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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Horn loaded ribbons and other Vasyachkin’s tangents....
Post Subject: Plain old PlanarsPosted by Paul S on: 11/4/2008
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The main trouble I've had with any sort of wave guide - including horns - is their audible-to-me signature shaping of the sound, like speach. I just have a hard time shaking my awareness loose of the shaped sound as I try to listen to music through it.
There's already been a lot of discussion here about ribbons, per se, and this might shed some light on local thoughts about their strengths and weaknesses.
By far the most promising planar speakers I've heard have been the giant Sound Lab models. These use an assortment of variously-sized "tuned" planes comprising one larger, "curved" plane. However, for whatever reason or reasons, I never heard them get free of their amplification, meaning the sound/qualities of the amps always played a big part in the sound that came from these speakers. Nor did I ever hear them get free in the dynamic sense, but they always seemed dynamically "tied" to the amps, as if holding or being held back. Lastly, like other planars, they lacked the "good granularity"/traction that "propells" music dynamically.
Sounds like a rip job, I know, but they also do some things as well as any apeakers I've heard. "Voicing" and clarity are breathtaking, and they do outstanding micro-dynamics over a very wide frequency range. At their best, you might hear them playing piano from another room and figure it was a real piano.
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