In Reply to: What Is The Biggest Problem With Speakers Today? posted by thetubeguy1954 on March 13, 2008 at 12:00:16:
then you will hear likely the first and only coloration free speaker. As such the closest anyone has gotten so far was the Hill Plasmatronic, which took the flame tweeter all the way down to 750Hz. It was a very complicated system and used He to make the plasma.
If you have never heard highs from a plasma tweeter then you need to do that to hear what coloration free highs sound like.
ALL materials add their own colorations to the sound, ALL. The best speakers I have heard either use the same material for all drivers and use materials that don't suffer from severe breakup outside their optimal operating band. Very stiff materials like ceramic and aluminium are not well damped and when the breakup very large modes appear that are impossible to completely suppress. It gives a brittle sound with ceramic drivers and a metallic tinge with metal drivers. This can be minimizd of course with steep crossovers; however, they introduce a problem as well, discontinuity between drivers, which is most a problem when using drivers of DIFFERENT materials.
The worst offender I have heard in this regard was the B&W N802. It had carbon fiber woofers, kevlar mid, and aluminum tweeter. Everything was strapped together with very high order crossovers (6th order even I think). The resulting sound is quite bad and the music is clearly separated into horizontal bands where each drivers input is clearly audible. Each drivers coloration stands out in stark relief utterly destroying the illusion of music.
Now I had a pair of Infinity IRS Betas, which had third order xovers but sounded quite coherent because from 170 Hz and up the drivers were all the same EMIT type construction so the coloration was consistent.
I have come to realize that the least colored SOUNDING speakers are those which either have a consistent coloration from top to bottom like a full-range electrostatic or ribbon speaker or use drivers without severe breakup issues that need "correcting" so that shallow (1st or 2nd order) slopes can be used for smooth blending rather than abrupt transitions.
So until they can come up with a material that doesn't sound like a material, ie. plasma, the best is to have gentle transitions between drivers and the same material doing the whole frequency range but not one with breakup issues as these can be suppressed but not eliminated.
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Follow Ups
- As soon as someone figures out how to make an all Plasma speaker - morricab 03/14/0801:27:44 03/14/08 (51)
- About a decade ago - unclestu52 14:17:42 03/17/08 (0)
- Funny story about Nelson Pass and his plasma speakers - andy_c 11:58:34 03/17/08 (1)
- RE: Funny story about Nelson Pass and his plasma speakers - morricab 13:10:06 03/17/08 (0)
- This Is Very Close To My Opinion On This Issue. - thetubeguy1954 09:35:20 03/14/08 (47)
- RE: This Is Very Close To My Opinion On This Issue. - andy19191 12:11:48 03/14/08 (46)
- RE: This Is Very Close To My Opinion On This Issue. - morricab 16:34:47 03/15/08 (0)
- In Theory You're Correct, But In Actuality You're Wrong! - thetubeguy1954 09:35:37 03/15/08 (44)
- RE: In Theory You're Correct, But In Actuality You're Wrong! - andy19191 12:34:33 03/15/08 (19)
- I Still Believe In Actuality You're Wrong & Here's Why! - thetubeguy1954 11:04:12 03/16/08 (15)
- RE: I Still Believe In Actuality You're Wrong & Here's Why! - andy19191 13:13:33 03/16/08 (14)
- There's A Difference Between What Happens In Reality Andy - thetubeguy1954 07:26:38 03/17/08 (7)
- RE: There's A Difference Between What Happens In Reality Andy - andy19191 08:45:55 03/17/08 (6)
- Are You Really This Dense? - thetubeguy1954 11:12:44 03/17/08 (5)
- RE: Are You Really This Dense? - andy19191 12:32:59 03/17/08 (4)
- RE: Are You Really This Dense? - thetubeguy1954 13:32:53 03/17/08 (3)
- RE: Are You Really This Dense? - andy19191 14:44:06 03/17/08 (2)
- Andy Doesn't Really Want To Discuss Audio Instead He's Using AA Members As "Guinea Pigs" To Study! - thetubeguy1954 08:54:56 03/18/08 (0)
- Continuing to provoke will only result in a rational outburst - AJinFLA 17:48:28 03/17/08 (0)
- Sure Andy. Keep prodding until the Rational Subjectivist goes berserk - AJinFLA 14:56:49 03/16/08 (5)
- RE: Sure Andy. Keep prodding until the Rational Subjectivist goes berserk - andy19191 15:40:34 03/16/08 (4)
- RE: Sure Andy. Keep prodding until the Rational Subjectivist goes berserk - thetubeguy1954 07:42:32 03/17/08 (2)
- RE: Sure Andy. Keep prodding until the Rational Subjectivist goes berserk - andy19191 09:11:21 03/17/08 (1)
- RE: Sure Andy. Keep prodding until the Rational Subjectivist goes berserk - thetubeguy1954 11:46:20 03/17/08 (0)
- RE: Sure Andy. Keep prodding until the Rational Subjectivist goes berserk - AJinFLA 17:32:15 03/16/08 (0)
- RE: In Theory You're Correct, But In Actuality You're Wrong! - morricab 16:42:23 03/15/08 (2)
- RE: In Theory You're Correct, But In Actuality You're Wrong! - andy19191 13:36:20 03/16/08 (1)
- RE: In Theory You're Correct, But In Actuality You're Wrong! - morricab 13:13:32 03/17/08 (0)
- F=MA - rick_m 10:55:25 03/15/08 (23)
- RE: F=MA - thetubeguy1954 08:05:18 03/17/08 (2)
- RE: F=MA - morricab 16:44:11 03/15/08 (19)
- Plasma has mass. ????? - Ugly 21:59:55 03/15/08 (18)
- RE: Plasma has mass. ????? - morricab 04:50:22 03/16/08 (17)
- RE: Plasma has mass. ????? - Ugly 09:04:50 03/16/08 (16)
- RE: Plasma has mass. ????? - morricab 11:33:52 03/16/08 (15)
- RE: Plasma has mass. ????? - Ugly 11:53:45 03/16/08 (14)
- RE: Plasma has mass. ????? - morricab 09:00:30 03/17/08 (0)
- How do they work? - rick_m 13:04:27 03/16/08 (12)
- RE: How do they work? - morricab 09:05:39 03/17/08 (1)
- RE: How do they work? - rick_m 10:38:14 03/17/08 (0)
- RE: How do they work? - Ugly 14:34:57 03/16/08 (9)
- Two Different DIY Plasma Tweeters - thetubeguy1954 10:03:34 03/17/08 (0)
- Wow, a real flame... - rick_m 15:41:33 03/16/08 (7)
- RE: Wow, a real flame... - morricab 09:08:38 03/17/08 (0)
- You have to understand - AJinFLA 17:45:19 03/16/08 (5)
- RE: You have to understand - morricab 09:12:01 03/17/08 (4)
- RE: You have to understand - AJinFLA 17:42:28 03/17/08 (3)
- RE: You have to understand - morricab 01:14:52 03/18/08 (2)
- RE: You have to understand - AJinFLA 18:13:16 03/23/08 (1)
- RE: You have to understand - morricab 02:15:59 03/26/08 (0)