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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: The Macondo’s Upper Bass Channel: what is next?
Post Subject: A couple of already tortured candidatesPosted by Bud on: 10/29/2007
Romy,

In the diyaudio thread on EnABL I cover the Hemp acoustics FR 4.5 C and the Lowther A45. Both drivers in your size range.

Since EnABL does not measurably alter any compression wave characterisitcs of the piaton mode tests, except for phase shift to nominal from lagging above 4 kHz or so, you should be able to choose almost any driver and expect to have it's sonic character remain unchanged, according to Lynn Olson and apparently Alexsander from RAAL, from the Lowther PM6A A/B test, treated against untreated at the RMAF show.

Actually, EnABL makes no tonal differences at all, as far as I could tell - a Lowther still sounds very much like a Lowther. Time performance for EnABL may have been a little better, the image was definitely more spacious, mostly in the left-to-right direction. The most evident difference was a (10 dB)* subjective drop in what sounded like 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion - this was mostly good, but did have the drawback of revealing things about the system I didn't care for - gritty-sounding Kimber Kable and possibly the Nelson Pass amplifiers. I'm not much of a fan of hyper-expensive garden-hose-sized cables or transistor amps on efficient speakers, so I can't honestly say how much that biassed my impression of the overall sound.

Overall impression of EnABL: Considerably more open and revealing, but may reveal things about your system you don't like - the tide goes down, you see all kinds of critters you never saw before.

*inserted from a private conversation with Lynn, immeadiately after show
demonstration

In my own tests I have found no change in THD componenets, so all that is left is a removal of the "hall of mirrors reflections" obscuring the true tones, in their natural environment. In the two drivers I mentioned, at the beginning, the Hemp 4.5 would be just barely acceptable untreated, but quite nice after treatment, maybe a little uinspired, but very musical. The A45, untreated, is very good but with some diffraction and time related errors from the whizzer cone/phase plug. Treated, the A45 may be the most musically beautiful and uncolored speaker I have ever heard.

You might consider them in your research.

Bud

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