Emerald Physics CS-2, Opinions Please

Paul - Yes, there's a lot of conceptual kinship between what Clayton is doing and what I'm doing. We're both shooting for room-friendly speakers with controlled radiation patterns using prosound drivers, for much the same reasons.

As far as passive crossover complexity, my belief is that it's not the parts count but the load presented to the amplifier that makes the most difference. Usually but not always, complex crossovers present a more difficult load than the drivers alone would. I use high parts-count crossovers but they present a smoother load than either of my drivers would even with no crossover at all.

Tvad, the USA dealer for Emerald Physics is Underwood Hi-Fi.

Duke

I was a dealer for Clayton, and remain a friend of his. Just for the record, he received a Golden Ear Award for the CS-2 in the June/July issue of The Abso!ute Sound.

What Clayton did that is imho extraordinary is he pushed into bold new territory as far as what can be done in an affordable speaker design. [I betcha he had one eye on the Zu Druids - another over-achiever.] Clayton brought together a combination of characteristics that had never been tried before commercially, to the best of my knowledge. While his CS2 isn't perfect, as a competitor let me say that the prospect of stepping into the ring against it is quite daunting. He sets the bar very high.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

My own experience with Robert Greene is that he doesn't join this or that product's "fan club"; he maintains an objective position. For example, he really likes the performance of the Gradient 1.3 and the Harbeth monitor 40, but is also well aware of each speaker's limitations and I'm sure would acknowledge them if the subject came up.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer