ALFs OBs (BD-Design)

by ALF, Friday, August 18, 2006, 00:58 (6468 days ago) @ goon-heaven

Hello Steve
Drum kit sounds much better from these OBs than it did from my bass-reflex or transmission-line speakers ... It is also more realistic than from my back-horns (but these are self designed and have a few flaws so not a really good comparison). The attack of the drum sound - especially the middle range and top end is very realistic indeed ... The bass end is also good, not soggy or boxy, but still doesn't sound near as good as the real thing - I did have a graphic-equaliser in the system for a while, and giving a reasonable eq boost at in some of the lower bands did improve the kick drum punch, but overall I think the speakers sound better without the g-eq. Drum kit is an extreme test of speaker fidelity, and I have never heard a speaker really do the job (and I've heard a lot of speakers over the last few decades)... some get pretty close, and I think that is as good as we can expect ... I'd rate these OBs as "good"... perhaps with different bass drivers this can be improved further, but I have an arthritic condition that makes it very painful to remove my wallet from my pocket:wink:

The Behringer introduces no time delay ... this one is not the top of the line digital type ... you can play around with delay and all sorts of things with these ... but I'm a simple man (People often come up to me and say "I think you're a bit simple Anthony" - so I must be :wink: )

The "experimental" baffles are Quasar dimensions (in 2d), but they are only a single sheet of mdf braced around the edges ... the fullrange speaker shares the same baffle as the bass speakers.I have off-set the drivers from the centre line to give a different travel distance around the sides of the baffle - I don't know if this is really necessary.
The realQuasars have the great benefit of baffle mass, and I think this is something that can't be underestimated. I suspect the mass of the "proper" baffles will damp those vibrations from the bass drivers to very good effect.
Vibrations are easily felt if one holds one's hand against this present baffle whilst playing music loudly (as I am often want to do ... teenagers and young adults complain about the volume of their father's music, I'm proud to say)... anyway, at reasonable to loud levels the vibrations in the baffle are very apparent. Getting rid of these vibes will clean up any last bits of nastiness induced in the full-rangers.
An alternative is to magnet mount the full-range such that the frame of the driver is isolated from the baffle - or perhaps to mount on a separate baffle isolated from the main.
As well as damping vibrations, I'd say the sheer elegance of the "real" Quasar baffles has to be a big plus in the aesthetic pleasure gained from sitting in front of them (with a glass, a bottle, some Swiss chocolates, a dog and comfy slippers as well ).

Cheers
ALF (AKA Anthony)

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