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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Compression drivers and the “clean signal”.
Post Subject: Well, it does sound cryptic. Posted by Romy the Cat on: 7/12/2007
 Markus wrote:
I usually manage to read you quite well, but this 
 Romy the Cat wrote:

direct or indirect phase constructors.

has me baffled. What do you mean, please?

When I wrote it I meant different wave constructors: phase splitters and phase summizing nodes. I am very much not fancy myself as some kind circuits specialist, and have very rudimental knowledge on the subject. I never had interest or motivations to figure out how it all works in relation to the actual sound. However, I did try a great number of PP amplifiers to drive better drivers and I observed is that the wave reconstructing amps are not usable with compression drivers. I might only presume that PP amplifiers very minutely spoil sound with asymmetrical reconstruction of the waves, and it would be due to practical impossibility to make absolutely identical halves of the PP amplifiers. Any single PP amplifier that I have experienced, when they drove a compression driver, injected into transients some very strange atonal mud. It is like you painting a picture and while you do it someone are adding white color in all your paints, and are replacing your brushes with the brushes of the much larger size, although you continue to use your brushes as they were small.

I have to admit that the said about this true only in context of “good” compression drivers. A good compression driver is a driver that has a consequential reaction to the “clean” signal. Since the drivers that I am experienced are only Mid frequency compression drivers then I would without any hesitation state that good compression drivers employ ALNICO magnets. The Samarium Cobalt, Neodymium, injection and electromagnets are a different subject and they might have own place but they are not well explored by me in reference to Actual Sound.  The Ferrite or the Ceramic – the most commonly used nowadays materials, are absolutely not usable in context of MF compression drivers. In order any HF/MF Ceramic driver  to be able to  give away anything remotely resembling to  Sound the driver should be driven with enormous amount power that, in own turn, has many other negative  Sonic consequences.

So, in the end, in my warm world I see at high frequency compression driver as an ALNICO-centric driver with amplification that amplifiers THE WHOLE SIGNAL ONCE AS A WHOLE, without any tricks, the way how it is done in single-ended triode amps. Saying it I do not demonstrate a loyalty to a specific topology but rather I just report my past disability to get the desirable sound from compression drivers using other type amplification.

Rgs, Romy the caT

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