Podium Sound speakers -- Revolutionary?

I have never heard these speakers but I am familiar with some of the materials used and have even built something, not entirely disimiliar, some years ago. Two imediate problems present themselves: 1st/ the mass of the Nomex drive panel is really rather high (dompared to a paper cone for example) 2nd/ the sheer size of the roll surround at the outside edge will make voice coil alignment very, very difficult.

 

rather high, you're not kidding.

they must weigh about 500-700 grams. figuring 8mm nomex, 10mm AF core size, with 120 gm glass on them.

i'd imagine that the large distance between VC and edge actually makes them easier to align. as any offset at the surround is vastly reduced by distance in terms of angular offset.

 

No, the problem is maintaining even tension - the diaphragm will also try to sag a great deal. It is also very difficult to make the roll surround behave in a linear manner - this problem is exacerbated by the roll surround and the voice coil being in a similar plane (the rear spider will be having negligible effect in this instance). Multiple drive motors are required to overcome the high mass but as these are all connected to the same diaphragm, there is significantly more room for alignment error.

This design really needs custom made driver motors. Ultimately, I think it is stuffed by the sheer mass of the diaphragm. When we built a similar unit we concluded that a single driver would be better (easier to implement correctly) and intended to wind our own 'heavy duty' voice coil and use an electro magnet; however, interest moved on to other areas.

Lack of detail in the trebble is inevitable as the driver is way too large to produce high frequencies - in addition, the relative stiffness of the diaphragm will not allow the radiating area to reduce as frequency rises. A much more promising implementation of this concept was produced by Meitner (I believe) where the Nomex Diaphragm was replaced by tensioned Mylar.

 

Care to elaborate on the 'we'?

 

a zerogain consensus! a first?

 

Damn !! - Sorry folks - I'm stepping out of line here - I've heard the big Podium 1 at two Shows now - and I have been very favourably impressed both times.

I'm not interested in rock - so bass slam and PRaT don't hold much weight with me. But for classical I thought they were great in many ways - a very believable tonality and a sheer 'presence' and authority thru the mids and upper bass that were just made for big orchestral stuff. Dynamics were excellent and 'solid' in a way that leaves most speakers behind. Treble was sweet and true, although a little rolled off, I think. My main beef with them was the soundstage thing - it was a bit vague and billowy. Power handling seemed limitless - i.e. they seem to have a very wide dynamic window - they were achieving high levels on 30 watts, although curiously the demonstrators said they had never tried using valve amps - I got the impression the speakers might be a nasty load, despite the high efficiency.

Yup, a provisional but quite enthusiastic thumbs-up from me!

I'd like to try a pair of the smaller Podium 2 at home, for sure.

 

You have Thiel CS2.6 and an M&K MX350 sub? I thought you said you weren't into bass slam?

 

Hi Jandl100 and other users , I have Podium 1 s and concure with jandl on these speakers. i seem to suffer with a bass issue although the mid and treble seem to be excellent. any suggestions?
John

 

Thiel 2.3 in fact. And no, I enjoy other aspects of their performance more - openness, detail, transprarency, soundstaging, neutrality .....

But, yes, IMO, as you imply - a pretty nice setup!

 

Nice one!

With panel speakers, positioning is all, IME. Have you waltzed them around the room? How big is your room?

If all else fails, I can heartily recommend a Behringer DEQ2496 digital equaliser / room correction unit. As long as you use it entirely in the digital domain, I reckon it's transparent. About £250 inc. setup microphone - and the Podiums will just sing !!

Not so good if you have LPs or a single box CDP though.

I guess you could also try bass traps behind the speakers - that's a bit hit & miss, though.

If none of the above appeals, it's back to dancing with the things or perhaps investing in a Lyngdorf room correction thingy for many more £££, which will handle the A/D and D/A much better than the cheaper Behringer.

 

oh well there goes the neighbourhood.

maybe we should do a bake off.

 

Truly appalling 'speakers.

Laughable build quality and really unpleasant 'phasey' sound.

Quite possibly the most inept design I have ever been unlucky enough to sit in front of.

 

Well, go on, bof, don't be shy say what you really mean !!

I have to admit that I know I am in a severe minority here, but I really don't hear what you hear. I own good kit and I know what real live music sounds like - and I am sure that you do too.

It would be really interesting to understand our different points of view!

I hope Podium will be at the Heathrow Show next weekend, if so I'll have even more of a serious listen, once again with the familiar CDs that I normally take a long to such events, and see if I can convince myself that they aren't good, albeit different, speakers

...... maybe that's the trouble - they sure are 'different', but personally I enjoy different. I must confess to being fed up with the usual 'yet another rectangular box' .....

 

Hi Jerry

will be intested to hear your thoughts.

I heard them in two different rooms at the heathrow show today, and haven't warmed to them at all.

I'll write more about the show tomorrow at some time.

 

They were rubbish in both rooms weren't they?

 

All the rooms were rubbish.

Honorable exception being Puresound. £2.5K sounding better than £25K in other rooms.

The Podiums are probably some sick guy's idea of a joke. Sound like cheap i Pod speakers to me.

 

I agree for the price a very good sound, the three 'absolute sound' rooms ( especialy the krell ) were the worst I have ever heard, just awful, .

 

Yep I really was amazed Krell could make such an appallingly coloured and simply wrong sound. I have no idea how much that crap cost but if the high end is trying to sell that, then it's no wonder the customers are drying up.

 

It was so poor that the record was almost unrecognisable, unbelievable really, a foghorn would have been more 'musical'.

 

I felt a little guilty about my last - somewhat savage? - post regarding the Podium Sound 'speakers, so I thought I'd give them another chance. I've often had 'road to Damascus' style conversions in the past, so maybe again?....

Well. I can categorically say that they really, really, really are not my cup of tea. At all. I tried really hard to 'get' them, but no.

Terrible. Ughh.

The Krell room? Oh dear. Even for a 'show sound', this was dreadful. But then, isn't it every year?

Another vote for Puresound. Made the 'real' HiFi look, well, ridiculous.

What were the 'speakers they were using?