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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: How to USE “Resonating Oops” in loudspeakers
Post Subject: NXT panels are like an old fashioned music boxPosted by stevie7V on: 12/3/2007
Romy,
It's not actually me who's trying to accomplish anything. I've just been commenting on Shelley Katz's 'Layered Sound' technique. I have no connection with his company although I have met him and discussed the system with him. I listen to my own speakers, although, sadly, the company is no more. I have joined a new loudspeaker company as the designer and we will be coming out with a new product in the New Year.
NXT panels are simple panels, made of a lightweight material such as a honeycomb polystyrene type compound. The exciters are like moving coil speakers except instead of a cone they work 'vibrators' which are then attached to the panel. If you've ever seen an old fashioned music box, where you turn a handle and a wheel with spikes like a hedgehog turns and flicks metal prongs, you'll understand the basic principle. The sound of the music box is enhanced by whatever surface or enclosure the mechanism vibrates against.
NXT panels do not generally have a particularly wide frequency range and are not as accurate as a normal speaker - plus or minus about 3dB is achievable. Alone, they don't make a particularly wonderful sound to my ears and two of them will not produce a satisfactory stereo image. However, they can be used effectively in parallel with the main speakers and running about 5 or 6 dB quieter. I use them with a separate amplifier and adjust the volume until I 'just can or can't hear them'. At this level, I can tell that they're on by listening to the sound from the back of the room. They do seem to add something to the realism, and have some similarity to the Hafler system of placing an additional rear speaker driven by the out of phase component of the signal - at least they do the way that I use them. It would be easy for any of your forum members to experiment with this by buying an inexpensive pair of NXT speakers and driving them via a cheap integrated amplifier or power amplifier with volume control.
I'm no expert on either NXT speakers or the 'Layered Sound' technique and I haven't listened to Shelley Katz's own interpretation of the technique but I hope this helps anyway.
Regards
SteveRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site