high sensitivity speaker that moves air....

[steve s]

Originally Posted by Greg.

Hi Nick,

Generally I agree about valve bass, although as you'd expect, I think I prefer valve PP bass. Then again, I've never auditioned sensitive speakers with a SE amp in my home environment........must do that sometime.

Best wishes,

Greg

Greg, i know what you mean, you get so used to how things sound in the envoirment your used to, slight diffences there can sound emence..
Doing 1 to 1 comparisons at home is the only way to really see the differences, at eggbrough we only get a taste of what equipment is capable of,
my veiw is that the speakers are the key part of the system, but to get se and sensitive speakers in a good balance is quite a task,

The hardest part is knowing what is the holy grail, its all very subjective and mostly down to opinion rather than fact, my view is that, on the whole the facts are based on opinions, and measurements don't tell the whole story.

its all about personal preferences, and they are based on what we are used to, and how we think a sytem should sound.

my 1st doubt about my hi fi was 25years ago, truth is I had not thought about it before.. the hi fi was on, one of the kids was playing along to the music (badly) with his xylophone, the notes rang out, ummm.. that hi fi had never made a sound as lifelike as that ?

and i'm still searching

steve

[Paul Welsby]

Originally Posted by steve s

but to get se and sensitive speakers in a good balance is quite a task,

steve

Why? Is there any technical reasons for this? Im asking cause i dont know and was kind of heading down that route slowly.

Paul

[steve s]

Originally Posted by Paul Welsby

Why? Is there any technical reasons for this? Im asking cause i dont know and was kind of heading down that route slowly.

Paul

well paul..(my view) is to put it simply.. se and hi ef is a very simple concept and results in a very simple system that should give a more life like sound if the quality of the compenents is ok and it is of a good design,

it is quite easy to get a good mids, but deep bass and treble is not qute so straight forwards

the amp is the most straight forward part, so i'll not go on about that

speakers are a the main issue, many drivers used need a tweeter and a sub. Thats where the main problems are,... getting the synergy between them right... but the cross over can then rob the speaker of any life like sound.

or large back horns is anther route, in my set up i think they are the best way of getting bass.. they need to be big..and i have had some fun with mine.. they can be boomy, but blocking most of the horn mouth has sorted that for me (and now i know why the best horns do not have forward facing mouths) mine are not so good at over 105 dbs but in the average lounge that is very loud.. Wills fostexs suffered the same at our last eggbrough meet and mine did at the 1st meet.

I've not had experence of front horns .. but not heard anything really positve about them too....so stand to be corrected on that one

also there is such a difference between drivers.. lowthers tend to be pigeon holed . the difference between cabinets can be immense, as is the difference between pm6a's and say dx/ex 4's
but do they all have the lowther sound...

the other makes of drivers I've heard, sound more like normal speakers...and to be fair I think most prefer that type of sound...
maybe that was the crossovers in them that did that??


if you want to have a listen to lowthers in a home environment, i live near the humber bridge,so not to far away

cheers steve

[Richard Higgins]

Accurate Specs?
I've got a pair of Impulse H2s, which I really like, they are the best speakers I've owned, but thats not a very long list.
They are spec'd as 94db/8Ohms.
The bass speaker(SEAS 21F-WBX) is rated as 93db, but its transmission line loaded.
The mid rangeSEAS 10F-M) is 89db, but horn loaded.
The tweeter is 92db.(Focal TC90K)
How do you get 94 db overall from that?
They are loud enough for me in a 12ft x 18 ft room, with 2 to 3 watts.

I would be interested in a diy version with another couple of db efficiency, so that I could try 1 watt amps.

Regards Richard Higgins

[petercom]

The answer is you don't, not really. It's the same with the Snells. You can't take a driver with a top efficiency (usually through the midband) of 91-92dB and turn it into a 94dB unit unless you use it in a horn.

If you haven't seen a sensible review measurement of a speaker, in the way that Noel does in HFW, don't believe sensitivity measurements.

On the other hand don't get hung up about a few dB here or there. The Impulse H2s are working well for you, and that's good enough. BTW the bass section on the H2s uses the floor as the outlet of a truncated horn as I understand it.