Work? what work?.. Its' Friday, you asked and now I've typed way to much, but this might be right up your alley panel guy-
I've really enjoyed following
Stan Linkwitz's development of his Orion dipole speakers on his website over the past 6 or 7 years (guy who developed the
Linkwitz-Riley x-over). That's partly because I admire his thoroughly scientific and empirical, self-critical approach completely devoid of snake oil, partly because I've learned a lot from his detailed explanations and reasoning of what is important in speaker reproduction at home and partly because I really want to build a pair. I very nearly ordered the plans and circuit boards to start building them 4 years ago, but then I bought a house.
I should have gone with the speakers.
It's an unusual design that aims for the very best attributes of both panel speakers and dynamics, with emphasis on room interaction in a regular living room vs a treated space, judged against live music reproduction.
He ends up with an active dipole speaker with all dynamic drivers, even the bass. It requires a dedicated active 3-way crossover and and a separate channel of amplification for each driver. With the optional subs the crossover becomes a 4-way, but that's mostly for heavy home theater type sub headroom and unnecessary for music besides perhaps pipe organ. A recently added rear tweeter makes the fig-8 dipole radiation with side null unvarying across the full frequency range.
Pros-Full range dipole source -3 dB at 30 Hz, -6 dB at 20 Hz. (with out optional mono-polar enclosed subs)
Improved low frequency interaction with the room from the unusually low dipole range.
Improved mid and high radiation pattern vs traditional monopole box speakers.
Improved radiation pattern vs panels in the high frequencies.
The full dynamics & impact of dynamic drivers.
Designed as a complete system past the preamp: EQ/timing/X-over/amplification/drivers/baffles is all optimized as a cohesive unit.
Relatively small towers compared to planar speakers.
My woman gives here aesthetic approval.
Great cost /performance ratio.Cons-You gotta build it (although the electronics are also available partially assembled & now you can buy the cabinet parts cut or fully built from an associated shop)
You need at least 6, preferably 8 channels of dedicated amplification, 10-12 with subs.
Designed as a complete system past the preamp so if you love to swap amps or want to use a favored amp for color it's not for you.
Placement restrictions like any dipole- preferably 4' from the back wall.
With a separate amp channel per driver, there are lots of speaker and interconnects cables. I'd go with muliti-conductor cable and Speakon connectors.
Cost is from $2300 DIY up to around $8k+ fully built, finished and ready to go including the amps depending on how much building & soldering you want to do.
I haven't heard them but I'll search out some previous builders here in FL before I commit. There is contact info on his site linked above for a guy who built a pair in Portland, ME willing to give a listen if interested. I'll do this some day.
sepearate builder/owner board here
Topic: Panels ? what Panels ?? (Read 9847 times)