Gilmore Audio planars revealed

HI,

I run Glacier Audio and let me address a few things.

First, Duke thank you for the heads up but I want to make sure that people understand that the ribbon is point 3 mil thick -- not 3 mil. This ribbon is not at all a Bohlender-Grabner element. It uses proprietary technology, has many enhancements and is Kapton based. The statement that has been made is that it is lighter than the air it moves -- it moves a lot of air and if you took the mass of that air, it would be heavier than the ribbon. The ribbon itself is not lighter than air (future versions may be).

In terms of there being nothing new here, I must respectfully disagree. Everything is new. Mark will be the first to admit that he is indebted to Carver's past efforts for inspiration. But the following performance numbers are real -- they don't happen because of magic -- they happen because of good engineering and a lot of thought and analysis and experimentation by the creator, Mark Gilmore, who is one of the most knowledgeable guys in audio that I know of.

For model 2 --
Freq response: 17HZ to 26 KHZ
Compresses at 127dB (dynamic range)
Corian panel is essentially resonant free in audio frequencies
Linkwitz-Riley Crossover using highest quality components including air-core inductors (for lowest DC resistance possible) and non-polar capacitors.
92 db efficient.
woofers are hybrid planars -- they are flat-faced like planars with a topology that matches the ribbon for exceptional coherence (a first) with the ability to move in and out like a dynamic speaker and thus move tons of air -- thus bass with great authority -- and clean!
Being a dipole cuts down on the efficiency -- if the speaker were in a box, it would be at least 3dB more efficient, probably more like 6db -- but there is nothing like a well constructed planar dipole for emulating the real musical experience. And having dipole bass helps reduce standing waves since there is averaging which occurs from reflections.

As I mentioned in AudioAsylum, I am a proud owner and dealer of soundlabs (I have M1's. Rennaisance 4's and MB1's). Roger West's M1's when paired with Ralph Karsten's MA-2's (and signature magnan speaker cables by the way) changed my life. (that's why I sell them). The Gilmore speakers are the first that rival the electrostats for transparency, purity, coherence, elegance, delicacy, while delivering what up until today electrostats have had difficulty doing -- bass with authority, dynamic range and lack of resonance (although the U1's largely solve this problem). SO one of the readers has expressed exactly the promise that these speakers fulfill -- the wonderful mids and highs of the electrostats coupled with the commanding bass of dynamics. But the GIlmore bass has a coherence that I have never heard from any dynamics.

I hope that you will find this information useful.

Thanks

They showed a front view, and then a side view, I eagerly scrolled down for a rear view and was appropriately disappointed:(. I'd like to see the back side of the speaker too:).

Caveat emptor, center channels like that can be very high maintenance. Sure looks like it's worth a try though.

Sellerwithintegrity,

Please, rethink your remark about some speaker manufacturer making ribbons that are lighter than air. It isn't going to happen. Here's some reading for you:

May 7, 2002 - A new version of aerogel, the particle-collecting substance on NASA's Stardust spacecraft, has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the solid with the lowest density.

Dr. Steven Jones of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a materials scientist who created the aerogel used by Stardust, also created a lighter version that weighs only 3 milligrams per cubic centimeter (.00011 pounds per cubic inch.) The team received the official certificate yesterday.

Guinness World Records approved the new aerogel's application for the least dense solid in March. Astronomer David Hawksett, Guinness World Records' science and technology judge, decided that Jones' aerogel beat out the previous record holder, an aerogel that weighed 5 milligrams per cubic centimeter (.00018 pounds per cubic inch.)

Aerogel is pure silicon dioxide and sand, just as is glass, but aerogel is a thousand times less dense than glass because it is 99.8 percent air. It is prepared like gelatin by mixing a liquid silicon compound and a fast-evaporating liquid solvent, forming a gel that is then dried in an instrument similar to a pressure cooker. The mixture thickens, and then careful heating and depressurizing produce a glassy sponge of silicon.

What remains is sometimes called "solid smoke," for its cloudy translucent color and super-light weight. Surprisingly, this seemingly brittle substance is durable and easily survives launch and space environments.

"It's probably not possible to make aerogel any lighter than this because then it wouldn't gel," Jones said. "The molecules of silicon wouldn't connect. And it's not possible to make it lighter than the density of air, 1.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter (.00004 pounds per cubic inch), because aerogel is filled with air." To change the density, Jones simply changes the amount of silicon in the initial mixture.

Stardust will use aerogel to capture particles from comet Wild 2 in 2004. NASA used aerogel for thermal insulation on the Mars Pathfinder mission. It will also be used on the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover, and may aid a proposed fundamental-physics testing mission and the Mars Scout Program.

Those may be mighty fine speakers but...

Lugnut...What if the aerogel were made with helium in it instead of air? Maybe we will need speaker hold-down cables instead of cones!