different
compromises than theater or reinforcement systems, depending on what we prioritize.
However, if we are planning for Big Music from frequencies below 50 Hz, then we
need to take a look at actual response curves of LF drivers under consideration.
There is no substitute for appropriate listening, but why not narrow ones
search to plausible contenders, in the first place? Again, a given driver’s
“efficiency” is only relevant in the context of its physical and electrical
environment. In practical terms, there are no “106 dB efficient (direct
radiator) woofers”, because those drivers are nowhere near that efficient in
the actual pass band, not to mention in-circuit effects of reactive X/Os. Also,
older, better-sounding drivers “compress” and distort quickly as one tries to
push them down in frequency and up in volume. It sucks, but there you are. Like
I have said for years, please, someone, tell me about an SET-driven 15” woofer
in a sealed box that can put out Big Music 40 Hz (with no support below it…). A
15” in a sealed box is the sure-fire route to good-sounding 50 Hz, although
even that will take some power, if the driver can take it. Romy, you have said
you have not tried at all to work with ported LF, and this is fine. But you
sound like I used to when I panned horns for “horn sound” based on my time
spent listening to A7s and similar “pushed” installations. It has been a long
time since you talked about your own horns, but one look at them tells a story
to anyone who has spent time with horns. They are not chosen from or run like
the stock PA line-up. Back to LF, I heard the part about injecting processed
sound, but by the end of your talk it sounded to me like you are back to a
5-way system? I agree that a 4-way system involves compromise for FR. I have
detailed my own compromises while discussing my system. I very much envy your
access to per-driver amp loading (what a boon to system development!), but that
really requires the big horns, as well, and I doubt I will ever take that long,
long road.
Best regards,
Paul S
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