new living voice prototype horns

Keith, I think where the differences were for me were in the horns surprisingly. TAD drive units do seem to be very sensitive to how the attached horn loads it and to any impredence mismatches. They sound very different on different profiles - my personal preference is for how they sound on their own, wider dispersion designs. Or so it would appear! But the Cessaros are very good loudspeakers theres no doubt about that.

 

I just haven't heard enough to compare, listening to yours ( at some point ) will be very interesting, I wonder what conclusions Kevin will draw after hearing the TAD's and Goto units?
It would also be interesting to hear the new Vitavox S2, if they are ever produced, I guess as always it is a question of cash, Keith.

 

I hope to do that big l.v. post soon, just a case of loading up photos etc.

Tad, Ale, Goto all been experimented with.

NB
He is definately making S2's, S2 horns and 15" vitavox woofers for his speakers - vitavox sold him the tooling.

 

Load the photo's bottle, I suspect it is one thing having the tools and quite another to find the cash to invest in the actual manufacture, how big is the market for a modern S2?

 

don't want to contradict so many people - but I've seen brand new S2's and brand new S2 horns in his warehouse just last week.

I know he has the tools and ability to make them and has done so. I know this because he told me and showed me the stock.

I haven't the time to do the post justice right now, it will take me an hour or so of mucking about..

 

Chris Hi, you would know the position far better than me, I just hadn't realised that Kevin had new drivers an horns made, I just supposed I might have heard something about it, that i very exciting news, I must try and arrange a visit sometime soon, Keith.

 

any hints on estimated price tag?

not that i have cash waiting, just asking....

 

The 'airscouts' are £25k I believe.

 

prototypes are the order of the day at the moment.

I'll put details up of the six way horn system he's working on at the moment soon.

 

Yeah Chris. No rush.

 

don't think I'll ever get round to it if I keep putting it off, so I'll just put the bare bones details here, and maybe add more at some point.

High Treble: Tad supertweeter
Treble-Mid: Tad Midrange
Mid: Vitavox S2
Bass: Vitavox 15" down to about 50hz
Bass: 2 x 'snail-shell' type folded horns, each with 2 x 12". down to about 30hz
Sub: Velodyne 1812


Here's some pics:

6 x Kondo push pull 300B doing the power. That's a set for the main speakers, one for the folded horns, and one for the horns.



A goto mid-range compression driver in sexy green. Waiting to be attached to a horn for experimentation



This one is a Tad compression driver, attached to a custom made horn prototype (£2k I believe for the prototype horn (the plastic bit on the end)



This one is two Goto drivers (in green) the horn sticking out is attached to the Tad mid range, and the slot tweeter you can just about see at the far right is the Tad supertweeter



you can see the chromey Tad supertweeter better in this one.
the slot tweeter below it is a JBL 2405 which is currently not connected.



The velodyne 1812 sub, with a cd case in front just to give an indication of scale (and if you think this is big, you should see the folded horn bass bins)



a few other bits and pieces from around the place..

the HUGE rogue audio Zeus power amp. You can hardly tell from the photo, but that thing is about 3 feet long, 2 feet deep and a foot high at least

not plugged in, just photo taken because it was interesting.



This VPI turntable is second hand there too. Looked like a bit of a beast

 

Hi Chris, thanks for that.

do you have any pictures of the actual arrays?

Also remind me not to buy a Nokia ;-)

 

the other pictures didn't come out too well unfortunately.

the phones ok, just in poor light it doesnt perform well.

 

Thanks anyway Chris - I'm going to pop up at some point anyway. I see he's only got the cheaper Gotos which is surprising. So actually being used is the S2 on a custom wooden horn and the 2002 on what looks like it could be a TH2002. He's truly using the ET-703 as just a supertweeter, at frequncies where many on here would utter the word "bah!" and walk away.

I bet it sounds fun. Still waiting on capacitors for the ET-703. Left a message with your mate - have to say his business accumen if non existant.

 

Blimey. I must go up there one day.

-- Ian

 

Happy to give you a lift Ian when I'm next up there. Just let me know & we could tie in. The record collection is something else.

 

I'd be up for that. Drop me a line when you're next going up.

-- Ian

 

http://www.cessaro-horn-acoustics.com/gamma.html
Ralph's system sounded superb when I heard it.

 

Coops.

These are in a very elite league from what I have heard. Certainly the basic Airscout design has something in the mids and treble currently lacking from the Tractrix based competition I have heard.

It really would be worth your while hearing the competition as you are selling the Cessaros now. You may be very pleasantly surprised.

Ian I'll PM you.

 

That will be coluration Mike.