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Tough question

Duke

Thats a tough question. If they were not dipole then it would be a lot easier to answer but the dipole part makes it difficult.

At high frequencies the radiation would in fact be CD horizontally and very narrow vertically which is just about ideal. The large radiating area makes this possible. This kind of area is rare, but I've always felt that it was the high directivity and tighter control that made these large panels sound so good.

At mid frequencies where the device is about a wavelength across the directivity would widen, but being a dipole, not that much more than the 90° at high frequencies. Again a nice approach. But below about 200 Hz and the SPL is falling so fast that no real output would be possible.

So from a polar response point of view they are just about ideal. I think as a total solution, given size, cost and full range performance, they have a lot of tradeoffs.

I think that "High Efficiency" is the wrong term for what I am after. I know the tube guys need it, but to me its really the output capability that matters.

High SPLs are difficult to do with controlled directivity - ask any pro array designer. The higher the required SPL the tougher the job. And the large membrane approach, while allowing nice polar response, fails to make the SPL cut, but if low SPL levels are fine then this is the way to go.

The high output devices do tend to be efficient but thats not the reason that I go that way. The low thermal modulation is a real advantage in extended high level playing and probably helps even for short bursts of sound in the shrt run. For example, we had a party here on Chinese New Year. The HT played Cream, Sting, Eagles, Talking heads (live DVDs) for about 8 hours straight at some pretty high outputs. The speakers never seemed to be straining from thermal limiting etc. A smallish speaker would not last nearly that long without going flat from the shear heat of playing - if it survived at all.

There are a lot of reasons to go with high performance capability, but its all mute if all you listen to is lower SPLs.

Talk to you later.

PS. We would have ten or twelve people in the theater at a time. You can imagine.

Earl Geddes

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