Danny Richie "fixes" the Linkwitz Arion loudspeaker
For some time now I have been directing those interested in loudspeaker design to Danny Richie’s GR Research Tech Talk Tuesday videos on YouTube. Here is his latest: an examination of the Linkwitz Arion loudspeaker. You may be asking yourself: if Siegfried Linkwitz is the genius he is touted to be, how is it Danny found the Orion to be lacking, and was able to find solutions for it’s failings? I’ll leave that to you to answer. In the meantime, after watching and listening to this video, you may want to watch all the Tech Talk Tuesday videos. They may just make you a more informed loudspeaker consumer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCA-eSPUkJA.
I wish I had an Orion to measure, but DR accuses Linkwitz of a number of bone-head mistakes, which I doubt, not because I’m a huge fan boy but because the late Dr. Linkwitz was one of the most meticulous speaker designers I’ve ever ever seen. Without measurements I can’t prove it, but there are not a lot of speaker designers I know who took as much care in every aspect of their design as Dr. Linkwitz. One thing I find kind of curious is his discussion of compensating for the rising impedance of a tweeter: In real life it’s almost never done nor is it needed. You compensate for the rising impedance of a woofer because not doing so can throw off your low pass filter design. It’s written about here: https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2016/12/crossover-basics-zobel_8.html However, since tweeters have no low pass filter, just a high pass, it’s a moot point, unless you have a truly high output impedance amp (i.e. tube) which can make it seem brighter, but just a tad. |
