Looking For a Digital Coaxial and have ££ ?

Paul , I have spent some time listening to some new Quads recently, compared to my Alpha's I find the Quads to be considerably rolled off at both ends, also the Quads are muddied ,lacking resolution and just nowhere near as dynamic as my horns,you are most welcome to come and have a listen, just drop me a line,Keith.

 

Sorry, but I still think the argument of wide baffles is not perfect, the vibration of the treble unit or mid may end up colouring the sound, just as any emphasis of the 300khz range may end up as nothing more than emphasis and not a true rendition of whats coming from the cone itself. I would prefer bigger drive units to small ones, not small drivers on big baffles, its the drive unit you want to hear not the baffle resonance is it not, and if that large panel is facing you and resonating it will be coloured, if its a pile of big panels facing the sides in a domestic enviroment it can be diffused easily by room furnishings and such, depending of course on the room.

I would have though it is the larger driver coupling more efficiently to the room, not the cabinet? Unless we are talking about horns and such?

Its easy to diffuse and absorb sound in a domestic enviroment, and indeed many would not enjoy the studio sound. I still do not think its a one is better than the other, but a case of different aproaches to different problems creating more choice for peoples prefference.

A studio requirement to produce music may be viewed differently to a consumers requirement to enjoy music in a varied uncontrolled domestic enviroment.

I still remember the early years of discussion on imaging and depth etc, and colouration due to panel resonance and bafles, acoustic blankets etc etc, not to mention tests on lossy and rigid coupling and discussion on cones bottoming out on one stand but not on another? Domestic HiFi users are varied. As much as speakers.

 

I am also thinking of adding Russ Andrews focus felt ring thingies to the high freq drivers of My Rogers studio 1's, maybe even decoupling them ala Kef?

 

The baffle acts as a waveguide at certain musically important frequencies. It will only resonate significantly if poorly designed.

I disagree that it's easy to control a domestic enviroment - if you have heard a properly controlled acoustic, no living room gets close. Wide a wide dispersion device, you need speakers and listeners equidistant from identically absorbtive boundaries without any objects in the way between you and both speakers. Even lamps and magazines will affect phase accuracy and timbre. A signal that radiates in all directions reflects off the rear wall and produces an out of phase signal at certain frequencies which cancels the direct output. Without extensive domestic room treatments, waveguides can IMO be considered a good thing.

 

I tried the RA felt rings when they first came out. Awful result - dull and muffled. Best to rely on the judgement of the designer rather than screw up the tweeter directivity like that IME!

 

This seems to make perfect sense. I recently bought a pair of Merlin VSM MMe's for a decent price and have had a very tough time mating them to the room. Floor is concrete and walls are concrete blocks so treatment is definitely required in this case.

 

The main problem with the Merlin is the port is highly active and tuned to 39hz. In any living room with a wall around 14ft long, it comes into play, and when you add the Bam you make the problem worse. Shame - I ended up using mine without Bam in most UK rooms but even then the port velocity can be an issue.

 

Cheers- I'll give them a whirl without the BAM.

Room size is a very unusual 26 by (under) 9 feet with 8 foot ceiling- difficult for any speakers, I think.

 

Wow, I knew you've tried a lot of kit but you've tried most of UK rooms as well? .

 

It involves a Bessel function so I don't know off the top of my head.

What I'm puzzled by, and which you don't seem to want to enlarge upon, is why you are arguing for reducing room interaction by controlling dispersion and then advocating a mechanism that generally increases dispersion at higher frequencies. Conventional wisdom is that humans like a narrowing of dispersion as the frequency rises.

I'm also intrigued by the contrast between your quest for directivity and your habit of listening at 100 degrees off axis.

Paul

 

How's the room arranged? You might actually be a prime candidate for a pair of electrostatics placed so their outer edges touch the walls half way down the length...

Paul

 

Mike enjoys shaking his martini whilst enjoying perfect sound.

 

The TADs are there just for show. When his visitors are gone, S&M takes the Briks aout of the hidden compartments and luxuriates in all-over-the-place sound.

 

You should get out more! I wonder how the tens of thousands of users of similarly priced or even more expensive speakers have found the Quad's supposed midrange allure somehow resistible. Don't kid yourself Paul., People who can do without them and indeed who don't rate them that highly are not so difficult to find. It seems just a typically parochial viewpoint on your part which you are of course welcome to. What's next in the Ranson household anyway? ATC's?

 

Room arrangement is very flexible as I can move stuff around as I choose. Mind you, there is a bed, cupboard, sofa and desk to accomodate but they are all stuffed into one half of the 26 foot length room, leaving half that area (about 15 feet) empty- with the speakers at the empty end, of course. Sort of one half bedroom and other larger half empty living room with speakers.

 

Might be easier to move flats!

 

I think you may be right

 

You've got a double node around 65hz caused by the distances across the room and floor to ceiling. In a concrete room that's going to be noticeable.

The Bam gives you a boost of around 3db at that frequency. I'd definately try it without - or are you getting cancellation?

You've also got a second harmonic around the port tuning frequency as well. I had a room 15 x 7 x 7 not too long ago. It was capable of turning an excellent system into a midi system

 

I will indeed try omitting the bam- thanks. Not sure what you mean about getting cancellation.

I have the VSMs about 4.5 feet from the rear wall and 2 feet from the side walls with not that much space between the speakers, as room width is only 9 feet.

 

There are lots of good reasons why Quads don't work for everybody. This isn't the same as claiming, as you appear to do, that they are essentially 'wrong'.

Well apart from you, who else? Where are all these bad reviews?

Paul