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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: The sound compromises of high efficiency direct radiators.

Post Subject: What's Lost In TranslationPosted by Paul S on: 1/15/2009

No love lost for any particular driver type here. They are all all-but-hopeless, as far as I'm concerned, just for different reasons.

Jesse, what I wonder is how the small daiphragm of the compression driver, with its very small movements, can be expected to move large quantities of air using low power. Obviously, the preferred "solution" is to couple the diaphragm to the air via a horn. But doesn't this wind up introducing another very subtantial set of problems that begin, in effect, to offset the advantage the compression driver started out with? Especially as frequencies drop?

Anyway, whatever it is that allows some direct radiators to have "tone" (incl. harmonics) that is (are) +/- readily accessable, it winds up being a factor in choosing how to go about setting up a speaker system.

Of course X-max is relative, and there are still a few small-ish excursion direct radiators that were not conceived as the "perfect piston". For that matter, I think it is probably better when compression drivers stay clear of this as a central design criterion, as well.

Basically, it's all about trade-offs, no matter which way one starts off.

By the way, it's been quite a while now... How's "it" coming along?

Best regards,
Paul S

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