2. speakers
  3. 161388-135962

Do active speakers interest you? Also, let's talk directivity

Hey all. Don't think I've ever made a thread here. This is a super interesting community for me. I'm an audio professional, a mastering engineer and music educator. I'm someone who differs from much of the pro community, in that I don't see a difference between "pro" systems and "high-end" systems. 

There is one way they often differ, and that is in terms of directivity. Home systems are more frequently omni, while and studio or live sound requires directivity.

This was definitely the case in the 70s, back when audiophiles still had parties :D 

It's very hard to set up a directional system to fill a large room evenly unless you use a line array.

But let's be honest. Aren't we mostly sitting and listening, and hoping for a good image? We aren't expecting every spot in a big room to sound exactly the same for every guest. Personally, my social life is 95% virtual now and I am generally listening in my mastering room. I have a high end system in every room in my house, but my wife uses the living room system more than me (and she has better taste in music, so it's nice to learn about some new artists when she decides to put something on from he collection).

Anyway, I'm designing an active system. Though the cabinet is not large, with a combination of Hoge's principles and active electronics, we will achieve accurate response through to 20hz.

The reason to choose an active crossover is very obvious. Sending power directly to each driver allows us to use a very low sensitivity woofer, which thus plays much deeper than expected. We are using a ported woofer and a sealed midrange/hi cabinet, which are not sold separately. An interesting feature is the the very low-crossed ribbon tweeter carrying all of the high midrange and treble

It's an 1800w system, aimed at both the professional and home market. I'm curious, does this sound interesting to anyone? We are intending to have a prototype ready by 2022, so it is a ways off.

Part of the directivity concept is also dealing with room issues. Cancelling the rear energy of the woofers can help. I am inspired by Bruno and Merjin (whatever  his name :P). a big part of our concept has to do with advanced acoustic materials, which I don't want to discuss too much, as I don't think anyone else has thought of it or connected with that maker, yet

Curious to hear people's thoughts!
mehtayoungs

Showing 1 response by arion

arion's avatar
arion
167 posts
 
OP, We have been selling our Apollo series speakers for a little over two years now. They are active and fully DSP controlled. We chose to offer our speakers with and without amplifiers. We designed our speakers to be very amplifier friendly so the owner can decide which amps to use. Anything from 1.5 watt SET amps to 150 watt SS and anything in between will work. Many potential customers already own amps so why not use them. Some people like tube amps and some like SS. We have found that many people like the option of using amps of their choice.

While designing our own drivers and speaker systems the below were some of our objectives:

1. Speaker-room integration

2. Equipment integration - Primarily amplifiers to speakers

3. High sensitivity – From 1.5 watts to 150 watts

4. Power handling – 150 watts

5. Light membrane driver elements

6. True line array

7. Dipole

8. Open baffle woofer modules

9. DSP with advanced auto room correction

10. Separate extended range AMT towers and woofer modules


We feel our objectives have been successfully met as do our customers and many occasional listeners. Even though many people tell us our Apollo speakers sound stunning we still find it challenging to get people over the hurtle of embracing fully active DSP controlled speakers. My point is that we chose the less traditional path but feel it's the future. Time will tell. Good luck with your project.

Mike



More to discover