Line Arrays - Competitive with best dynanics, ESL?


Line arrays don't get talked about very often at all. We all talk about our Wilsons, or Kharms, or Von Schweikert... of course the representatives from the planar camp, the maggies, ML, Soundlabs... Also the horns - Avantegarge, Acapella, etc....

What about the line arrays? I used to have a pair of bottlehead straight 8s. Cheap, well implemented line array, and they sounded awesome. They didn't rewrite the books of detail or dynamics, but threw a very lush soundstage, and had a tonal "rightness" about them.

Has anyone changed from a well-regarded dynamic, planar, or horn and moved to a line array? Pipedreams? Wisdom? Others? What are the pros/cons of line arrays in your opinion?
goatwuss

Showing 1 response by ekovalsky

I'm a line array convert too. Good ones will generally come at substantial cost, because high quality drivers are not inexpensive and many are used in these systems. Also the cabinets will be large. That said, some superb designs are very attainable, such as GR Research, Selah Audio, Epiphany Audio, and RAW Acoustics. At a higher price point look into Gryphon, Nola, Genesis, Wisdom, etc.

Line array loudspeakers are typically designed for nearfield listening, while commercial/professional line arrays are optimized for farfield listening. The design goals and intended use for each type are quite different.

You will find a lot of great information about line arrays in Jim Griffin's well known white paper. Download it at http://www.audiodiycentral.com/resource/pdf/nflawp.pdf