How come that when most audiophiles


follow the philosophy of "shorter, less complex signal path is better", they then wire their carefully chosen equipment to speaker cabinets filled with a boatload of transformers, capacitors, resistors, and drivers which exhibit gross non-linearities which are only compounded by adding them all together? I believe that the reason is the "specification game" again, where people believe that speakers must have a frequency response from DC to light +-3db, and as a result, speaker systems must have many drivers to cover the range. Notice the specs only show freq. response, and nothing about phase non-linearity induced by multiple crossover components. This seems to be a non-linearity in system philosophy where short signal path does not apply to speaker systems, but is paramount in all other aspects of the system. I use a direct input from source to OTL amp and DIY Fostex based 1-way speaker cabinets. The result is very natural, dynamic, phase-coherent,detailed, and revealing. The only non-linearities I have to deal with are the ones inherent in the driver/cabinet combo. With some careful design and impedence curve mods, I get a more musical sound than any "high end" speakers I have ever heard(and I've heard alot) as well as any of the multi-way speakers I've ever designed and built(also alot). Why do you think that there is this disconnect in thinking regarding short signal path as it relates to speakers?
twl

Showing 1 response by sean

I can relate to what TWL states regarding the benefits of a wide bandwidth point source. I can also relate to his comments about "direct drive" from a power amp to driver. With that in mind, I don't know of any such designs that are capable of deep bass with authoritive weight while being driven by low power amps. For that matter, i don't know of any that are capable of high spl levels without compression when being driven by more powerful amps. As such, one simply chooses the trade-offs in a system that they personally find the least offensive and progress from there. Tis the beauty of having multiple systems. You can experiment in several different directions all at the same time. Sean
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