1. Super speaker does not always come with mega size and mega price tag. The design could be groundbreaking and breathtaking like this one.
2. Homes of HK were always considered small, yourself, Jeff were making similar comments before, the size of this speaker would receive most welcomes from many audiophiles out there who are not prepare to compromise between sound quality and physical size. Now they have a very good option.
3. PT is also having a 82db Goebel at home rocking and shocking everyone visiting there. I am sure Roman would not disagree that speaker sensitivity is just one parameters, what thwarting us from leaping thru this is perhaps the mindset and perseverance in sourcing the perfect match.
Well argued. You improved a lot. You are essentially saying energy is not a function of speaker sensitivity. It is a holistic function of everything. When amp is matched well with a low sensitivity speakers and a source with high output gain, and probably near field listening, in order to match Roman’s mega horn system energy.
And Roman was in fact experiencing such, is this the rationale?
A few months ago when Stirling visited us in HK, he made a very profound statement which radiated a lot of echos from us, we know the feeling but sometimes it is beyond our verbal description which Stirling has helped to provide. When the energy dissipated from the speaker resonate with the fluid in our body seemingly piercing thru every nerve of yours, this is called musicality.
Thus it is a holistic and concerted effort amalgamated with all the components involved. One passing the signal to the next like a relay race. Who runs the last 100m may not be the only reason for winning or losing the game.
VRamos, This is why I was shocked so much that day. For some large orchestra pieces, I listened to many floor standings including a number of Rockport speakers, none of them can generate the floor sweeping bass energy, and also the waves that penetrate my body. It is like some spectrums of the bass are completely gone or muddy. But with this little beast, I really experienced the full spectrum of bass energy. I think the 4ohm impedence woofer design helps.
Stiletto has two meanings. In fashion, it is a women's high heel shoe. It also means the tip of a pen. I found the analogy appropriate for two reasons, first, the look of the speaker base, with a "heel" in the back (which is compliant by design), second because the tip of the pen is, in some ways, the distillate of thought.
I like to think that music lies in the silence between notes. I admire the work of Jazz drummer Billy Cobham who can paint extremely precise musical landscapes with an incredibly fast staccato of strokes. In a way, Cobham is an impressionist, much like George Duke and Stanley Clarke and others.
I found that all phase reversal designs (ported or bass reflex speakers) were not adapted to the playback of extremely fast bass notes, because the silence is blurred by the delayed energy superimposed on the main transducer impulse.
As a designer, one of the "tricks" of the trade is to try to pump as much bass as possible, by introducing delayed, resonant sound. The approach works for sustained organ notes for examples, but not for very fast modulated impacts.
So I designed the bass section like an anechoic chamber, with a long, folded and tapered line filled with Dacron. The purpose of it is to absorb and transform all (or as much as possible) the energy from the back of the membranes. By doing so, I also remove all enclosure induced capacitance.
More over, the air volume is acoustically "too large" for the transducers, meaning that the movement of the transducers is entirely governed by the amplifier (and preamp, and source to a lesser extent). This is an hyperdamped design as the air inside the enclosure has no spring effect (capacitance) on the transducer, and sends no back EMF to the amplifier.
Another aspect (the distilling part) is that I low-passed (first order) the output the of two bass transducers at a corner frequency of 40 Hz. What it means is that the amplifier sees a 4 ohms load below 40 Hz, and as frequencies rise, the impedance gradually moves to 16 ohms in a very controlled manner. At that point, where the lows impedance gets above 16 ohms, the amplifier sends the signal to the low-mid driver, which is coupled to amplifier (no crossover) by the path of least resistance, up to around 4000 Hz, then the tweeter takes over, again with a first order network.
The "distilling" part is where I play with sensitivity to increase torque. The two low frequency transducers, operating in 4 ohms would normally have a sensitivity of 93 to 94 dBs. By lowering the sensitivity by 12 dB, I gain almost two octaves of low-frequency bandwidth, at the expense of sensitivity.
There are numerous other aspects I could discuss, about the construction and center of gravity and damping, but I fear it would not be interesting to the group.
Another aspect is that the basic design can be scaled up. In other words, a slightly bigger volume would double sensitivity.
Hello Arte, May we have the weight & dimensions of the Stiletto? Also, it's slanting backward so if feasible please share with us a diagram of it for easier placement planning. Many thanks!
BTW you mentioned that the basic design can be scaled up. A bigger model is in the pipeline?
Hello Marvel The easiest way to level the speakers is to use a laser level and aim the vertical axis on the side of the speaker. Adjust verticality by rotating (CW or CCW) the levelers. The rake angle can be also adjusted with a laser level. With an imaginary line between the back of the rear baffle to floor, the distance from the back footers should be around 9 cm on a level surface. If not practical due to placement in room, with a tripod mounted laser guide, measure the distance between mid-woofer dust caps and listening seat. The distance should be the same for both speakers.
I will try to make the leveling perfect following your recommendation above. In addition, I will use Arya feet to replace the speaker spikes. You may be new to this forum but Arya feet is very well received in this community.
Can you confirm if the size of your spike screw is M14? I can get it locally measured though.
Comments
There are several things we want to showcase:
1. Super speaker does not always come with mega size and mega price tag. The design could be groundbreaking and breathtaking like this one.
2. Homes of HK were always considered small, yourself, Jeff were making similar comments before, the size of this speaker would receive most welcomes from many audiophiles out there who are not prepare to compromise between sound quality and physical size. Now they have a very good option.
3. PT is also having a 82db Goebel at home rocking and shocking everyone visiting there. I am sure Roman would not disagree that speaker sensitivity is just one parameters, what thwarting us from leaping thru this is perhaps the mindset and perseverance in sourcing the perfect match.
Marvel
Well argued. You improved a lot. You are essentially saying energy is not a function of speaker sensitivity. It is a holistic function of everything. When amp is matched well with a low sensitivity speakers and a source with high output gain, and probably near field listening, in order to match Roman’s mega horn system energy.
A few months ago when Stirling visited us in HK, he made a very profound statement which radiated a lot of echos from us, we know the feeling but sometimes it is beyond our verbal description which Stirling has helped to provide. When the energy dissipated from the speaker resonate with the fluid in our body seemingly piercing thru every nerve of yours, this is called musicality.
Thus it is a holistic and concerted effort amalgamated with all the components involved. One passing the signal to the next like a relay race. Who runs the last 100m may not be the only reason for winning or losing the game.
May be Roman can chip in some more thoughts.
Marvel
This is why I was shocked so much that day. For some large orchestra pieces, I listened to many floor standings including a number of Rockport speakers, none of them can generate the floor sweeping bass energy, and also the waves that penetrate my body. It is like some spectrums of the bass are completely gone or muddy. But with this little beast, I really experienced the full spectrum of bass energy. I think the 4ohm impedence woofer design helps.
I like to think that music lies in the silence between notes. I admire the work of Jazz drummer Billy Cobham who can paint extremely precise musical landscapes with an incredibly fast staccato of strokes. In a way, Cobham is an impressionist, much like George Duke and Stanley Clarke and others.
I found that all phase reversal designs (ported or bass reflex speakers) were not adapted to the playback of extremely fast bass notes, because the silence is blurred by the delayed energy superimposed on the main transducer impulse.
As a designer, one of the "tricks" of the trade is to try to pump as much bass as possible, by introducing delayed, resonant sound. The approach works for sustained organ notes for examples, but not for very fast modulated impacts.
So I designed the bass section like an anechoic chamber, with a long, folded and tapered line filled with Dacron. The purpose of it is to absorb and transform all (or as much as possible) the energy from the back of the membranes. By doing so, I also remove all enclosure induced capacitance.
More over, the air volume is acoustically "too large" for the transducers, meaning that the movement of the transducers is entirely governed by the amplifier (and preamp, and source to a lesser extent). This is an hyperdamped design as the air inside the enclosure has no spring effect (capacitance) on the transducer, and sends no back EMF to the amplifier.
Another aspect (the distilling part) is that I low-passed (first order) the output the of two bass transducers at a corner frequency of 40 Hz. What it means is that the amplifier sees a 4 ohms load below 40 Hz, and as frequencies rise, the impedance gradually moves to 16 ohms in a very controlled manner. At that point, where the lows impedance gets above 16 ohms, the amplifier sends the signal to the low-mid driver, which is coupled to amplifier (no crossover) by the path of least resistance, up to around 4000 Hz, then the tweeter takes over, again with a first order network.
The "distilling" part is where I play with sensitivity to increase torque. The two low frequency transducers, operating in 4 ohms would normally have a sensitivity of 93 to 94 dBs. By lowering the sensitivity by 12 dB, I gain almost two octaves of low-frequency bandwidth, at the expense of sensitivity.
There are numerous other aspects I could discuss, about the construction and center of gravity and damping, but I fear it would not be interesting to the group.
Another aspect is that the basic design can be scaled up. In other words, a slightly bigger volume would double sensitivity.
May we have the weight & dimensions of the Stiletto?
Also, it's slanting backward so if feasible please share with us a diagram of it for easier placement planning.
Many thanks!
BTW you mentioned that the basic design can be scaled up.
A bigger model is in the pipeline?
Can you share how we can do a proper leveling for the speaker.
Thanks
Hello CKKeung: please refer to drawing for dimensions. Weight is 92 lbs (42 kg).
The easiest way to level the speakers is to use a laser level and aim the vertical axis on the side of the speaker. Adjust verticality by rotating (CW or CCW) the levelers. The rake angle can be also adjusted with a laser level. With an imaginary line between the back of the rear baffle to floor, the distance from the back footers should be around 9 cm on a level surface. If not practical due to placement in room, with a tripod mounted laser guide, measure the distance between mid-woofer dust caps and listening seat. The distance should be the same for both speakers.
I will try to make the leveling perfect following your recommendation above. In addition, I will use Arya feet to replace the speaker spikes. You may be new to this forum but Arya feet is very well received in this community.
Can you confirm if the size of your spike screw is M14? I can get it locally measured though.
Marvel